What’s Ahead For Health Care?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she lacks the votes to quickly move the Senate’s sweeping health overhaul bill through the House, the Associated Press reports. Pelosi (D-CA), made the comment to reporters after House Democrats held a closed-door meeting at which participants vented frustration with the Senate’s massive version of the legislation.

Her concession meant there was little hope for a White House-backed plan to quickly push the Senate-approved health bill through the House, followed by a separate measure making changes sought by House members, such as easing the Senate’s tax on higher-cost health plans. Such an approach would be “problematic,” she said, though Democrats haven’t completely ruled out pursuing it.

Pelosi also signaled that advancing health legislation through Congress will likely be a lengthy process — despite Democrats’ desire for a quick election-year pivot to address jobs and the economy, which polls show are the public’s top concern.

After Republican Scott Brown captured the Senate seat in Massachusetts held for decades by the late Edward Kennedy — many House Democrats said one lesson was that the public wanted a more modest approach to overhauling the health care system. Several critics said that Democrats should refocus the legislation onto popular proposals like barring insurance companies from denying coverage to sick people.

By all accounts, Democrats have made no final decision on their options, which included breaking the health legislation into several smaller bills. But with the Republican Massachusetts victory denying Democrats the 60 Senate votes they need to kill Republican delaying tactics, Obama and others were talking about legislation that would attract broad support.