Medicare Is Focus on Day 2 of Health-Care Negotiations

By Ceci Connolly and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 24, 2009

Slogging through a second day of work on legislation intended to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the Senate Finance Committee wrestled Wednesday with politically volatile proposals to squeeze money out of Medicare.

As they continued marking up the bill, a process expected to stretch into next week, Democrats fended off attempts by Republicans to restore proposed reductions to the program, which serves the elderly, and get rid of government restrictions on the ways insurance companies market to seniors.

Although the day-long session was marked by a slow pace and partisan sniping, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) could take comfort in several signs about the bill's prospects.

Early indications suggested that two key swing senators -- Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) -- were inclined to back the bill. Additionally, Baucus, who has not always enjoyed broad support in his caucus, held the Democratic bloc together in the face of an energetic assault from GOP senators.

(More here.)