House Health Care Bill Gets Support

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

On to another story now. Capitol Hill was abuzz with activity today in anticipation of a vote Saturday in the House on its huge health care overhaul bill. Today, the Democrats' bill got some key endorsements, one from the huge senior group, AARP, the other from the American Medical Association. And the bill's most important backer, President Obama, applauded those endorsements.

President BARACK OBAMA: And I urge Congress to listen to AARP, listen to the AMA and pass this reform for hundreds of millions of Americans who will benefit from it.

NORRIS: Meanwhile, a couple of thousand people rallied outside the Capitol with Republicans.

(Soundbite of protest)

NORRIS: They were protesting what they call a government takeover of health care. With us to sort out the day's events and look ahead to the big vote is NPR's Julie Rovner. Julie, let's talk about these endorsement first. Will the backing of the AARP and the American Medical Association have much of an impact?

JULIE ROVNER: Well, it could. There's a piece in this week's New England Journal of Medicine by two pollsters from Harvard who looked at 30 different national polls on health care. What they concluded is that these bills are so big and confusing, people will judge them by looking at how they will affect each person individually and to do that, they're going to turn to groups that they trust. And in a poll done by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health earlier this fall, the public put a lot of trust in groups like the AARP, the AMA and the American Cancer Society, which also endorsed the Democrats' bill today.

NORRIS: Did the Democrats have the votes they need to pass the bill?

ROVNER: Actually, from everything I'm hearing, they don't, at least not yet. That's because of two issues that have been dividing them for months now: abortion and immigration. On immigration, there is no question that people here illegally should not be entitled to federal benefits. But there is a fight over whether they should be able to use their own money to buy into these new marketplaces called exchanges.

On abortion, the fight's even more heated. Democrats are divided over how strictly to ban the use of public funds for abortion. There was quite the demonstration outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office this afternoon by anti-abortion protesters. About a dozen people were arrested.

NORRIS: Now, the Republicans plan to offer their own alternative bill. It's said to be a much slimmer volume. Is that likely to attract any wavering Democrats?

ROVNER: Well, probably not. The Congressional Budget Office last night issued its estimate of the Republican alternative. It includes a lot of familiar Republican proposals like capping damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, letting small businesses band together to sell insurance policies.

But the CBO says the GOP alternative would cover only about three million currently uninsured people. And while it would reduce health insurance premiums on average, it would probably increase them for people who are less healthy and for people who live in some states compared to others. Even some Republicans say they're not all that happy with the Republican alternative. So, right now it looks like it's the Democrats' bill or nothing, and we'll probably find out the answer to that question this weekend.

NORRIS: Thank you, Julie.

ROVNER: You're welcome.

NORRIS: That was NPR's Julie Rovner.

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