Despite Closed Doors, Dems Say Health Care Process Is Transparent

Under the "health care" heading on the White House Web site, a paragraph reads: "The President has vowed that the health reform process will be different in his Administration – an open, inclusive, and transparent process where all ideas are encouraged and all parties work together to find a solution to the health care crisis."

But after dozens of televised hearings, round tables, markups and press conferences, top White House officials are now meeting in the Capitol with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Max Baucus of Montana, away from Republicans and the press, to meld two very different committee-passed versions of their health care reform bills.

Among the issues that will be decided: Whether to include a public option; whether to require businesses to cover their employees; and how much to subsidize Americans paying for health insurance. The Finance Committee bill sets aside roughly $450 billion over 10 years for subsidies, while the Health Committee would spend roughly $725 billion for them in the same time frame.

Finally, how will it all be paid for? The Finance Committee puts taxes and fees on pricey insurance plans and health care companies, while members of the Health Committee have suggested raising income taxes on the wealthiest Americans, as the House intends to do.

Those decisions will presumably be made once the officials emerge from their negotiations, which began last week, but top Democrats insisted Monday that the process remains open and bipartisan.

"This has been as open and transparent a process, beginning with Senator Kennedy, back almost a year ago," Dodd said Tuesday. "And the suggestion, somehow, that this is being done otherwise is just blatantly false and a distraction from what, really, we need to be talking about."

"I think the American people have gotten quite a bit of news coverage on this topic," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "I think I've seen a number of clips from footage from the very beginning of meetings that were held, some of which were aired on C-SPAN, as a health care proposal was developed, understanding that their merging of two committee bills is just one step along a long process."

Baucus, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said that prior to this week's closed-door meetings, the debate in his own committee was the most transparent in history. "Man, oh man, sometimes that old adage 'No good deed goes unpunished' comes true," said Baucus, explaining that after the bipartisan "Gang of Six" finished its negotiations, the Finance Committee had gone to great lengths to ensure transparency, including posting more than 500 amendments, as well as the full bill, on its Web site before they were debated in front of C-SPAN cameras. "This has been very, very, open all the way through, and it's time to write a bill."

Baucus added that even though Republicans are not in the room with Dodd, Reid, White House staff and himself, he is in contact with Republican senators "to find out what's going on and to get their views." Once the bill is written, he said, "it is going to be fully transparent on the Senate floor again, where anyone who wants to offer an amendment from either side . . . can do so. So this is bipartisan."

While details about the meetings themselves have been few and far between, Reid did post a video on YouTube last week with footage from one of the meetings. "I had a meeting today that was so important," he says in the video. After detailing a few goals he has for the legislation, including his own support for a public option, he concludes, "I look forward to the president signing a health care bill in the not distant future."

The meetings continue Tuesday, and the video is below.