Possible healthcare shift worries Dems

WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- U.S. congressional Democrats are being warned to stand firm as they begin work to reform the nation's $2.2 trillion healthcare system.

More than 70 House Democrats recently told party leaders they won't support a broad healthcare reform bill that doesn't include offering consumers a government-sponsored policy, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. In addition, two unions withdrew from a health coalition because it wouldn't endorse a public healthcare plan.

The formal legislative process began Tuesday, with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., convening the Senate Finance Committee to consider the legislation. He and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., have conducted brainstorming sessions with representatives of doctors, hospitals, unions, insurers, non-profit health organizations, drugmakers, seniors and others, with an eye toward developing a single bill.

"It's way too early" to abandon what advocates consider a central element in healthcare reform, said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which pulled out of the bipartisan Health Reform Dialogue over fears that other coalition members were shedding core principles too soon. "You don't make compromises with your allies."

Two administration officials last week hinted that President Barack Obama would be open to compromise on the government-sponsored policy.

"That's what got the left nervous. I took that as a signal to Senator (Charles) Grassley (R-Iowa)" that Obama is willing to negotiate on an issue Grassley opposes, Len Nichols, health policy director at the non-profit think tank New America Foundation, told the Post. "It was the first time the president indicated he could live without it."