Senate Dems Likely to Drop Medicare Buy-In From Health Bill

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Senate Democratic leaders said Monday that they were prepared to drop a proposed expansion of Medicareand make other changes in sweeping health legislation as they tried to rally their caucus in hopes of passing the bill before Christmas.

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After a tense 90-minute meeting on Monday evening, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Finance Committee, was asked if Democrats were likely to jettison the Medicare proposal.

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“It’s looking like that’s the case,” Mr. Baucus said, indicating that the provision might be scrapped as a way of “getting support from 60 senators.”

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Under the proposal, uninsured people ages 55 to 64 could purchase Medicare coverage. The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reidof Nevada, floated the idea about 10 days ago as a way to break an intraparty impasse over his earlier proposal to create a government-run health insuranceplan.