Published: November 06, 2009 10:28 pm      

Donnelly mulling decision

First inclination on health-care bill may come when he votes

Hoosiers have known for weeks that Indiana’s Republican Congressional delegation won’t vote for health-care reform, but they’re still waiting to hear what the Democrats will do.

Friday, U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Granger, was still officially undecided, even as House Democratic leadership scrambled for the needed 218 votes.

Press secretary Samantha Slater said the 2nd District Congressman was involved in intensive meetings with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Friday, in an attempt to add specific anti-abortion funding language to the massive bill.

Slater said it was possible Donnelly, who has come under tremendous pressure as a vote approaches, won’t publicly discuss his position on the bill until after the vote is cast.

Tuesday, Donnelly issued a statement, saying he was reading through the bill.

“Now that we have a final health-care reform bill, I am reading it in its entirety and weighing it against concerns, criticisms and ideas that have been shared with me over the past months,” Donnelly said in the statement. “I understand that this legislation will affect every Hoosier, which is why it’s so important to me to get it right.”

Democrat leaders acknowledged Friday morning that intraparty disputes over abortion funding and illegal immigrants’ access to health care were still brewing, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, his party was still short of the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.

“There are many people who are still trying to get a comfort level that this is the right thing to do,” he said. “We’re very close.”

While Hoyer said he still expects a vote tonight, he said he has put lawmakers on notice they may be called to the House floor Sunday afternoon, or even Monday or Tuesday.

The House is considering passage of a 10-year, $1.2 trillion bill which would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and put new restrictions on insurance companies.

Federal law now bars government funds from being used to pay for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The health-care bill would create a new stream of federal money to subsidize medical insurance premiums, and the dispute is over how to apply the abortion restrictions to those funds.

Abortion opponents say language now in the bill is inadequate to ensure that only private dollars — not federal funds — can be used to pay for the procedure. Abortion rights supporters say if the bill gets much more restrictive, it would deny women access to a procedure now covered by many private insurance plans.

In addition to the concern over abortion funding, Donnelly said he has several specific requirements for any final bill.

Donnelly didn’t rule out support for the so-called “public option” but said any bill he would support would have to be deficit neutral, and would have to lower health insurance costs.