The Finance Committee continues its health bill mark-up, and the October recess is cancelled

As Senate Finance Committee members meet Wednesday to discuss their overhaul bill, Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) hopes to "revise a key financing provision of his health reform package in light of a new analysis showing that it would impose a particularly heavy tax burden on people over 65, aides said," the The Washington Post reports.

A day after the Finance panel defeated two proposals for a government insurance plan, "Republicans are preparing to challenge Baucus's proposal to limit tax deductions for medical expenses as a direct hit on financially strapped seniors." Baucus added the tax increase provision as a way to help lower coverage costs for uninsured middle-income families and individuals.

"The Senate panel is expected to wrap up its increasingly fractious debate on coverage issues Wednesday and turn to revenue provisions that would pay for the bill, which is likely to be the main vehicle for debate on the Senate floor."

Panel Democrats also "defeated an attempt Wednesday to add further restrictions on abortion coverage to a sweeping health-care reform bill" (Murray/ Montgomery, 9/30).

The Associated Press: Finance Committee members voted down the amendment, which would have strengthened the anti-abortion provisions included in the draft proposal, by a three vote margin. "Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, argued that provisions already in the bill ... needed to be tightened to guarantee they would be ironclad," according to the AP. But Chairman Baucus "argued that his bill already incorporates federal law that bars abortion funding, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother" and "would require health plans to keep federal subsidies separate from any funds used to pay for abortions in all other cases." In a related step, the panel "also rejected, 13-10, a Hatch conscience amendment that would have strengthened provisions to protect health care workers who refuse to perform abortions and other procedures because of religious or moral objections" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/30).

The Associated Press reports in a second story that Finance Committee Senators also rejected, again by a 13 to 10 vote,  a "Republican move to require photo identification for federal health benefits" (9/30).

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced he "has cancelled the Senate's Columbus Day recess so that lawmakers can focus on focus on passing healthcare reform legislation during the week of Oct. 12," the Hill reports.

Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal: Reid said the Senate will not hold votes on Monday, Oct. 12, the holiday, but "will return to vote on Tuesday, Oct. 13 and possibly begin debate on health-care legislation. 'I think with health care, which is really beginning to ferment, it wouldn't be right for us to be gone that week,' Reid said. 'I think we should be able to start our health-care work that week here on the Senate floor'" (Yoest, 9/30).

And on the other side of the Capitol, "House liberals, challenged by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to prove they can pass their preferred public option, are surveying the rest of the Democratic caucus Wednesday," the Hill reports in a second story.

"The 'whip count' started last night" and is being carried out by the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus. The goal of the effort is "to prove that there are a majority 218 votes in the House for what liberals call a 'robust public option'" (Soraghan, 9/30).