Obama health plan falters as Democrats reject quick fix

Barack Obama's bid to overhaul the US healthcare system was in doubt today as politicians rejected the quickest route for achieving it in the aftermath of this week's shock Republican Senate victory.

Defeat for the president's audacious plan would be a major setback for Mr Obama one year into his four-year term.

He made healthcare his most important domestic priority but has seen public support dwindling in recent polls, apparently overtaken by worry over the state of the economy.

Majority Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate have been trying to reconcile different health care bills passed by both chambers and hoped to reach a compromise that both houses would vote on again.

However, those plans were upended by their surprise loss of a Senate seat in an election this week in former Democratic stronghold Massachusetts.

That cost the party the 60-vote supermajority needed to overcome Republican procedural obstacles, meaning they would be unlikely to get a health care compromise through the Senate.

Democrats could avoid another Senate vote by having the House agree to accept the Senate's bill, but some House Democrats object to some of its provisions.

Many House members now prefer a more modest health bill considering the Massachusetts vote. The winner of the race, Republican Scott Brown, had campaigned against the bill.

Democrats considered a handful of difficult options yesterday as they continued to reel from Mr Brown's election to the Massachusetts Senate seat long held by the late liberal champion Ted Kennedy.

Several said Mr Obama must forcefully help them find a way to avoid the humiliation of enacting no bill at all, and urged him to do so quickly to put the painful process behind them.

House leaders said yesterday they could not pass a Senate-approved bill standing by itself because of objections from liberals and moderates alike. Such a move could have settled the matter because it would not have required further Senate action.

The two main options facing Democratic leaders were both problematic. The first would require congressional Democrats to muscle their way past stiff Republican objections despite warning signs from Massachusetts voters and worries about November's elections in which all 435 House members and 36 of the 100 senators must face the electorate.

The other principal option would pare down the original healthcare legislation in hopes of gaining some Republican support.

Democrats' hopes of settling on a strategy by the weekend seemed to fade as politicians struggled to take in the drawbacks of every option.

The first chief option would require House Democrats to approve the Senate-passed bill along with a guarantee that the Senate would make several simultaneous changes to health law desired by the House. Senate Democrats presumably would do so with a tactic called "budget reconciliation".

It requires only a simple-majority vote for certain budget-related matters, but it cannot be used for every issue. Both parties have used the tactic at times.

When Mr Brown is sworn in, Democrats will control 59 Senate seats. Senate rules require 60 votes, or three-fifths of the 100 senators, to stop debate on an issue and vote.

The second option would draft a new compromise bill more palatable to moderates, including some Republicans, but numerous officials said yesterday it was far easier said than done.