WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats' bid to overhaul the nation's healthcare system got off to a rocky start Tuesday when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced his long-awaited plan -- only to face furious criticism from even moderate Republicans.
Kennedy, whose fight to reshape the healthcare system spans more than 40 years, would require all Americans to get medical insurance, establish complex new insurance exchanges to facilitate near-universal coverage, and dramatically step up government oversight of the insurance industry.
Among other things, private insurers would be required to cover people with preexisting conditions, co-payments for preventive care would be limited, and doctors and hospitals that provided high-quality care would be rewarded.
Those goals are broadly shared by lawmakers from both parties.
But reaction to the 615-page bill -- written with little GOP involvement -- was an ominous preview of the potential for a return to the kind of partisan conflict that sank previous efforts to reshape the troubled medical system.
"There is a lot of concern in the Republican caucus, concern that I share, that the administration is trying to rush the bill through," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who helped broker a key compromise on President Obama's massive stimulus bill earlier this year.
"That is a mistake," she said. "There is a lot of goodwill. There is a lot of interest in working cooperatively with the administration, but if the bill is jammed through the Senate, that goodwill will dissipate very quickly."
The Kennedy bill was the first -- and probably one of the most liberal -- of three versions of reform that Democrats plan to introduce in coming weeks, setting the stage for a historic debate this summer.
In an effort to avoid antagonizing moderates, Kennedy left out two exceptionally contentious features that had been contained in a draft of his plan circulated late last week.
One would have created a new government insurance program that would be offered as an option competing with private insurance plans. The other would place new coverage requirements on businesses.
Even with those two provisions omitted, however, the response of Republicans was sharply negative.
