Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to give fellow Democrats details of his proposal to overhaul U.S. health care even as lawmakers raise concerns over issues from abortion to a government-run insurance program.

Reid will meet with Senate Democrats at 5 p.m. Washington time and deliver a summary, North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad said. The next step is the push to begin debate on the bill, which would require several procedural steps and corralling 60 votes to overcome efforts to block action.

“I feel cautiously optimistic that we can do that,” Reid said yesterday.

To keep the 60 votes controlled by Democrats in line, Reid is enlisting the support of former senators including Vice President Joe Biden, who went to Capitol Hill today. Former Senators Tom Daschle and Ken Salazar, who now serves as President Barack Obama’s interior secretary, also met with lawmakers.

The legislation, Obama’s top domestic priority, is intended to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans while curbing medical costs. The proposals for purchasing exchanges, subsidies and a requirement that all Americans have coverage would cost more than $800 billion over 10 years and mark the biggest changes to U.S. health care in more than four decades.

‘Still Counting’

The House passed its version on a 220-215 vote on Nov. 7. Reid has been waiting for Congressional Budget Office analyses on various proposals drawn up by the Senate health and finance committees before unveiling his plan.

Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and chairman of the health committee, said the CBO found the cost of “coverage” in the legislation is less than $900 billion. He didn’t elaborate. House leaders initially put the cost of their $1.05 trillion bill at $894 billion, a net figure that took into account new revenue such as penalties for not buying insurance.

Reid is “still counting” members and plans to hold a vote on the motion to proceed to debate before the Thanksgiving holiday recess planned for next week, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. The Senate might be in session on both days of the coming weekend, Durbin said.

Baucus Leaves

One of the top Democrats involved in the health-care overhaul, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, may be missing the next few days. Baucus flew back to his home state of Montana to be with his ailing mother, a congressional aide said. The aide said it wouldn’t affect the timing of the bill.

A Senate aide familiar with Reid’s proposal said the plan will likely include the creation of a federally run long-term care insurance plan dubbed the “Class Act” by its original sponsors, the late Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, and former Senator Michael DeWine, an Ohio Republican.

Under the plan, participating employers would let workers pay premiums into the program, which would offer a cash benefit of between $50 and $75 per day that could be used to pay for adult day care or assisted living expenses. Workers would pay into the plan for five years before receiving benefits.

The idea has drawn critics, who say its success would depend on a growing roster of new premium contributors. Conrad, who is chairman of the budget committee, called the Class Act “a Ponzi scheme of the first order,” in an Oct. 27 Washington Post article.

Letter From Economists

The White House weighed in on the legislation last night, releasing a letter sent by 23 economists that outlined four priorities the Senate bill should include.

The economists said the bill should impose an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans; not increase the deficit; set up an independent commission to make binding recommendations on Medicare cuts, and carry out “delivery-system reforms,” which would reward health-care providers for “providing better care, not just more care.”

Including those elements “will reduce long-term deficits, improve the quality of care, and put the nation on a firm fiscal footing,” wrote the economists, who included Princeton University Professors Alan Blinder and Uwe Reinhardt and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin.

While Democrats control 60 Senate votes, Reid can’t yet count on them to clear the way for debate.

‘Competition-Free Zone’

One Democrat, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, said his support for proceeding is in doubt unless the government-run insurance program, or public option, is included in the plan.

“I’m not going to support a bill that’s a competition- free zone,” Wyden told reporters yesterday.

And at least three Democrats -- Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas -- have refused to pledge their votes until they have seen the bill’s text.

Reid met with the three senators this afternoon to go over the details of what’s in the bill before he introduces it, said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. The first big test vote for the measure may come as early as Nov. 21, Manley said. That would be a vote to end the delaying tactics of opponents who want to bar the measure from getting to the floor for consideration.

One of the most pressing issues for Reid is the public option. Wyden and Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia insist the best way to reduce health costs is to set up the government program to compete with insurers like Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc.

Carper Compromise

Other Democrats are critical. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said he won’t vote for a bill that includes the program, though he has said he will support a motion to start debate.

Delaware Senator Tom Carper is crafting a compromise for fellow Democrats that might be offered as a replacement for the public option during floor debate. The “hammer approach” would require states where insurance plans don’t meet affordability standards to offer an alternative, national plan run by a nonprofit, Carper told reporters yesterday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net; Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 18, 2009 16:08 EST