In Merging of Health-Care Bills, Stakes Will Be High for NY, NJ

New York, NY —

When lawmakers return to Washington in January, they'll begin the difficult task of merging the House and the Senate health-care legislation into one bill. There are several differences between the two, and concessions will have to be made in both houses.

New York Congressman Eliot Engel says he believes the House legislation is superior, because it will make insurance affordable for more Americans.

"If we have the public option of keeping the premium rates low, the insurance companies would be forced to compete and would be forced to lower their rates," Engel says.

Engel sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which deals with health care. He says he's willing to forgo a public option in favor of guaranteed, increased federal aid to the state's public hospitals.

Engel says public hospitals are the leading provider of health care to the state's uninsured and under-insured.

"Bottom line for me would be, if we're not getting a public option, that New York at least gets the funding that we need and the funding that we deserve," he says.

Meanwhile, many New Jersey residents stand to gain under the Senate bill. That's according to Ray Castro, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan research organization "New Jersey Policy Perspective." Castro says under the Senate bill, a new category of New Jersey adults would qualify for medicaid.

"For the first time childless adults are going to be covered," Castro says. "And adults are the largest group that are uninsured in our state. Almost 80 percent of all the uninsured are adults."

Engel hopes a final bill will be on the president's desk by February.