The Week In Health Reform
The Week in Health Reform—Federal Legislative Overview
The White House
On March 3, President Obama continued his push for Members of Congress to complete health insurance reform legislation within the upcoming weeks. He delivered a statement to a group of medical professionals in the East Room of the White House, in which he said that he has asked Senate and House leaders to finish work on health reform and schedule final votes in the next few weeks. The President went on to say that the issues have been debated thoroughly and that now is the time to make a decision. Although he did not specifically mention the budget reconciliation process, the President said that the American people deserve an “up or down” vote on health reform in the same way that welfare reform and tax cuts were approved by Congress in the past under reconciliation rules.
The President said that health insurance reform would change three things:
* End the “worst practices” of health insurance companies
* Give individuals and small businesses the same kind of choices members of Congress have
* Bring down health care costs for families, businesses and the government
The President made numerous references to the health insurance industry and stated that there is a fundamental disagreement between Republicans and Democrats about whether there should be more or less regulation of health insurance companies. The President concluded by emphasizing that he will do everything in his power to make the case for health reform in the coming weeks, and he also urged the American people to make their voices heard.
In addition, the President said he is open to exploring policy priorities identified by Republicans at the bipartisan summit such as:
* Conducting undercover investigations of health care providers that receive reimbursement from federal programs.
* Appropriating funds for state-based demonstration programs to test alternative approaches, including health courts, to resolving medical malpractice suits.
* Linking Medicaid eligibility expansions to higher Medicaid reimbursement for physicians.
* Clarifying that Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) may be offered through the proposed health insurance exchanges.
On March 4, Health Care Service Corporation President and CEO Pat Hemingway Hall attended a meeting at the White House, along with CEOs from other leading health insurance companies and officials from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The group met with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and President Obama to discuss premium issues in the individual market.
House and Senate
Congressional leaders are now focused intensely on developing legislative language that could be supported by a majority of members in both chambers. The President’s comments last week send a strong signal that such legislation, once finalized, would move through Congress under budget reconciliation procedures.
Under reconciliation rules, the House first would have to pass the Senate version of the health care reform bill, H.R. 3590, which passed on Christmas Eve last year. After that, the House would then be required to pass a separate “corrections” bill incorporating specific changes to that bill that will likely be negotiated among White House officials and House and Senate leaders. After the House passes the “corrections” bill, under budget reconciliation procedures, the Senate would need at least 50 senators to vote for the “corrections” bill. Under reconciliation rules, only a simple-majority vote of 51 votes are needed for passage (Vice President Joe Biden would be the 51st vote if only 50 senators vote for the bill) and filibusters are banned.
In order to meet the goal of sending a final health reform bill to the President’s desk before the Easter recess (which is scheduled to begin on March 29), congressional leaders would need to send legislative language to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for cost analysis in the very near future. On March 4, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama hopes the House of Representatives will pass the health reform bill by March 18, so the rest of the process can move swiftly.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is now tasked with trying to corral votes in the House, while trying to assure those who are wary that the Senate will be willing to support the same measures. Some House members are worried about being left “holding the bag,” if the Senate decides it will not support some of the same legislative language.
In order to ensure the Democrats have enough votes, President Obama invited two groups of the Democratic Caucus to the White House on March 4 to continue to push for health reform passage. Members from the Congressional Progressive Caucus were:
Caucus Chairs Raúl Grijalva (AZ) and Lynn Woolsey (CA), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chairman Mike Honda (CA), Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee (CA), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (NY), Reps. Dennis Kucinich (OH), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA) and Jan Schakowsky (IL), as well as delegates Madeleine Bordallo (Guam) and Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands).
Afterward, Obama met with key members of the New Democrat Coalition. The New Democrats, like the Blue Dogs, are a group of fiscally conservative Democrats. Attendees of this meeting included: Reps. Jason Altmire (PA), Melissa Bean (IL), Lois Capps (CA), Joe Crowley (NY), Ron Kind (WI), Allyson Schwartz (PA) and Adam Smith (WA).
Overview: Extension of Physician Payment “Fix” and COBRA Provisions
On March 2, the Senate passed H.R. 4691, the “Temporary Extensions Act of 2010″ and President Obama signed it into law. This legislation includes a one-month extension of the Medicare physician payment “fix,” premium assistance for unemployed workers with COBRA and state continuation coverage, unemployment insurance and several other legislative provisions that expired on February 28. Before voting on passage of the bill, the Senate first voted on an amendment by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) that would have offset the $10 billion cost of the “extenders” package. This amendment was defeated and therefore no further legislative action was needed. The bill was later signed by the President.
Overview: The “Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act” – H.R. 4626
In a letter dated March 3, 22 Democratic Senators wrote to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) urging him to bring H.R. 4626, the “Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, to the Senate floor at its earliest opportunity. In the letter they state that “[this legislation] is an important step toward bringing competition to the health insurance market, and would ensure that anticompetitive abuses such as price fixing and monopolization are policed in the health insurance industry.” America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) CEO Karen Ignagni maintains the position on the legislation saying, “The rhetoric surrounding repeal [anti-trust exemptions] does not match the reality of the situation. Health insurance is one of the most regulated industries in America at both the federal and the state levels. The Act is extremely limited in scope and has nothing to do with competition within the health insurance industry. In fact, a wide range of insurer activities, including mergers and many types of business practices, are and always have been subject to federal antitrust laws and to enforcement by the Department of Justice.”
Author Reference http://www.easytoinsureme.com
Watch the video related to health
Barack Obama and John McCain at Third Presidential Debate, October 15, 2008
Help answer the question about health
What are the health benefits of being vegetarian or vegan?I know there are lots of reasons to cut meat out of your diet. The one I personally find the most reasonable is for your health. I have met several people who have become vegetarian or vegan for "health reasons".
So I'm wondering, what are these health benefits? Is meat not healthy? Why does cutting meat from your diet make you a healthier person?
I haven't met many Christians willing to actually put their money where their mouth is….
@Xaymot i start with the top slice, i make my way to the horse-meat and or goat cheese, i finish it off in grand fashion with nothing other but the bottom slice.
I agree, pass it this week and let the hoards start filing their court cases regarding the total disregard for the constitution. I would first charge that it violates the 10th amendment as well as the 4th 5th and 14th amendments.
I have stated a few times that I wondered if the ACLU would be willing to take my case, this was said in jest but recently even the ACLU has said that this bill is horrible.
You can not get very much more left than the ACLU, if they think this bill is rotten then I can only imagine how bad it really is. So, while I have said in jest I would ask the ACLU, I am now giving it some serious thought.
Congress is violating the 10th amendment in even trying to mandate health care, this is not specifically mentioned in the constitution so it is left to the power of the individual states.
Collecting all of your medical and financial records and making them available to a selected panel of government appointees is a violation of the 4th amendment, illegal search and seizure.
The mandatory requirement of a tax or fine if you do not have medical insurance and having no provisions to appeal the fine/tax is a violation of the 5th and 14th amendment in that these fines or taxes deny you the provision of due process.
These are but 4 violations of the constitutions. As with most legal cases one has to show that he has been harmed by this legislation to establish a legal standing. As such it would be unlikely that anyone other than the states would be able to use the 10th amendment alone as grounds for a lawsuit. Every American citizen will have standing based on the 4th amendment, those that are fined or taxed will have standing for the 4th, 5th and 14th amendment.
Each state can begin to file the day after the bill is signed into law, the rest of us will have to wait until they start collecting our medical information.
Now to be fair to the left, there is some good that will come from congress passing this legislation. That good is that it will outrage the people of this country that come November many of those that voted in favor of this bill will no longer have their jobs after January 2011. Soon after that this entire health care bill will be declared unconstitutional so the left wing liberals will lose twice.
@Ralph B.
Perhaps you should read your own link. While the constitution does allow for congress to 'regulate' interstate commerce, this regulation is to prevent on state from banning another from selling competing products in another.
The argument that health care costs being an economic burden is weak. Even then it does not take the passage of health care bill to resolve the 'economic' issue. All it takes is some of the laws that the bill contains. Congress can pass laws that forbid denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, laws that limit the awards given to those that use the courts to extort money from doctors and hospitals for frivolous lawsuits.
I also notice that you link did nothing to disprove the notion of violations of the 4th, 5th and 14th amendments of the constitution.
I will agree that the author has good credentials, I would venture to say that there are many more attorneys that disagree with him. Former N.J. Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano is one of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7n2m-X7OIuY
Have you ever read the constitution? Have you read the health care bill ? It seems obvious to me that you need some one to teach you a lesson or two in regards to the constitution. Just because congress writes legislation, does not mean that it is constitutional.
Opinions will vary as to the interpretation of the constitution, that is why we have 9 justices sitting in the Supreme Court.
FYI, I formulate my beliefs from independent research, I do not blindly follow any political party,
# 37!
As far as I can tell, the only option left is reconciliation. But that would require the House to pass the Senate plan as is without any changes. The Democrats have been attempting to get the House to do this, by promising that after the bill is passed and signed they will introduce new legislation to make changes to it. But, that is asking the House to basically fall on its sword for the President.
There are two kinds if Democrats in the house right now. Those from traditionally Liberal States that are angry that the Public Option is not in the Senate Bill. If the House now votes for it, those Democrats are doomed. The other are Democrats from traditional swing states that do not want the health care plan passed at all right now. Both would be committing political suicide if they vote for the Senate plan.
So, unless the leadership can get the House to vote for the Senate Plan as is, there can be no reconciliation or simple majority vote. If the plan is modified in any way, it will once again require cloture or 60 votes to come to the floor.
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of course it's all about him…. the healthcare bill isn't even close to what he promised to pass, but he just wants to pass something so that he can say he did it. his presidency has been a complete failure so far… he's put everything on healthcare… if it goes down he'll never recover.
let's make sure it goes down!
It would be like watching an episode of loony toons. It would really fire some people up and urge them to continue calling their senators and representatives because having it televised would allow for more corruption within the bill to be pointed out to the public. Really, it just shows you how Obama lied about being transparent. This is Chicago style corrupt politics at it's worst.
There is no doubt in my mind.
Alan Greenspan looked at the numbers on this thing.
He said this and i quote "if the health care bill doesn't come in at CBO estimates it will be CATASTROPHIC for our nation".
The closest any government program ever came to CBO estimates was 8 times higher.
We are screwed.
@birinbirinbirin lulz
@birinbirinbirin lulz
Yeah person who says repeating beats isn’t progressive… thats called a beat. if it doesn’t repeat, you don’t move or rather it doesn’t move you. HEALTH is the new Can
haha rocket man!
The idea is to ram it through as fast as possible before people have a chance to ask questions and discover all the bad things about it. The longer it takes the more it will be shown to be a very, very bad deal indeed.
@Jazza12319 beats repeat brethren, thats what makes it a beat.. would you prefer some random hits here and there? HEALTH is also one of those bands (not one guy) that you should see live and their electrical prowess (although I bet the guitarist from the Mae Shi built their vocal thingy) with their homemade instruments.. Very progressive. What would you consider progressive? I am very curious..
Thank you for caring…..I am sick of being ignored. WE THE PEOPLE are banging down the doors and they are doing what they want.
I joined a tea party. I put in my zip code and found one here in my city in CA.
Please don't stop caring, we are paying the bills! Don't ever forget, they work for us. We just have to remind them of that.
WE THE PEOPLE
@Jazza12319
@Jazza12319 beats repeat brethren, thats what makes it a beat.. would you prefer some random hits here and there? HEALTH is also one of those bands (not one guy) that you should see live and their electrical prowess (although I bet the guitarist from the Mae Shi built their vocal thingy) with their homemade instruments.. Very progressive. What would you consider progressive? I am very curious..