This week in health care reform easytoinsureme health insurance
Posted By Health on August 30, 2010
JANUARY 22, 2010
This Week in Health Care Reform
After months of public debate and private negotiations, health care reform discussions stalled following Tuesday's Senate vote in Massachusetts. The Democratic Senate lost its 60th vote supermajority when Republican Scott Brown was elected to the United States Senate in the Massachusetts special election.
Health Care Reform Negotiations Post-Massachusetts Special Election
Massachusetts Election of Senate Republican Recasts Debate: Following the election of Republican Scott Brown to the Massachusetts Senate seat Tuesday night, Democratic leaders have been scrambling to revive what could now be a dying bill. The loss of the Democrat's 60th vote in the Senate opens up the legislation to a Republican filibuster - something the Democrats have managed to avoid thus far in the debate.
House and Senate Democrats met this week to discuss how to move forward with the reform legislation in light of this election and promised Wednesday that they would push ahead. There are a number of options that Democrats are considering, but at this point they have not charted their course.
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attempted to rally House Democrats around a strategy to push the Senate bill through the House and onto President Barack Obama's desk so as to avoid the need to again secure 60 Senate votes. However, the Speaker indicated on Thursday morning that she did not believe she has the needed 218 House votes necessary to move forward. This option would have allowed lawmakersto then propose additional modifications to the approved legislation through a process called "reconciliation," which only requires 51 votes in the Senate.
Other remaining options:
1.
House and Senate Democrats could also quickly complete the merging of the two bills and vote on the combined package before Mr. Brown is sworn in.
2.
Democratic leaders could attempt to re-engage Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), the only Republican who voted for the Senate Finance Committee's bill passed in October. Democrats would need to allow her to amend the bill so that she could support its passage and give Democrats the needed 60th vote; or,
3. House and Senate Democrats could essentially start over in their respective chambers and propose scaled-back versions of the bill under "reconciliation" procedures or regular order. Reconciliation procedures would greatly limit the scope of the legislation to issues only related to raising or spending federal funds; therefore, many provisions, such as creating new insurance exchanges and an individual mandate, might be excluded.
President Obama seemed to indicate that he favors having House and Senate lawmakers start over again and produce a scaled-back bill. In addition, more moderate Senate Democrats - hesitant to push through such a huge partisan bill in light of the Massachusetts election - urged leaders to slow down.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has called on Senate leaders to suspend voting on health care reform until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have iterated this same message. Further, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) called for a bipartisan effort as the best way to achieve health care reform legislation.
Health Care Reform Negotiations Prior to Massachusetts Special Election
Senators Urge Guarantee of Government Savings: In a letter sent last Thursday to Sen. Reid, five Democratic Senators asked for the inclusion of a "fail-safe mechanism" in the final bill. This mechanism would give Congress "the tools to keep costs under control should the current savings estimates fail to materialize."
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