Updates on Health Care Reform - Jan 14, 2010- continuing

[Linnea]

Thread for updates on the progress of HCR reform. Comments welcome.

Looks as though there are two remaining stumbling blocks, abortion restrictions and whether the 'Exchanges' will be on a federal or a state level.

By John Fritze, USA TODAY - Jan 14, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama agreed Thursday to soften a proposed tax on high-cost insurance plans, but work continues on several remaining sticking points in the health care legislation — including the thorny issue of abortion.

The agreement on the controversial tax, reached with the nation's largest labor unions after marathon negotiating sessions at the White House, partly answered how lawmakers will pay for billions of dollars in subsidies that will help millions of uninsured Americans afford coverage.

The tax is just one in a long list of issues lawmakers must address as they reconcile the health care bills passed late last year by the Senate and House of Representatives.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... rats_N.htm

[Linnea]

Here's a link to 24/7 Twitter feed/updates on HCR topics*:

http://twitter.com/HealthReformNow

*This is the official House Twitter feed

[Linnea]

Jan 6, 2010

Dept of Education and Labor 'News of the Day' update:

David Lightman of McClatchy newspapers highlights parts of the health insurance reform bills before Congress that will bring nearly immediate improvements to health insurance coverage for all Americans.

More money for community health centers. Immediate help for the uninsured. No more lifetime limits on coverage.

Under the health care legislation that's moving through Congress, these and other benefits would take effect quickly and should produce a noticeable impact on consumers, according to many independent analysts and Democrats.

Much more information at link:

http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2010/01/n ... care.shtml

[Linnea]

Health Care Reform seems to be moving along...

Hoping It Won’t Be Needed, Democrats Ponder a Backup Plan on Health Care Bill - New York Times - Jan 17th, 2010

WASHINGTON — With the Massachusetts special election for United States Senate increasingly unpredictable, Democrats in Washington are contemplating a fall-back plan to advance far-reaching health care legislation, even if a Republican victory on Tuesday deprives Senate Democrats of the crucial 60th vote they need to overcome filibusters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/healt ... ealth.html

[Linnea]

Well, now. Seems it's back to the drawing board...

The mess they had going was pretty ugly, in any case.

[Cherry Kelly]

From a Sat report (1-23-10) ya from fox news but applicable:

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly are considering a new list of changes to the Senate health care reform bill that could be passed separately as a way to advance the suddenly stalled overhaul of the health care system.

If such changes are passed in a separate piece of legislation, it could make the current Senate health care bill acceptable to enough liberal House members to pass it, allowing Democrats to achieve their goal of sweeping health care reform, Politico reported."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01 ... te-health/

hmmm

[Linnea]

Update from Newser - Feb 12th, 2010:

(Newser) – The White House today sent out invitations for its Feb. 25 health-reform summit, detailed the format for the televised proceedings, and said it would post its own proposal online ahead of time. The leaders of both parties in the House and Senate are on the list, and tasked with choosing more legislators to bring along. Per the plan—of which Republicans have been suspicious and say might keep them from attending—the event will kick off with President Obama and a member of each party speaking.

Then, according to the letter from White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Health secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Obama “will then open and moderate discussion on four critical topics: insurance reforms, cost containment, expanding coverage, and the impact health reform legislation will have on deficit reduction.” The GOP has many questions, a spokesman tells Politico. “We need answers before we know if the White House is more interested in partisan theater than in facilitating a productive dialogue about solutions.”

http://www.newser.com/story/80809/white ... ummit.html

Source:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010 ... hp?ref=fpb

[Linnea]

This discussion is from TPM - February 18, 2010:

Schumer Signs Public-Option-Via-Reconciliation Letter.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has signed a letter urging Democratic leadership to pass the public option via reconciliation.

In a fund-raising email to supporters, Schumer announced that he had signed the letter, becoming the 17th senator to do so. He lauded the "tenacity" of the four senators who originally signed the letter.

"This is far from a done deal, but it's an opportunity to break through the obstructionism Republicans have pushed for the past year," he wrote.

The letter, written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), will be sent to Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The signatories so far: Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT), Al Franken (MN), Patrick Leahy (VT), John Kerry (MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Michael Bennet (CO), Sherrod Brown (OH), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Jeff Merkley (OR), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Roland Burris (IL), Barbara Boxer (CA), Jack Reed (RI), Tom Udall (NM), Barbara Mikulski (MD) and Frank Lautenberg (NJ).

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010 ... ?ref=fpblg

There was also discussion of this on Countdown and the Rachel Maddow show tonight. Seems there are 52 Senators so far who would likely vote for the public option. They need only 50 for a reconciliation vote.





hmmmm....is right.

[Cherry Kelly]

And now Obama plans to piggyback his - whatever he posts on Monday - health bill onto the budget bill.

This would allow passage on only 51 votes in the Senate.

[Linnea]

And I'm glad, Cherry. The Democrats have to pass legislation. They were elected to do that. They need to stand for something, and do what they were elected in large numbers by the majority of voters to do.

Glad you continue to post on these important topics - many here have simply tuned out. We are now entering a pivotal and fascinating era of politics in this country.

Thanks!

And, btw - hope to be joining in more often in our Gardening thread. I've got some tomato plantlings started now which are doing well.

And - it is sunny and warm in the NW today!

[badspell]

Thread for updates on the progress of HCR reform. Comments welcome.

Looks as though there are two remaining stumbling blocks, abortion restrictions and whether the 'Exchanges' will be on a federal or a state level.

By John Fritze, USA TODAY - Jan 14, 2010



http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... rats_N.htm

Abortion is not a stumbling block. Its murder! We have a choice, and that choice is before conception!

Ooooop’s read it and weep.

[Linnea]

Well, you know, that's a good thing about our country. No one's religious beliefs can imposed on the rest us.

The discussion here is regarding health care reform. Sheesh!

:p

[Cherry Kelly]

Linnea - last report i saw was the proposal will be posted on line Monday?? Will watch for it to be posted so we can read it to make sure it really IS helpful to us all.

Speaking of health stuff -- I see where they have pulled a diabetes drug because it causes heart problems.

That is the kind of reform I hope is addressed too - FDA drugs that get on the market only to be removed due to side effects. GEE think they'd check side effects BEFORE allowing them on the market.

[Linnea]

It is true, Cherry. The drug industry is out.of.control... and this should be addressed.

[Linnea]

...from Ezra Klein - WaPo Feb 20th

Big, encouraging news on health-care reform today: Harry Reid says that Senate Democrats will use the reconciliation process to finish the bill within the next 60 days.

I've noticed some confusion about what this means, so some quick context: Reid is not talking about rewriting the bill or passing the whole thing through reconciliation. He's talking about passing a small package of fixes through reconciliation so that the House and Senate bills come into alignment.

This is actually the sort of situation reconciliation was designed to address, as Brookings' Henry Aaron explains here (pdf). Budget reconciliation is called "reconciliation" because it's supposed to speed the, well, reconciliation of the differences between two budget bills. That's exactly what's left to do with the health-care reform bills, which were indeed part of the 2010 budget and whose passage is expected in the 2011 budget.

Because this is what the process is actually meant to do, it doesn't present the manifold problems of using reconciliation for the entire bill. Things like the insurance market reforms have already passed with 60 votes in the Senate and 220 in the House. They're done. What's left are some tweaks to the way the bill spends and raises money (that is to say, tweaks to its budget implications) that are needed in order to, yes, reconcile the two bills. Reconciliation works for this because reconciliation was designed to do this.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-k ... econc.html