Oct. 2, 2009

This Week in Health Care Reform

This
week, legislators from the Senate Finance Committee continued mark-up
of the legislation proposed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT).

Senate Negotiations

Senate
Finance Committee Negotiates Amendments: After days of negotiations,
Sen. Baucus indicated on Wednesday that the Senate Finance Committee
now had the necessary votes to pass legislation and that he anticipated
finalizing the bill by the end of the week. Lawmakers from the
Committee convened this week to continue voting on the hundreds of
proposed amendments to the health care reform legislation offered by
the senator earlier this month. Committee voting this week included:

* Rejection of two amendments, one from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and
one from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), that would have incorporated a
public option in the bill.
* Modification of a financing provision
that would make it harder to deduct medical expenses on personal tax
returns. Lawmakers voted to exempt taxpayers older than 65.
*
Rejection of Republican amendments that would have strengthened limits
on both abortion coverage and medical coverage for illegal immigrants.
* Adoption of an amendment by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Jim
Bunning (R-KY) requiring federal employees, lawmakers and their aides
to buy health insurance from the health insurance exchanges to be
created by the legislation in 2013.
* Rejection of an amendment
proposed by Republicans to allow individuals to opt out of the bill's
requirement for everyone to have insurance coverage, upholding the
bill's inclusion of an individual mandate.
* Rejection of an
amendment proposed by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) to require drugmakers to
provide $106 billion in rebates over 10 years. The Committee upheld an
agreement made last June with drug manufacturers to provide $80 billion
in rebates.
* Rejection of two Republican amendments that would have blocked cuts in the Medicare Advantage program.

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Public Plan

Public
Support for Reform Increases: After a summer embattled by contentious
town hall meetings and characterized by slipping public support, the
latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll indicates that public support for
health care reform is now on the rise. About 57% of Americans now say
that tackling health care reform is more important than ever - up from
53% in August. However, 47% of Americans favor taking additional time
to craft a bipartisan approach to health care reform, compared to 42%
who say Democrats should move faster on their own. In addition,
substantial majorities support the individual mandate, the employer
mandate and an expansion of programs such as Medicaid and the State
Children's Health Insurance Program.

Small Business Owners
Support Health Care Reform: A recent study by Small Business Majority,
a California-based advocacy group, found that small businesses in 17
states are struggling to keep up with health care costs and favor
health care reform. Of small business owners in Pennsylvania who do not
offer health insurance to employees, 87% say they cannot afford to do
so; and, of those who do provide health insurance, 71% are struggling
to afford it. Across the 17 states surveyed, 67% of small business
owners agreed that health care reform is "urgently needed to fix the
U.S. economy" - revealing a growing divide between small business and
its traditional Washington ally, the Republican Party.

Young
Adults Support Health Care Reform: While many young adults acknowledge
that they do not fully understand the health care reform proposals and
the potential costs that younger generations may bear, the group
remains one of the strongest supporters of reform legislation.

House Activities

House
Leaders Merge Bills: House Democratic leaders are working to merge the
bills from the three House committees: the Energy and Commerce
Committee, the Education and Labor Committee and the Ways and Means
Committee. While House leaders now hope to have a final bill sometime
in October, they are still debating major elements of the legislation,
including whether public-option provider reimbursement rates should be
based on Medicare rates and how to reduce the overall cost of the
reform legislation. Managing the cost of the legislation is a key
requirement for President Barack Obama, who has indicated that a viable
bill must be deficit-neutral and cost $900 billion or less over 10
years. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the
cost of the current House package stands at more than $1 trillion.

Additional Activities

President
Obama Allocates Money for New Medical Research: On Wednesday, President
Obama announced the allocation of $5 billion in grants for medical and
scientific research, medical supplies and upgrading laboratory
capacity. The funds will be drawn from the $787 billion American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Looking Ahead

Sen.
Baucus seeks to finalize the Senate Finance Committee bill today. The
Committee vote will be delayed until early next week to give the CBO
time to assess the cost of the revised legislation.