The push for health care reform is moving (or is it?) so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 12/15/09:

If it were up to Joe Lieberman, this is all we would have out of the health care reform bill: Free Band-Aids for All, courtesy of ol’ Joe, your favorite Senator. I mean, really?! What is the Obama Administration thinking? Cutting a deal with this (insert your favorite word here) to get a reform bill that has absolutely no public option, no wanna-be public option, no triggers; it is unfair and quite sad that our legislative process has come to this.

For those that don’t follow this health care drama regularly, this is where we are at: the Senate has one week to pass its health care bill, as the White House would like to see a bill before Christmas. However, in order to accomplish that, with all the crazy procedural steps it takes to pass a bill out of Senate, they would have to start voting to end debate this Thursday and hold the final vote on the bill on Christmas Day. Probably not gonna happen.

That just means the debate will continue into January, further prolonging the other equally as important pieces of legislation that Congress needs to focus on, such as the climate bill and the SAFRA bill, to name a few. On top of time line obstacles, the Senate is also being held up by a handful of senators who refuse to give health coverage to millions of Americans and instead just want their way. Like Joe Lieberman, who now looks to be getting his way, because in order to pass anything, the Senate needs 60 votes, and he is the lucky number 60.

This will be my last Health on the Hill update for 2009 – I am leaving the country, but will be back after the New Year — hopefully to a country that has decided to pass real health care reform for the good of its people instead of for one (insert your second favorite word here) from Maine.

News Links:

Sen. Reid bows to centrists,will drop Medicare buy-in to pass bill

Reid indicated at a closed-door Democratic Conference meeting on Monday that he would drop a controversial Medicare buy-in provision, which was offered as a replacement to the government-run health insurance option, to win the votes of Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

Obama: ‘Last chance’ for health reform

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer told POLITICO: “If President Obama doesn’t pass health reform, it’s hard to imagine another president ever taking on this Herculean task. For those whose life’s work is reforming health care, this may be the last train leaving the station.”

Sen. Lieberman’s Donors Benefit From Obstruction

Lieberman has now invented a new excuse for his intransigence every month since June, and this latest act of duplicity has left many observers musing about what motivates him.  The hypotheses include spite for the left, “sociopathic indifference” to the consequences of his actions, and plain lack of intelligence. But it’s also worth noting once again that Lieberman has friends in the insurance industry who will benefit from his obstructionism.

The current discussions in the Senate over how to come to a compromise on the public option (which by the way takes a new shape about every two hours; with ideas bouncing from an “opt-in” option, to an “opt-out” option, to a “trigger” option, to a “reverse-trigger” option, to a “hammer” option, maybe next will be a “chisel” option?) may have finally reached a resting place. But the new “public option” compromise will not even include all of the public.

The newest compromise idea is to replace the public option all together and expand Medicare.  Sounds great at first, after all Medicare is the government-run, public plan that the idea of a new public option available to all Americans was based on in the first place. So the media and progressives, like Howard Dean, are getting pretty revved up about this idea to simply expand the already existing public plan because it brings us full circle in the public option debate.

But I ask a simple question: Am I missing something?! Because this “expansion” of Medicare will only be for those Americans ages 55 -64.  So the rest of us –including young adults who are the largest group of uninsured–  will be left out of this new “public” option replacement. I will note, though, that discussions also involve the expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults that make up to 150% of the Federal Poverty Level — this is an increase from what is currently in the Senate bill and will benefit many low-income Americans.

What about the rest of us? We will be given yet another compromise: non-profit insurance plans offered in the exchange, that will supposedly be similar to the plans currently offered to federal employees. But they might not be that similar to what is offered to federal employees, and may not necessarily reduce cost or create competition as a government run plan would have.

So either I am missing something, or Congress is missing the point –and leaving out young adults–once again. The saga contines.

The push for health care reform is moving, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 12/7/09:

This post was written in part by Amy Minor, CP Intern

The Senate began debate on their health reform legislation last week, holding the first votes on amendments toward the end of the week. One good amendment by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which will guarantee women age 40 and older receive mammograms with no out-of-pocket costs, passed 61 – 39.  Another amendment by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), which  would eliminate the $500 billion cuts to Medicare spending, and if approved, would have stripped out money needed to pay for expanding coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, thankfully failed 58 – 42.

Although the Senate was able to vote on the first amendments of the health care bill, they worked long hours over the weekend struggling to reach agreements on key issues. One of these issues continues to be abortion. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) has said that he will withdraw his vote for the health care bill,  if it does not contain an abortion amendment similar to the Stupak amendment, which was passed in the House version of the health care bill last month. He is expected to present his amendment this afternoon. (Make sure you contact your Senator and urge them to vote NO on this amendment to avoid restricting women’s rights to abortion!)

If  Nelson decides to vote against the bill, this puts Majority Leader Reid in a difficult position because he cannot lose a single vote from his Democratic caucus and still pass the bill overall without picking up Republican support.  Reid will not gain Republican support for reform unless he further waters down the public option – a key issue for a handful of Democratic Senators and the key to whether or not one Republican – Olympia Snowe of Maine – will vote for health care reform.

Senator Reid and about 10 other senators spent Sunday afternoon discussing yet another compromise on the public option. This time reducing the idea down to a pathetic excuse for a solution. The new compromise centers around replacing the public option with a new health insurance exchange similar to the one offered to federal employees, with insurance plans run by non-profits –who already dominate the market and do not reduce the cost of insurance. In an effort to get 60 votes to pass health care reform, this is where we find ourselves: picking apart a provision that could have provided incredible insurance access and affordability to millions of Americans, but will now likely be an already existing, ineffective solution that gets signed into law only to avoid the scary words “government run”.

News Links:

Chances shrink for pure public option

Senate Democrats in search of a health reform compromise Sunday zeroed in on a new alternative to a government-run insurance plan — signaling that the chances a final bill will include a pure public option are diminishing.

You Call This a Compromise?

The goal of the current effort is simple: to get sixty votes to overcome a filibuster and pass a bill. Four of the sixty Senators who caucus with the Democrats have expressed, with varying degrees of certainty and specificity, that they don’t like the public option in the current bill. So the search is on for a compromise, any compromise..

Nelson: I’ll Filibuster Without Stupak-Like Amendment

“Now I don’t know that it’s going to come down to that, because I don’t know that Stupak’s not going to pass, number one,” he said. “Number two I don’t know what kind of alternative legislation may be offered as an alternative bill..”

Senate Backs Preventive Health Care for Women

The 61-to-39 vote on health benefits for women would, in effect, override new recommendations from a federal advisory panel that said routine mammograms should begin at age 50, rather than 40.

The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 11/25/09:

Today’s update was written by Amy Minor, CP Advocacy Intern

Happy Thanksgiving! When we, and Congress, return next week the debate over the Senate health care bill will begin. Last Saturday night the Senate voted to begin debate on health care reform with a historic 60-39 vote.  Although this is a positive start for getting health care reform passed in Congress, the final passage of the bill is a long way off and will be a battle. The disputes that took place on Saturday reveal just how difficult the task will be for the Senate to find a compromise on key issues, like abortion, immigration and a public option, in the health care reform debate.

Along with dispute over the public option, abortion funding policy is going to be difficult to tackle among Democrats. Abortion rights supporters are backing Reid’s approach in the Senate bill, which tries to preserve an option of coverage for abortion, while proposing that federal dollars may only be used in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Reid’s approach may be one of the only ways of combating the Stupak amendment, which would bar any insurance plan — private or public — from covering abortions.

You can take action against the Stupak amendment here and join us for a National Day of Action Against Stupak on Dec 2!

News Links:

Public option at center of debate

Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program.

Schumer: Dems ready to go-it-alone on health care

A leading Senate Democrat said Monday his party is determined to push through a health care overhaul bill with or without Republican support because the “system is broken.”

PolitiFact Smacks Down Rep. Boehner’s “Abortion Premium” Claim

As the Senate moves to take up its version of the health care reform bill, Rep. Boehner alleged that the bill levied a new “abortion premium.”  PolitiFact.com reviewed his statement.

Lo and behold: the Senate has finally unveiled its health care reform legislation, and will officially announce the plan at a press conference this afternoon. Numbers and opinions are swirling around every media outlet in the country today and it can be mind-boggling to figure out what this means for you — the consumer. Here is my attempt to break down the Senate bill and highlight the provisions that may actually help to reform our system and those that are withered down to simply words on paper at this point.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act released by the Senate late last night is estimated to cost $849 billion over ten years, but with carefully placed taxes like those on high-income earners and on insurance policies that have high costs (also known as “Cadillac plans”), as well as generating savings from Medicare and Medicaid, the bill proposes to pay for these costs and will end up reducing the government’s deficit by $127 billion over the first decade. Most provisions in the bill will take effect by 2014 — what happens before then? Find out here.

The Good:

• 31 million of the uninsured will now gain health insurance.
• New health insurance exchanges will be created to choose from a range of insurance plans.
• There will be a public plan offered in the exchanges.
• Insurers can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, health status or gender.
• Those making up to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) can get coverage through Medicaid(expected to insure 15 million more people).
• Young adults will be able stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.
• People making between 133% and 400% of the FPL will be able to receive assistance from the government to purchase insurance.
• The assistance is important because buying health insurance will now be a requirement for most everyone (except for those with very low-income).
• Employers with under 50 employees can buy insurance in the exchange as well (including self-employed people) and receive tax benefits for doing so.
• There will be caps on out-of-pocket expenses, like co-pays for doctor visits and deductibles.
• Preventive care will now be covered by insurance plans.
• Investments to bring more people into the health care workforce will be made through loan repayment programs and scholarships.

The Bad, The Ugly

• 24 million people will still remain uninsured, one-third of them are unauthorized immigrants.
• Unauthorized immigrants will be banned from purchasing insurance through the exchanges, even if they can pay the full costs themselves (in the House bill they would be allowed to buy in the exchange but without federal assistance).
• The health insurance exchanges will be on a state-by-state basis which is weaker than the national exchange offered in the House bill (think bigger pool of competition).
• The public plan is not much more than words on paper at this point. It will have higher premiums than the private plans (due to the fact that it will be negotiating its own rates to providers instead of using set rates tied to Medicare) and states can refuse to offer the public plan to its residents if they want to.
• Only 3-4 million people are expected to use the public plan, which defeats the purpose of it being effective with a large pool of consumers.
• Young adults up to age 30, as well as anyone who may not be able to afford insurance (if their premiums exceed 8% of income), will be eligible for a Catastrophic plan, which means millions of people could get sucked into a plan with almost no comprehensive coverage and really high costs.
• While 25 million people are expected to purchase coverage through the new exchanges, our health insurance system is still largely based on employer-provided insurance plans. Yet under this bill, employers will not be required to offer coverage to their employees.
• But if an employer with 50 or more workers does not offer coverage they will be fined $750 for every worker that requires federal assistance to purchase insurance in the exchange.  This is called the “free rider” provision and leaves the window wide open for companies to discriminate against hiring low-income workers and will encourage them to hire illegal immigrants.
• There will be $50 million put towards abstinence-only sex education (way to throw money at ineffective solutions).

The Big Compromise

• Abortion: The issue of whether a legal medical procedure should be covered by insurance or not shouldn’t even be a question, but this is America –the land of pro-choice vs. anti-choice– so it is. That said, the Senate bill has slightly less restrictive provisions for coverage of abortion than the House bill does with its Stupak-Pitts amendment.
• Under the Senate bill, insurance plans can choose whether to cover abortions or not, but in each state there has to be at least one plan that covers it and one that doesn’t.
• Unlike in the House bill, people receiving federal assistance to buy insurance can buy a plan that covers abortion, but the insurer can only use the money contributed by the consumer to pay for abortion services, putting the federal funds toward other services only. (This whole separation of funds for a certain medical procedure just irks me.  To paraphrase Kierra Johnson of Choice USA, “I can’t separate my uterus from the rest of my body, right?”. It’s like going to the doctor and saying ‘you can go ahead and bill me separately for the part of the check up where you assessed the health of my uterus’.)
• Finally, the public plan could provide abortion coverage but would have to segregate federal dollars, just like the private plans.

That’s it in a long nutshell; the Senate bill that will now be debated and amended over the month of December, and then merged with the House bill to produce what will hopefully be a still recognizabe piece of legislation aimed at reforming our health insurance system.  Click here for a helpful side-by-side comparison of the Senate and House bills.

The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 11/18/09:

Here’s to progress: Senate Majority Leader Reid will unveil the long-awaited Senate health insurance reform bill tomorrow. We expect to see the cost estimate on the bill today from the Congressional Budget Office — rumor has it that the cost is lower than the House bill (Not surprising since the Senate bill has weaker provisions for reform).

On Friday, the Senate is expected to have a procedural vote that will determine whether debate on the bill can begin (yes, the Senate is a tricky place ). The vote to begin debate should pass — only three moderate Democrats have not committed to allowing the debate: Senators Landrieu of Louisiana, Lincoln of Arkansas and Nelson of Nebraska. However Reid and other Democrats are working hard to get their committment.  Once debate begins, it is expected to last through the month of December (allowing time for amendments) with a goal of passing a health care bill out of the Senate by the Congressional holiday recess.   Want to speed the process along? Do you live/are registered to vote  in Arkansas, Nebraska or Louisiana? If not you can still join in on the action with our friends at SEIU and contact these key Senators and urge them to allow the debate on health care!

News Links:

3 Democrats Could Block Health Bill in Senate

Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week.

Senate Democrats plan to unveil healthcare bill

The bill’s release would clear the way for a vote on Friday or Saturday by the full chamber on whether to proceed to debate on the measure — the first key procedural hurdle for the Senate plan.

Reid ‘optimistic’ about getting 60 votes on health bill

The Nevada Democrat would not confirm that he had received commitments from all 60 members of his caucus to overcome GOP procedural objections and bring the bill to the Senate floor, saying only, “I feel cautiously optimistic that we can do that. I think we’re together as a caucus.”

The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!

Today’s Updates – 11/9/09:

Saturday night around 11:30 pm, earlier in the weekend than expected, the House of Representatives passed their very first piece of legislation to reform the health insurance system in America by a 220-215 vote. Just one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, LA, voted for the legislation — which was a bit unexpected from the GOP. (And note that this means 39 Democrats did not vote for the legislation, which does not make the looming fight in the Senate look very easy!) The bill was passed pretty much in the same state that it entered the debate, with just one major amendment rearing its ugly head and unfortunately being accepted into the legislation.  That amendment being the Stupak amendment, proposed by Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), which effectively bans insurance plans offered in the new Health Insurance Exchange from covering abortion services. Also under the amendment, women who purchase comprehensive private insurance packages — that include abortion services — would have to pay for the entire cost of the package (even if they qualify for subsidies from the government to purchase that insurance). This is a big defeat for progressives and it personally breaks my heart to see that we have such a long way to go in this country when it comes to reproductive rights.

The new House health care bill, H.R. 3962, will insure 96% of the population, end denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, end higher rates based on gender, insure young adults under parent coverage until age 27, and open up a national Health Insurance Exchange where individuals can choose from insurance plans offered by private insurers and a plan offered by the government — the public option.

The backbone of our health insurance system will still mainly consist of  employer-provided plans, as it has for years, but now those not receiving insurance from their employers will have more options. Also, large employers will be required to continue providing coverage to their employees, and small businesses will receive subsidies to help provide insurance to their employees. Those not receiving coverage from their employer will be able to purchase insurance in the Exchange, and most individuals, other than extremely low-income earners, will now be required to have insurance and some will receive federal subsidies in order to help purchase that insurance.

How much will this reform cost and how will we pay for it? The House bill comes in around $894 billion over ten years and will be paid for by taxing very high-income earners and finding savings in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

It was a very exciting Saturday night here in D.C. and in millions of homes across the country, as many celebrated the completion of the first step in getting health care legislation that much closer to the President’s desk. Even in the Capitol, as the votes reached the 218 needed to pass the legislation, the chamber broke into applause. Now it’s time to strive for hearing that same applause from the Senate floor as they gear up to pass their own version of health care reform, then the next step will be to combine the two bills  and have a final vote to bring health care reform legislation into law.

We’re so close, stay tuned and stay active!

House Passes Health Reform, But Without Reproductive Rights

The U.S. House of Representatives answered “the call of history” put to it by President Obama Saturday and voted 220-215 in favor of the most sweeping expansion of health-care coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965.

Why The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access

If you thought that just because abortion is a constitutional right and part of basic reproductive health care it would be available in the reformed health insurance market known as the Exchange, think again. The Stupak Amendment, passed Saturday night by the House of Representatives after a compromise deal fell apart, potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women’s access to abortion.

Obama Presses Senate to Pass Its Health Bill

The White House, growing concerned that the Congressional timetable for passing a health care overhaul could slip into next year, is stepping up pressure on the Senate for quick action, with President Obama appearing Sunday in the Rose Garden to call on senators to “take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line.”