The new Obamacare plan.

Be afraid of this for your mom and Dad

Week of July 20, 2009

Health care reform legislation showed surprising momentum last week when committees in the House and Senate approved reform bills in an attempt to meet President Obama's aggressive goal of completing legislation before the August recess. But doubts about the ability of the existing bills to rein in costs linger. In fact, the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office threw fuel on the fire when he testified before the Senate Budget Committee that the bills crafted so far would not rein in skyrocketing costs and would add to the cost problem. Fiscally conservative members of Congress are not the only ones concerned about the bills. The Washington Post reported that as many as 20 state medical societies have drafted a letter to Congressional leaders vowing to fight creation of a government-sponsored health insurance program that could compete with private firms.

Join us in becoming key players in the political process and help represent your perspective and your clients' interests before state and federal lawmakers. Join ACAN today.

Federal
Last week will go down as a truly significant week in health care reform. The House leadership unveiled its 1,000+ page bill and announced that the three committees of jurisdiction would immediately begin mark-up sessions designed to get a composite bill to the House floor by the end of July. Late last week the House Ways and Means Committee approved the House bill 23 to 18 -- all of the Republicans and three Democrats on the committee voted against. The House Education and Labor Committee did likewise a short time later. Roughly $544 billion in funding is to come from tax increases on families making more than $350,000. On a straight party line vote (13-10), the Senate HELP Committee reported out its health care reform bill, which includes both individual and employer coverage mandates, gateways (aka exchanges) to provide a place to find and acquire health coverage, a public plan backed by the federal government and a number of quality, prevention and wellness provisions. The bill is estimated to cost $645 billion, though not all the pieces have been scored (e.g., the Medicaid expansion provision). The focus now turns to the Senate Finance Committee to see whether Chairman Baucus can forge the bipartisan compromise he has been seeking. All of this activity was thrown into high gear by President Obama who on several occasions last week promoted health care reform and publicly lit a fire under Congress to get it done by the August break.