Return to the blog »

Senate Finance Highlight Reel

Posted by: Julia Eisman on Sep 25, 2009

For those of you who might have missed it, here's a highlight reel of the Senate Finance Committee mark-up from this week:

1. In a debate over "defining health benefits offered through private insurance," Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) announced that he doesn't need maternity care and "and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive."

To which Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), responded: "If I could just interject once with my colleague - I think your mom probably did." (Video courtesy of the Wonkroom):

2. Republicans are defending Medicare Advantage overpayments with all their might. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) firmly argued that 10 million seniors will lose their coverage with the cuts to the Medicare Advantage plan that Senator Baucus is proposing. Thing is, that simply won't happen. According to the CBO, the Medicare Advantage program in some states would gain 200,000 more beneficiaries.

But Senator Hatch refused to listen. Here's how the conversation went between Senator Hatch and the Senate Finance Committee staffer trying to explain the issue (again, via the Wonkroom):

Senator Hatch: Will the 10 million people see a loss in their extra benefits? The answer to that of course is ‘yes.'

SFC Staff: Categorically 10 million beneficiaries would not be losing the extra benefits they have today. Some would be gaining

Senator Hatch: The fact of the matter is, the bottom line, is that these are 10 million people that are going to lose benefits. And that's what it boils down to.

 

3. Free speech made its way into the mark-up by way of Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage plans are the private Medicare plans that get big subsidies (i.e., windfall payments) from the federal government: They cost the government about 11% more per beneficiary than regular Medicare. Senator Baucus proposed $123 million in cuts to these private plans, but insurance giant Humana pushed back by sending letters to seniors, warning them that the government is trying to take away their Medicare:

The letter outraged Baucus and other Democrats, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fired off a letter to Humana telling it to cease and desist because, CMS said, the letters were in violation of the company's contract laying out its fiduciary responsibility with the government and Medicare enrollees. The CMS letter, in turn, set off Republicans and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, [which] saw it as blatant censorship

There was back and forth among Democrats and Republicans about the right of the insurance company to lobby. Republicans claimed it was a violation of first amendment rights. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) responded: "Government should not impede the ability of that contractor to run TV ads or influence Congress. But to say they should use their position they have contracted to have with these seniors on Medicare to lobby them to influence legislation seems a little bit out of the ordinary."

The Republican Amendment lost in a party line vote.