Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced his health
insurance reform bill that merges proposals adopted by the Senate Finance and
the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees. The bill will
serve as the basis for Senate floor action over the next weeks.
Today, we achieved another milestone in health reform. The
Senate Finance Committee, which presides over a large chunk of health care issues,
voted 14-9 to pass their version of the bill out of committee. Support for the
bill included all Democrats, and one Republican, Olympia Snowe from Maine. Snowe's stamp of
approval gives Democrats "bipartisan" bragging rights.
In the epic journey of health reform, the Senate Finance
Committee reached a new milestone as it wrapped up its legislative mark last week.
Leaving no stone unturned, the committee considered a whopping 145 Democratic
and Republican amendments on a variety of issues, including Medicare Advantage,
drug price negotiation, the public option, immigration, abortion, affordability
provisions, and the excise tax on insurance companies. According to CBO, the deficit
neutral bill comes in at $829 billion over ten years - far less than what
Obama targeted in his joint-session speech. Going one step farther, it would
actually reduce the deficit by $81
billion (also over ten years, 2010 - 2019). So what should we make of it all? Here are some highlights
of the amendments, and a look at what's to come.
What's appalling are the mixed messages that
Grassley has been sending, the latest of which sound like the health reform
process started this week - the week his committee began debating draft language.
In reality, his committee began working on health reform in 2008 when Senator Baucus convened a two-day retreat at the
Library of Congress to kick off the process. The committee has met countless
times this year. A small group of six senators, of whom Senator Grassley
is a member, has met more than 60 times
this year alone.
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Category: Congress,Insurance Industry,Senate Finance Committee,Uninsured Americans