January 22, 2010
This Week in Health Reform
After months of public debate and private negotiations, discussions on health care reform stalled after Senate vote Tuesday in Massachusetts. The Senate Democratic supermajority vote lost the 60th when Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Senate of the United States in the legislative Massachusetts.
Health Care Reform Negotiations Post-Special Election Massachusetts
Choice Massachusetts Senate Republican Recasts discussion: After the election of Republican Scott Brown the Massachusetts Senate seat Tuesday night, Democratic leaders have been struggling to regain what today might be a bill to die. The loss of 60 voting Democrat in the Senate opens a Republican filibuster legislation -. One thing the Democrats have so far managed to avoid the debate
House and Senate Democrats met this week to discuss how to proceed with reform legislation in light of the election and promised Wednesday could go forward. There are a number of options that Democrats are considering, but not at this time are plotted its course.
On Wednesday, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attempted to bring Democrats in the House about a strategy to boost the Senate bill through the House of Representatives the president’s desk and Barack Obama to avoid the need to ensure once again 60 votes in the Senate. However, the President indicated this morning that she did not think it needs 218 House votes needed to move forward. This option would have allowed lawmakersto then propose additional changes to legislation adopted through a process called “reconciliation”, which only requires 51 votes in the Senate
Other options remaining:.
1.
House and Senate Democrats also could quickly complete the merger of the two bills and vote on the combined package before Mr. Brown’s swearing
2.
Democratic leaders may try to re-engage Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), the only Republican who voted for the bill the Senate Finance Committee approved in October. Democrats should let you modify the bill so it could support its passage and give Democrats the needed 60th vote, or
3. House and Senate Democrats can basically start over in their respective chambers and propose to scale back the project versions in the “reconciliation” or regular procedures. Conciliation greatly limit the scope of the legislation the only problems related to raising or spending federal funds, so many provisions, including the creation of new trade insurance and an individual mandate, may be excluded.
President Obama seems to indicate that he favored lawmakers in the House and Senate to begin again and produce a bill to scale back. In addition, the more moderate Senate Democrats – reluctant to push through a huge partisan bill in the light of the election of Massachusetts – urged the leaders to stop
senator. Jim Webb (D-VA) called on Senate leaders to suspend the vote on health reform until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. President Obama and Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) have reiterated this message. Moreover, Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) called for a bipartisan effort as the best way to achieve health care reform legislation.
Health care reform negotiations before the special election
Massachusetts Senators Urge Government Guarantee Savings: In a letter sent Thursday to Senator Reid, five senators Democrats called for the inclusion of a “security mechanism” in the final bill. This mechanism would give Congress “the tools to keep costs under control if the estimate of actual savings do not materialize.”
Both the Senate and House versions of the bill are based largely on the reduction of public spending, particularly around Medicare to help pay for reform. Republicans and some analysts believe the party government not to proceed with these cost reductions, leading to increased costs
President Obama pushes for less protection for biological medicinal products:. Last Thursday, President Obama called for a change in the health reform legislation to reduce the number of years that biological medicines were protected by patents of generic competition, previously set at 12 years. White House officials and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) were negotiating for the protection of 10 years or less.
Members of the media speculated that the move to reduce the biological protection of drugs could be a leverage point for Obama to pressure from the pharmaceutical industry to increase contributions to pay for health care reform. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that Democrats in Congress has asked pharmaceutical companies to contribute an additional one billion or more over the billions that the industry agreed early on in the reform negotiations.
Obama reaches agreement with unions: Last week Democratic negotiators reached an agreement with union leaders and granted the union’s demands to reduce a tax on insurance plans high-end . The agreement would exempt unionized workers from having to pay the tax until 2018, five years after the tax would apply to other workers. While the deal would help get the union support for the bill but also reduce the amount of tax revenue generated by 40 percent to one billion. Therefore, Democratic leaders would have to find other sources of income to offset the difference
Public Opinion Survey Indicates output
health care reform as a hot topic:. As the voting polls closed on Tuesday night Massachusetts Senate elections, an exit poll conducted by Frabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates indicates that 52 percent of voters said they oppose the attention Federal health reform measure and 42 percent said they cast their vote to help stop Obama from the passage of this legislation. In addition, 48 percent said health care was the theme that will drive their vote
Discontent Show Polls:. The recent Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll found that nearly half of Americans believe that health care reform bill in Congress is a bad idea (46 percent). This figure is considerably since April, when only 26 percent believe that the plan was a bad idea. Furthermore, only 33 percent say the plan is a good idea. Almost half of respondents (48 percent) believe that the adoption of the legislation would be a “step backwards”.
In addition, a new Quinnipiac University poll showed public support for health care reform continues to decline. Thirty-four percent mostly approve, while 54 percent disapprove of his majority. In late December, 53 percent of Americans in the most approved, while 36 mostly disapprove.
Looking forward
Today, the road to health reform is unclear. Democrats want a way to secure the votes needed to pass legislation, and some are now questioning the value of pushing the bill of large size. Obama was hoping to see a final bill before his State of the Union, which has been scheduled for January 27;. However, it seems that this goal is probably out of reach