The Power of A

Updated 1:11 PM: Yesterday evening Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unveiled his merged comprehensive health care legislation, hours after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had released its score of the legislation.  The CBO scored the legislation as costing $848 billion over the next ten years, but would reduce the deficit $130 billion.  The bill according to CBO would also cut Medicare spending by $491 billion over 10 years and cover 94% of non-senior Americans.

Currently, the speculation is that Reid will make a motion to proceed on debate on the legislation on Saturday.  This motion, which will be filibustered, will require 60 votes to pass.  It is expected that all forty Senate Republicans will vote “no” on the motion, requiring a united Democratic caucus to proceed to debate on the bill.  Reid in public statements has sounded confident that he can get 60 votes on a motion to proceed, but the vote may have to be delayed due to Senator Baucus suddenly having to leave town.

The bill, which is over 2,000 pages long, combines the Senate HELP and Finance Committees health care bills passed earlier this year.  The Hill summarizes the major provisions here.

The following are the highlights of the legislation: continue reading

On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee Democrats as well as their House counterparts released the details and language for their respective health care bills.

The HELP Committee bill details began to leak last week but yesterday’s release was the most detailed information to date. The bill avoids three major issues: details on a public insurance plan, requirements for employers to pay for employee premiums, and proposals on generic biologics. However, the outline of the bill contains a variety of options on the controversial points, meant to stimulate discussion on the most contentious aspects of the bill. In addition to the details discussed in the June 8^th post, the legislation includes:

• The creation of navigators, or associations and membership organizations that assist individuals and businesses in the use of the Gateways. This is similar to language used in the SHOP Act. (Title I, Subtitle B)
• Limitations on health status ratings within a geographic region based only on family composition, the value of the benefits package, and age (no more than 2:1). (Title I, Subtitle A)
• The creation of Affordable Health Benefit Gateways in each state, or insurance exchanges at the state level. If a state fails to establish a Gateway, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to create an exchange in that state. States can form regional Gateways in multiple states. (Title 1, Subtitle B)
• Expansion of Medicaid eligibility based on the recommendations of the Senate Finance Committee. (Title I, Subtitle B)
• Tax credits for small business under 25 or fewer employees, and whose average wages are under $40,000 per year. (Title I, Subtitle C)
• A variety of wellness encouragement programs, such as requiring some restaurants to post caloric count of foods and expansion of loan forgiveness programs for medical specialists. (Title III)

The Chairs of the three relevant House committees outlined the basics of their reform legislation in a message to House Democrats and announced the bill would be named for Rep. John Dingell (D-MI). The bill would include many aspects of the HELP bill and includes a “pay or play” employer mandate and a public insurance plan. The outline lacked any details on completely financing the reforms. Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) reiterated in his comments their goal of having the bill on the floor by July.

Quick Hits

The Joint Committee on Taxation sends a letter to the Senate Finance Committee outlining potential savings based on some suggested health care proposals… Tri-Caucus (the Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses) unveils its list via legislation of required health care components… Ezra Klein breaks down the various types of public plan… The Obama Administration PAYGO plan and health care.