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

The House bill unveiled this morning is a 1,990 page document that the Congressional Budget Office has scored at $894 billion over ten years, covering an additional 36 million Americans and 97% of citizens overall.  You can see the legislation in its entirety here; the section-by-summary here; a list of major changes from HR 3200 here; and a time line for the legislation here.  Below is a summary of the major provisions of the bill, with changes from HR 3200 noted in parentheses:

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The Senate Finance Committee yesterday released the legislative language for its health care reform proposal.  The massive 1,502 page bill contains few surprises, reflecting the Finance Committee mark-up earlier this month and technical corrections made to the language.

Of note to the nonprofit community is the legislative language on the small employer subsidy the bill would give for providing insurance.  Previously, the draft had indicated that only 501(c)(3) organizations would be eligible to receive a partial withholding tax credit if they offered credible insurance, had 25 or fewer employees, and had an average salary of under $40,000.  The new legislative language expands the number of organizations eligible to receive the credit:

“TAX-EXEMPT ELIGIBLE SMALL EMPLOYER.-For purposes of this section, the term ‘tax-exempt eligible small employer’ means an eligible small employer which is any organization described in section 501(c) which is exempt from taxation under section 501(a).”

While there are few surprises, there is still controversy surrounding the legislation.  The bill contains a 40% tax on so-called high-end insurance plans as the major revenue raiser for the bill.  Such a tax has raised opposition from liberal Senate Democrats and a majority of the House Democratic caucus.  Currently, Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) and other key Senate Democrats are working on merging the Finance and HELP committee bills for floor consideration.

Quick Hits

The Finance Committee changes eligibility for insurance subsidy to being based on “modified gross income” (subscription)… America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) responds to complaints about their study on the impact of the Senate Finance bill… Could the public option make its way into the Senate health care bill?