Health Care Reform By Easter
A Democratic memo was released that laid out the timeline for health care reform. Democrats want to have the bill finished by the Easter recess. The thought is that right before a recess might reduce Republican shenanigans because they want to go home for recess (Jim Bunning want won’t to miss the NCAA tournament, I’d guess) and Democrats don’t want a repeat of the summer recess with a huge Republican misinformation campaign and angry teabaggers disrupting townhalls. At least if they’ve passed something they’ll be something to defend.
“Step one: The House passes the Senate’s health reform bill by March 19. The bill then goes to the president for signature without going through conference….After the Senate bill becomes law, the House then amends the Senate bill through a reconciliation bill, to be passed by March 21. That bill would be the only opportunity to amend, add or strike provisions in the Senate bill. Step three: The Senate begins debate on the reconciliation bill by March 23. Debate is limited to 30 hours. Votes begin March 26, the first day of Easter recess.”
Democrats have missed every other timeline (imagine if they’d actually passed it in the fall as originally planned) but I don’t think they’re going to allow Baucus and Snowe to slow walk the bill anymore. Attention turns now to getting the 216 needed to pass the bill. The Stupak Stupid group will probably cause a ruckus and he claims to have a dozen or so members who previously voted yes that will now vote no.
- Senator Coburn’s idea of expanding the fraud investigation in Medicare/Medicaid with undercover patients.
- More money for medical malpractice pilot programs
- Senator Grassley’s suggestion of increased doctor reimbursement in Medicaid.
- Addition of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to the exchange, as suggested by Senator Barrasso.
Tags: Health Care Reform
New info – the House must go first. The Senate parliamentarian has ruled that reconciliation can’t amend a bill, only a law:
Senator Coburn’s idea of expanding the fraud investigation in Medicare/Medicaid with undercover patients.
Now which enterprising Dem will propose this for the financial sector too and watch the banks freak out? Or is undercover investigation it only good enough for health care and ACORN?
More money for medical malpractice pilot program
Devil in details
Senator Grassley’s suggestion of increased doctor reimbursement in Medicaid.
Pin the spending on Repubs whenever the opportunity presents itself
Addition of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to the exchange, as suggested by Senator Barrasso.
NO problem. HSAs are a great idea as long as they are extras and don’t replace other aspects of HCR – which is usually why Repubs propose them.
I totally agree anon. With malpractice reform the devil is in the details. Experiments so far (Texas) have shown no savings so far but it’s basically a conservative wet dream. HSAs – exactly, they’ll be in the exchange and they’ll be used as much as they’re used now (not much). Increasing Medicaid reimbursement is a good idea. Undercover patients – oh well, I’m fairly agnostic on that one. None of these seem like big ideas to me.
Man, the ladies over here really seem to be picking up the slack. Keep it up UI.
I think a name change is in order too.
Delawareliberalettes
has a nice ring to it
I think it is possible to keep up with Twitter, a blog, and a job – pick two.
A key reason for including the Republican ideas is also to have points to reference if the Republicans decide to continue talking about the bill being partisan and bad for the country. Getting the bill passed and having some bipartisan points of reference gives the Democrats some defense against such Republican tactics.
To be fair, UI is paid 3X what the rest of us get paid. Those of you with math skills will readily be able to guess the pay rate.
Someone please explain the joke to Donviti.
as serious as you all take yourselves I was under the impression you guys got paid.
Not all amateur bloggers are amateurish.
Why set an artificial deadline? All we get are deals, usually bad ones, to make sure a nonsensical deadline is met.
The longer this gets dragged out, the worse the bill gets. Sooner is better than later. We’ve been talking about this for a year now. Both the House and Senate have passed bills. It’s time to pass it and move on.
Washington Post reports: The Bill will be done and on the Prez desk by March 19, the day before he leaves for Indonesia. Are you libs still going to support this bill if it comes out cutting womens right to choose? Stupak and the pro lifers are not going to back down, so I am betting the dems will vote for the bill with the pro life provision in it. If they do that it will turn women away from the polls and running their campaigns.
Stupak and his crew will take a deal for a separate vote, or some other kind of deal. When the President gets behind it, it gets done. Obama is too invested in HCR to back down now.
Which is why we always could have had a public option if Obama wanted it.