- After the summit, a few things are clear – Democrats aren’t going to start over, Republicans aren’t going to sign on to Obama’s plan, and the only legitimate hope Democrats have of passing a bill is using reconciliation.
- Here’s how this occurred:
- President Obama held a bipartisan summit on healthcare reform Thursday in what has been called a last-ditch effort to pass a bipartisan bill.
- Attending the conference were 38 members of Congress from both houses and political parties, President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
- There were four main topics for discussion at the conference: cost control, insurance reforms, deficit reduction and expanding coverage.
- Although there were modest efforts from the two parties to find common ground, no broad agreements were made on the shape of reform.
- President Obama set a deadline of four weeks – by Easter – for Democrats to finish their bill. During his closing statement, he talked of giving Republicans a few weeks to work with Democrats on a compromise.
- However, Obama made it clear that he’s prepared to short-circuit Senate rules to get reform passed if Republicans fail to compromise, alluding to the possibility of using the reconciliation process that would only require 51 votes in the Senate to pass a bill.
- Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33571.html
- Step One – Congress would first pass a reconciliation bill with major, but limited, fixes to the original Senate bill. This bill would address some of the points that House members say must be included in a final reform bill.
- Step Two – The House would then agree to pass the Senate bill, requiring a simple majority.
- Step Three – Since reconciliation bills can only include elements that directly impact the federal budget, both chambers would have to pass a third bill with policy changes that would not be included in Step One’s bill. For example, the third bill would be needed to make any changes to abortion and immigration provisions in the Senate bill.
- There is still no guarantee that Congress will take this path, but as of now it is the only strategy Democrats have offered for passing a comprehensive bill.
House Passes Bill Repealing Antitrust Exemption for Health Insurers
- The House of Representatives voted 406-19 Wednesday to pass H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act bill.
- If signed into law, the bill would repeal the antitrust exemption given to health insurance companies by the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. This law has allowed health insurance companies to be exempt from most federal regulation, including federal anti-trust laws to a limited extent.
- Medical malpractice insurers would maintain the antitrust exemption.
- It is uncertain when or if the Senate will take up the legislation.
- Advocates of repealing the exemption say it has allowed single health insurance companies to dominate local markets.
- AHIP believes removing the exemption would hamper data-sharing efforts that they say could help patients.
- However, the major health insurers can draw on huge pools of claims data of their own, and insurance company executives have said the antitrust repeal would have little impact on their operations.
- Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404324.html
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