- President Obama outlined his revised healthcare reform plan in remarks at the White House Wednesday. He urged Congress to pass a final comprehensive bill within the next few weeks.
- Obama spelled out changes to the Senate bill that he wants to see in the final reform package. Congress would include these changes in a second “reconciliation” bill that would require a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate.
- He included four Republican ideas in his proposed changes to the Senate bill. One idea impacts our portion of the industry – encouraging participation in Health Savings Accounts by offering them in the insurance exchanges.
- Congressional leaders anticipate delivering a final bill to Obama by the Easter recess. Meeting this deadline would require three steps:
- Step 1 - House approves the Senate bill that passed on Christmas Eve. This requires 218 votes from the House in favor of the bill. Currently, it is unclear if there are enough votes to pass this.
- Step 2 - House and Senate pass a subsequent “reconciliation” bill with fixes to the Senate bill (only provisions that impact the budget can be included). This would require only 51 votes in the Senate, so it could not be blocked by Republicans.
- Step 3 - House and Senate potentially pass a third bill to address changes to the Senate bill that are ineligible for inclusion in the reconciliation bill. This portion will be hard to pass, as it will require more votes to pass.
- Note: Reconciliation is an extremely complex procedure. It will raise numerous legal and constitutional issues. Republicans have vowed to fight the maneuver. Some Democrats have expressed concern with using the tactic. This, coupled with the fact that Congress has missed every health reform deadline to date, means the fight to pass a final bill could drag on past Easter recess.
- Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030302213.html?hpid=topnews
Senate Passes Bill Extending COBRA Benefits
- Late Tuesday night President Obama signed into law legislation that provides a 31-day extension of federal subsidies for COBRA healthcare premiums.
- Under the law, the 65-percent, 15-month COBRA premium subsidy will be extended to individuals who were involuntarily terminated between March 1 and March 31.
- Without the extension, workers who were laid off after Feb. 28 would have been ineligible for the subsidy.
- Additionally, the legislation will allow employees who meet certain conditions to receive the subsidy if they first lost group coverage due to a reduction in hours and then were terminated after enactment of the legislation.
- This week the Senate will continue consideration of separate legislation that would extend the COBRA premium subsidy to employees laid off through Dec. 31, 2010.
- Read more: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100303/NEWS/303039990#
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