The Foundry
The Health Care Fight is Not Over
- Posted December 28th, 2009 at 1.40pm in Health Care.
Although the left has been celebrating the passage of Obamacare in the Senate as further evidence that the President's health care reform initiative is a done deal the health care reform fight is not over. The truth is that this bill can not yet be transmitted to the President until very different versions of Obamacare are reconciled. The House and Senate must agree on what to send to the President for his signature before this fight is over.
There are key differences between the House and Senate approaches to Obamacare as explained by Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. in a paper published by the Heritage Foundation lists 6 key differences between the two bills. Procedurally, the House passed a version of Obamacare with a public option, an income surtax and with strong language forbidding the use of federal monies to fund abortion. The Senate chose not to take up the House bill and passed a version of Obamacare with no public option, taxes on expensive health care plans and with weak language forbidding the use of federal funds for abortion. Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have since blocked the appointment of conferees to reconcile the differing versions of Obamacare. The options liberals have to get the bill to the President's desk are therefore limited.
The Senate refused to take up the House bill and many claimed that the House bill was dead on arrival in the Senate. Presumably the Senate bill can't pass the House, because of the more liberal abortion language, the radically different tax provisions and the lack of a public option. That leaves a so called "ping-pong" strategy where the House can either take up and pass the Senate version of Obamacare or they can take up the Senate bill, amend it, then send it back to the Senate. The Senate would then have the same option: take up and pass or amend and send back to the House. This ping-pong between chambers can happen a few times before the issue loses steam or the bill gets sent back and forth too many times to comply with the rules of the House and Senate... full article
Then there is the rule change in the HCR caught by Senator Jim DeMint, that by Senate Rule calls for a 67 vote total to pass the Resolution. That was not honored and is subject to U. S. District Court proceedings, thus moving the timeline down the road again.
Great article and excellent links. I agree with you that the best cure for more affordable health care is to have States' mandate consumer directed health plans. Indiana has proven that CDHP's work to reduce health care costs while providing good care. A book called "Bend the Health Care Trend" really made the benefits clear to me. I prefer the freedom to choose!
ReplyDeleteThanks Betty. The link to the book is great. I agree, we must have free choice. Otherwise we trade one buracracy for another without recourse to correct failure.
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