Posts Tagged ‘Democrats’
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has warned insurance companies to stop hunting for loopholes as a way to get around complying with healthcare reform. Additionally, Sebelius intends to write regulations to assure that all insurers cover children with pre-existing conditions, even though some companies are adamant that this is not one of the new law’s requirements.
“The American people debated and discussed health insurance reform for more than a year. Congress and the President have acted. Now is not the time to search for non-existent loopholes that preserve a broken system,” Sebelius wrote in a letter to insurance industry lobbyist Karen Ignagni.
President Obama stressed the ban on denying children with pre-existing conditions as a focus of his argument during the reform fight. His position is that children should be protected almost immediately after the bill becomes law – in this case, next September. The insurance companies claim they don’t have to cover children with pre-existing conditions until 2014.
The insurers’ revolt over this presumed loophole could mean that progressive Democrats will reconsider adding a robust public option to the law. The insurance companies’ threat to turn down sick kids makes the case to include a public option significantly more credible.
Tags: Congress, Democrats, healthcare reform legislation, insurance companies, Karen Ignagni, Kathleen Seblius, President Barack Obama, Progressive Party, public option
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, presided over the often fractious but historic healthcare reform overhaul vote with the help of an oversized gavel borrowed from Representative John Dingell (D-MI), who chaired the passage of the Medicare bill 45 years ago. “A treasure in the Dingell family that was used in the enactment of the Medicare law,” Pelosi said. “I will use it this evening when we cast a very successful vote for this important legislation. This has been a complete team effort, not only a team effort, a partnership with our leadership and every member of our caucus and we look forward to making this historic day known to the American people.”
The late Sunday evening passage of the healthcare reform bill by a thin 219 – 212 margin was described by President Barack Obama as “This is what change looks like.” All 178 House Republicans and 34 Democrats voted against the legislation, which ultimately will cover 32,000,000 Americans who currently lack healthcare coverage. Also on Sunday, the House passed a package of “fixes” that will resolve some of the conflicts between the House and Senate versions of the healthcare bill. Senate Democrats plan to pass the fixes under budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority vote.
The president, who plans to sign the bill, said “Tonight, after nearly 100 years of talk and frustration, after decades of trying, and a year of sustained effort and debate, the United States Congress finally declared that America’s workers and America’s families and America’s small businesses deserve the security of knowing that here, in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the dreams they’ve worked a lifetime to achieve.”
“This is the Civil Rights Act of the 21st century,” said Representative James E. Clyburn (D-SC), the third highest ranking Democrat in the House.
Tags: Budget reconciliation, David Axelrod, Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, James E Clyburn, John Dingell, John McCain, Medicare, Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Republicans, Robert Gibbs, Senate, Speaker of the House
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Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Senate Democrats may tack an overhaul of the student loan program onto the healthcare reform bill, potentially handing President Barack Obama with a double victory on two of his top domestic priorities. According to Senator Dick Durbin, Majority Whip (D-IL), “There was a stronger feeling for including” the education proposal, although he admitted that a final decision has not yet been made. The proposal would shift subsidies that currently support private lenders to other student assistance programs, including Pell Grants for families who struggle to pay college tuition. “Some of the things accomplished here are really going to help a lot of people across American” Durbin said.
The leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate seemed to be on the verge of attaching the student loan bill to a package of fixes to the healthcare legislation. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA), who is a proponent of combining the two measures, said “Senators have a simple choice here. They can either choose to continue sending tens of billions of wasteful subsidies to lenders, or they can invest that money directly in students and families. It’s critical. People have made it very clear that they want to take this home.”
The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate healthcare bill will cost $875 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $118 billion. President Obama’s proposal, which contains negotiated provisions from the House bill, could add an additional $100 billion to the ultimate cost. The Senate’s parliamentarian has ruled that combining the bills will work, assuming legislators reach the right balance on the final price tag.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, Democrats, Dick Durbin, filibuster, Harry Reid, healthcare reform legislation, House of Representatives, Kent Conrad, Majority Whip, Medicaid, Medicare, Nancy Pelosi, Pell Grants, President Barack Obama, Senate, Senate Budget Committee, Speaker of the House, student loan program
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
Veterans of the Clinton administration’s efforts to reshape healthcare policy are lining up to support President Barack Obama’s plan to extend coverage to all Americans and make medical care more affordable. Although this group isn’t a believer in making concessions to the opponents of reform, they have an attentive audience because of their hands-on experience and belief that Democrats can’t afford another healthcare failure.
“If Bill Clinton couldn’t get it done, and Barack Obama can’t do it, no Democrat will ever try again,” said Len Nichols, an economist and health policy director at the New America Foundation. Nichols is currently an unofficial advisor to lawmakers and Obama administration officials hammering out details of the proposed healthcare reform legislation. Another veteran of the Clinton-era healthcare reform effort, Chris Jennings, says “History is written by the victors, not the vanquished. Failure would serve as the ultimate judgment as to whether this effort was worth doing. Jennings, congressional liaison for Hillary Clinton during the 1990s, now works as a lobbyist.
The current healthcare reform legislation is significantly scaled back from the ambitious Clinton plan, though it still faces Republican opposition. The Obama plan concentrates on people who have the most difficulty obtaining and retaining health insurance – small businesses and those who buy their own coverage. “We are using the private insurance market and private incentives, as opposed to command-and-control,” Nichols said. “As a policy matter, we are in the middle.”
Tags: Chris Jennings, Democrats, Department of Health and Human Services, healthcare insurance, healthcare reform, Hillary Clinton, Ken Thorpe, Len Nichols, New America Foundation, President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, State of the Union
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Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
President Barack Obama used his first State of the Union Address to tell members of the House and Senate to continue their efforts to enact healthcare reform. “As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we’ve proposed,” the president said. “Not now. Not when we are so close. By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. I will not walk away from these Americans and neither should the people in this chamber.” The president’s comments won applause and ovations from both sides of the aisle.
Richard Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association said “I think it’s the right approach.” Umbdenstock, who worked closely with the Obama administration to shape elements of healthcare reform legislation, said it was “important work” and “there is a real need to continue.” He also linked healthcare reform to the crucial issue of job creation, noting that “Hospitals are the second largest source of private sector jobs.”
Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) said “I think the House should just pass the Senate bill,” although he agreed that there likely will be efforts to amend the legislation through a procedure that allows passage on a simple majority vote. “But clearly the House can pass the Senate bill and the Senate’s bill is a good bill.”
“We all know we’ve been trying to get healthcare done since Teddy Roosevelt,” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) commented on Wednesday. “So a few more weeks isn’t a long period of time in the context of how tough a fight this is when you go up against the special interest. We’ll do it and we’ll do it the right way.”
Tags: American Hospital Association, Chris Van Hollen, Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, President Barack Obama, Republicans, Richard Umbdenstock, Senate, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Bill Nelson, Senator Max Baucus, State of the Union Address, Teddy Roosevelt
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Monday, February 1st, 2010
Some Democrats think legislating in baby steps to achieve healthcare reform is their best option now that the party has lost its 60-vote super majority with Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts to fill Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat.
According to Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr., (D-NJ), some House Democrats are proposing an incremental approach to fix the healthcare system via multiple pieces of legislation instead of a single all-encompassing bill. The goal would remain to reform insurance coverage, assure patients’ rights and improve the way that healthcare is delivered. Pascrell envisions introducing three or four bills in quick succession. The legislation would encompass the least controversial elements of the broader reform package now stalled in Congress.
Pascrell believes that his measures might garner some Republican support because they would eliminate the public option, individual insurance mandates and entitlement programs. Pascrell notes that “You can blame the Senate all you want, but we are our own worst enemy. We do everything in mega-fashion. We need to do it in mini-fashion.”
Tags: 60 vote super majority, Bill Pascrell Jr, Democrats, entitlement programs, filibuster, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, individual insurance mandates, public option, Republicans, Scott Brown, Ted Kennedy
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Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Declaring that “failure is not an option” on healthcare reform, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that the legislation will be passed with or without Republican support. “We’re not going to not pass a bill,” Schumer said, pointing to a healthcare system that is broken because some 47 million Americans lack any kind of insurance coverage.
Before this can happen, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has the task of resolving issues within his own party regarding abortion, taxes and allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers. Democratic leaders are working to persuade Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME) to cross party lines and vote in favor of the ultimate bill, even though she sided with her fellow Republicans on the recent procedural vote to move the debate to the full Senate floor.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives bills require all Americans to have healthcare insurance, and plan to make government subsidies available to help pay premiums. Insurance companies would be banned from denying coverage or charging extra for individuals with pre-existing conditions. New insurance marketplaces would be created for those Americans who have difficulty finding affordable coverage – such as the self-employed and those who own small businesses. Americans who currently have employer-provided coverage won’t see any big changes in their coverage. Senior citizens will see improvement in their prescription coverage.
As for paying for these bills? The House bill depends primarily on an income tax hike on upper-income individuals. The Senate bill would tax Cadillac insurance plans, increase the Medicare payroll tax for the wealthy and mandate fees on medical industries.
Tags: Blue Dog Democrats, Cadillac insurance plans, Democrats, Healthcare, House of Representatives, Medicaid, Medicare, President Barack Obama, public option, Republican, Senate, Senator Ben Nelson, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Olympia Snowe
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
In a rare Saturday evening roll call, the Senate recently voted 60 – 39 along straight party lines to open debate on wide-ranging healthcare reform legislation. The procedural vote – in which Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) won backing from his entire 60-member caucus – moves the healthcare reform debate from committee into the full Senate. Even with an important victory under his belt, Reid still faces a fight from conservative Blue Dog Democrats – not to mention Republicans.
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) told ABC’s “This Week” that he voted to cut off a Republican filibuster because it opens the way to revising the legislation as it currently is written. “If I thought the bill couldn’t be amended and couldn’t be improved, I wouldn’t vote to move it forward and move the debate,” Nelson said. “Debate can begin. We ought not to stop the opportunity to improve the bill.”
Conversely, Senator Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) told “Meet the Press” that Saturday’s vote was a victory for President Barack Obama and Senator Reid. “We have a lot of different opinions on our side of the caucus and we came together last night.” New York Democrat Charles Schumer agreed, saying the bill can win the necessary supermajority to fend off a filibuster because the Senate’s public opinion is adequately centrist. “There is no intent to compete unfairly with private insurance. This is a modest public option,” he said, noting that it has the same requirements as private insurance coverage.
Conservative Republicans, on the other hand, want to write entirely new legislation with significant GOP input. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said the current bill will be an expensive “disaster for our country” that would increase the deficit and force some Americans to lose healthcare coverage.
Whatever shape the ultimate Senate legislation takes, it will have to undergo reconciliation with the more liberal House of Representatives’ bill passed in early November. Although Saturday’s procedural motion required a 60-vote majority, passage of the final healthcare reform bill will require just 51 votes.
Tags: Democrats, filibuster, GOP, healthcare reform, House of Repres, President Barack Obama, Republicans, Senate, Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has reported that the Senate Finance Committee healthcare reform bill would cost $829 billion over 10 years and reduce the deficit by $81 billion. This report on the bill, which would cover 94 percent of Americans, could bolster President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform initiative. As authored by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and amended by committee members, the bill would fulfill Obama’s preference for healthcare reform legislation that does not increase the deficit.
The Finance Committee is expected to vote on the plan, which does not include the public option that Obama and liberals want, next Tuesday. Instead, the Baucus bill proposes a nonprofit cooperative as an alternative, an option that the CBO report noted was unlikely to attract significant enrollment or spend all the subsidies allocated to it. All three House of Representatives committee bills include a public option, as does legislation passed by the Senate Health Committee.
Once the Democratic-controlled Finance Committee bill is approved, it will be merged with the Health Committee legislation and sent to the full Senate for debate later this month. In the House of Representatives, Democrats are holding meetings to merge their three healthcare reform bills into a single one that could win the 218 votes necessary for passage.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the CBO news on costs is “irrelevant” because he believes that Democrats will pump up the Baucus bill to make it more expensive.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, deficit, Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Max Baucus, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate Finance Committee
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Healthcare reform is putting Democrats at loggerheads with each other, as the party’s liberal wing failed to include a public option in legislation now being negotiated in the Senate Finance Committee. The two failed votes (which saw some Democrats cross the aisle to vote with Republicans) were a victory for Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), whose committee is trying to finalize the proposed legislation. At the same time, Democrats in the House of Representatives were looking at ways to trim approximately $900 billion over 10 years from their legislation, President Obama’s suggested price tag.
Baucus and four other Democrats voted against Senator Jay Rockefeller’s (D-WV) amendment to include a public option in the proposed bill. “The public option would help to hold insurance companies’ feet to the fire, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that, but my first job is to get this bill across the finish line,” Baucus said. “No one shows me how to get 60 votes with a public option.”
The second failed amendment was a proposal from Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), designed to increase competition into the insurance market. This amendment would have let the government negotiate payments with physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers for two years rather than pay them at Medicare rates.
Advocates of the public option believe that private insurers are placing profits before coverage and vowed to insert this amendment into the legislation once the full Senate votes on healthcare reform. “With some work and some compromise, we can get the 60 votes on the floor of the Senate that will make our system better by providing for a strong, fair and viable public option,” Schumer said.
Tags: Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, Max Baucus, President Barack Obama, public option, Senate Finance Committee
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