Posts Tagged ‘Nancy Pelosi’
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
Republicans are threatening to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as part of their “A Pledge to America” proposal. On the six-month anniversary of healthcare reform’s enactment, House Republicans issued their “Pledge” , which proposes overturning the law and replacing it with “real reforms” focusing on medical liability reforms to control “junk lawsuits” and defensive medicine. Other elements of the “Pledge” would expand health saving accounts; ban taxpayer funding of abortion; allow people to buy insurance across state lines; assure access for patients with pre-existing conditions by expanding state high-risk pools and reinsurance programs; as well as cutting the cost of coverage.
According to Stephanie Cutter, assistant to the president for special projects, “The (Republicans’) agenda claims to protect people with pre-existing conditions, but it repeals the new law’s ban on discriminating against uninsured Americans, including children who have a pre-existing condition. It will mean that seniors will pay more for their prescription drugs, and their new free preventive Medicare benefits will be cut.”
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, noted that the GOP proposal “will raise taxes by more than $40 billion on up to four million small businesses that provide health benefits to their employees…and will result in premium increases by eliminating the billions of dollars in cost-saving measures.”
Democratic lawmakers assailed the “Pledge” as recycled ideas that will only intensify the nation’s problems. “Republicans want to return to the same failed economic policies that hurt millions of Americans and threatened our economy,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Even if Republicans vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama still has the power to veto their legislation. It’s likely that he would use his veto power to protect one of his major legislative achievements.
Tags: Democrats, GOP, health insurance, healthcare reform, Nancy Pelosi, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama, repeal, Republicans, Speaker of the House, White House
Posted in Healthcare, Healthcare Village | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Although healthcare reform legislation is now the law of the land, Representative John Boehner (R-OH), the House Minority Leader, is still not shy about communicating his distaste for the bill. Recently, Boehner sent a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, citing increased cost estimates, job-loss information and what he perceives as a lack of follow-through on an executive order regarding abortion coverage that the GOP finds troubling.
Boehner’s letter is a response to a recent statement by Secretary Sebelius, which stressed the law’s initial deliverables, including health insurance reform and tax credits available to small businesses. “Now I’ve seen my fair share of propaganda, but this letter must have been written in an alternate universe,” Boehner said. Republicans have uniformly opposed the healthcare bill throughout the process; the majority claim that it will increase costs. Additionally, the GOP hopes that the healthcare law will guarantee them a majority victory over Democrats in November’s mid-term elections. The GOP is expected to win more mid-term elections in the House versus the Senate.
Sebelius said that “Now, I want to be clear: the Affordable Care Act is not a magic pill that will cure all the problems in our health care system. It will take time for all the benefits to kick in. And if you look at the history of major social legislation, you see that there are always revisions and adjustments along the way.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sides with Sebelius, saying “We’re very pleased with the unfolding of the healthcare bill, In a bigger sense, it is about a healthier America.”
Tags: Democrats, Department of Health and Human Services, executive orders, GOP, healthcare reform, House Minority Leader, John Boehner, Kathleen Sebelius, mid-term elections, Nancy Pelosi, Ohio, propaganda, Republicans, tax credits
Posted in Economics, Healthcare | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 19th, 2010
The death of Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) last August – who had made healthcare reform the focus of his legislative agenda — provided much of the impetus that gave President Barack Obama the determination to pass legislation despite resistance from both the right and left. The lack of Kennedy’s legendary legislative skills at a crucial time made the quest for healthcare reform a fight every step of the way.
“I had a whole bunch of political advisers telling me, this may not be the smartest thing to do,” President Obama told a crowd in Elyria, OH, in January. “I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard. Seven presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it – and all of them failed. I didn’t take this on to score political points.”
The White House team pored over the failed healthcare reform effort of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, in 1993 and 1994. One lesson from the Clinton healthcare failure was to work to win support from healthcare companies, many of whom had put an end to the earlier attempt. As a result, President Obama brought pharmaceutical companies and hospitals into the discussion to assure a limited impact on their profits in return for financial contributions to the overhaul and a promise of support. The administration also preferred that Congress write the legislation, rather than having it dictated from the White House.
Without doubt, the president’s most effective ally was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who rode herd on her caucus and delivered a majority vote on the legislation three times. According to Pelosi, “When I spoke with him (President Obama) after the vote, he said that he was happier after the vote than he was the night he won the presidency. “And I said, well, I’m pretty happy, but I’m not happier than the night he won the presidency because if you hadn’t won the presidency, we wouldn’t be here.”
Tags: Bill Clinton, Congress, Democrats, healthcare reform, Hillary Clinton, Medicare, Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama, Republicans, Tea Party movement, Ted Kennedy, Waterloo
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Monday, April 12th, 2010
Are Republicans advocating for repeal of the recently passed healthcare reform bill suffering from a bad case of sour grapes? Many Americans who are unhappy with the legislation are already saying they will vote Republican in the November mid-term elections in a demonstration of their displeasure with healthcare reform. Not 24 hours after the bill passed with a Democrats-only majority, repeal emails were flying through cyberspace from Republican Congressional hopefuls.
Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) posted a call for repeal on his website, saying he would introduce legislation to repeal “President Obama’s government takeover of healthcare. Unless this trillion-dollar assault on our freedoms is repealed, it will force Americans to purchase Washington-approved health plans or face stiff penalties. It will fund abortions, raise taxes and insurance premiums, while reducing healthcare choices and quality.”
Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) posted on the conservative Townhall.com website that she had “filed legislation to repeal Obamacare in hopes that we can start from scratch and give the American people true healthcare reform that won’t break the bank nor rob us of our individual liberty and freedom. There’s too much at stake to simply give up now.” Bachmann offered no specific proposals on how she would work to achieve healthcare reform.
With Democrats controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate, repeal is unlikely.
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Harry Reid, healthcare reform, John McCain, Michele Bachmann, Nancy Pelosi, Obamacare, Republicans, sour grapes
Posted in Healthcare | No Comments »
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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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is warning that the healthcare reform bill may not pass until after the New Year. According to Reid, debate in the Senate may not begin until December, pushing back the timeline on legislation that tops President Barack Obama’s domestic agenda.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that the House of Representatives is on a faster track and that a vote could come soon on a bill to extend coverage to people who lack healthcare insurance, ban industry practices such as denying coverage of pre-existing conditions and put the brakes on medical spending. The $1.2 trillion, 10-year bill would expand coverage to an estimated 96 percent of all Americans. Additionally, the House bill includes a public option intended to put pressure on private insurers to make coverage more affordable for all.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) currently is working on a cost estimate for the draft bill that Reid submitted recently. White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer reacted to the news by saying “The House plans to vote on the health reform bill within days. Senator Reid has committed to the president that as soon as the Senate has the information back from the CBO they will move expeditiously to pass health reform.”
A delay past the year-end timetable would push off healthcare reform to a mid-term election year and raise questions about the Democrats’ ability to deliver legislation that the Obama administration has made a priority.
Tags: Congressional Budget Office, House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Obama administration, Senate, Senator Harry Reid
Posted in Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Congressional Democrats are mulling a tax on high-cost insurance plans to pay for overhauling the nation’s healthcare delivery system. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says that such a tax is “under consideration” as Democrats seek consensus before bringing a bill to the House floor this fall.
“We just have to see how much money we need for what,” according to Pelosi. “And if we’re taking the bill down in cost, there are other provisions in the Senate bill that bend the (costs) curve that might be more palatable.” A House tax option likely would be a scaled-down version of the one Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has proposed.
The Democratic House plan wants to increase taxes on upper-income people to pay for covering the uninsured. Baucus wants to tax high-cost “Cadillac” insurance plans often valued at more than $8,000 for an individual and $21,000 for a family and which may have no deductibles or co-payments. Those in favor of the tax, which President Obama supports, believe it will reduce healthcare costs by persuading people to become more cost-conscious consumers.
The insurance tax should reduce the cost of the House’s healthcare reform bill. How to pay for the plan is just one issue that House leaders are trying to settle as they work to merge three committee-approved bills into one piece of legislation. The major issue is that the House Democrats’ 10-year bill costs $1 trillion-plus, higher than the $900 billion that President Obama prefers. Although House Democrats realize that cuts are required, they want to protect the subsidies that will help low-income Americans purchase coverage. Unfortunately, the subsidies are the most expensive part of the legislation.
Tags: Democrats, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, insurance coverage, labor union, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, public option, Senate committee
Posted in Healthcare, Hospital Systems | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) long-awaited centrist healthcare reform bill was met with strong objections by both liberal Democrats (who decried the lack of a public option) and Republicans (who oppose any expanded government role in healthcare).
Still, the Baucus proposal could serve as a blueprint for the ultimate compromise healthcare legislation that President Obama calls the “defining struggle of this generation” when it finally emerges from Congress. Baucus’ proposal would expand consumer protections and require that all Americans have medical insurance with the government providing financial help to pay premiums for low- and middle-income people. Insurers would no longer be able to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or cancel policies after people get sick. The Baucus bill would create private healthcare insurance cooperatives, which centrist Democrats prefer in place of the public option supported by liberals.
Despite tailoring his proposal to cost less and limit government involvement in healthcare,Baucus’ proposal is unlikely to win much support from Republican Senators. According to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), “Americans don’t think a bigger role for government in healthcare would improve the system. Yet despite this, every proposal we’ve seen would lead to a vast expansion of the government’s role in the healthcare system.”
The Baucus bill is unpopular with liberal Democrats who insist that a public option be included in any healthcare reform legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House bill, drafted by Democrats, was superior and “clearly does more to make coverage affordable for more Americans.” The Congressional Budget Office said the expansion of coverage would cost $774 billion over 10 years, compared with price tags of more than $1 trillion for the other measures.
Tags: affordable healthcare, Democrats, health insurance, healthcare reform, Max Baucus, Nancy Pelosi, President Obam, private healthcare, public option, Republicans
Posted in Economics, Healthcare | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
President Barack Obama’s prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress made a strong case for including a public option, along with a combination of choices designed to keep the insurance industry in check. Recalling Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to reform healthcare during the 1912 election, Obama said “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last. Well, the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed,” Obama said. “Now is the season for action.”
That action includes a provision that protects uninsurable individuals from catastrophic healthcare expenses. Another proposal is a series of pilot programs that will study how to reform the medical tort process.
Following is a brief summary of the Obama healthcare plan, which has a projected price tag of just under $1 trillion over 10 years (as a point of comparison, the U.S. spends half this in a single year on military spending):
- Healthcare reform will provide more security and stability to Americans who currently have insurance, and it will provide coverage to those who don’t. It will slow the growth of healthcare costs.
- Americans who already have health insurance through their employers, Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA, will see their coverage improve. The plan will make it illegal to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Insurers will no longer be able to place a cap on the amount of coverage a patient receives. Additionally, insurance companies will be required to cover routine checkups and preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies.
- Coverage will be portable (if a person changes jobs or starts a small business) through the creation of an insurance exchange – a marketplace that will provide access to health insurance at competitive prices. The benefit to insurance companies is that the exchange lets them compete for millions of new customers.
- For Americans who currently lack health insurance, Obama proposed a public option where government-subsidies would be available to make premiums affordable. Individuals would be required to obtain coverage, and their employers would have to contribute. Most Senate Republicans and some Blue Dog Democrats oppose this proposal, while Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said that the House’s version of the healthcare bill will include a public option.
Obama’s flexibility may not please the more liberal members of Congress, but reflects the political reality that exists on Capitol Hill.
Tags: Blue Dog Democrats, colonoscopy, Edward Kennedy, health insurance, healthcare bill, healthcare costs, healthcare expenses, healthcare reform, mammogram, Medicaid, medical, Medicare, Nancy Pelosi, patient, pilot program, President Barack Obama, President Theodore Roosevelt, public option, Republican, security, uninsurable
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