Looking for links to latest news and opinion? Check the widget at the bottom of this page. 3/25/2010 7:05 p.m. Mountain time. The House has passed the reconciliation bill for the final time. Now it goes to the President to be signed. 3/25/2010 3:00 p.m. Mountain time. It looks like the Senate just passed the reconciliation bill 56-43 (3 Democrats voted against); the House will take up the slightly-altered bill tonight for debate and voting. 3/25/2010 10:30 a.m. Mountain time. The House is expected to take up the reconciliation bill for their second go-round right away. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said "If they finish their work later today as planned, the House will take up the improvements bill with technical corrections this evening." If the House makes any changes at all, then it ping-pongs back to the Senate for their approval. 3/25/2010 8:00 a.m. Mountain time. The Senate just reconvened to consider amendments to the reconciliation bill; a vote on the bill is expected around noon today (Mountain time). You can watch their progress on CSPAN-2 (channel 19 on Bresnan in Jackson), or, on the internet, go to CSPAN's Healthcare Hub. Two provisions relating to student Pell grants have been deemed unqualified to be included in the bill; therefore, it must go back to the House after the Senate is done with it, for another House vote. The Senate held 29 votes on amendments to the bill yesterday. The amendments are widely viewed as delaying actions and political tactics by the Republican side. If you have CSPAN on, you'll soon learn all 100 senators by heart as roll call follows roll call. At yesterday's brownbag, a question arose concerning the action of many state attorneys general to file suit challenging the constitutionality of the reform bill. Most knowledgeable observers say there is no justifiable basis for the suit, that it's just political grandstanding (and the same thing happened with Medicare and civil rights in the last century); some suspect it's a way of raising more campaign cash. 3/24/2010 Our last scheduled Brownbag Discussion. We talked about the bill, what to expect from its passage, and what will happen going forward. President Obama has said he'll work toward a Public Option in the next year. The current reform bill is a start, but, like Social Security and Medicare, can be substantially improved upon in the coming years. Related documents: From the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, a report on The Benefits of Health Care Reform in Wyoming (dated March 2010.) How will the bill affect you? The L.A. Times has a chart showing, among other things, the amount of subsidy for various income levels, for those who must buy their own insurance (this part does not take effect till the exchanges are up and running in 2014.) Immediate effects of the health care reform bill (things that take effect during the first year): Here's a very informative Q&A from The Washington Post. Meanwhile, the Senate is debating the reconciliation bill (which fixes and adds to the big reform bill that just passed.) Republicans are expected to throw as many obstacles in the way as possible, and harvest sound bites for this fall's midterm elections. Let's strive to be informed voters who aren't so easily manipulated. What's in the reconciliation bill? Basically, there are some really egregious things in the Senate bill
that the House just can't stomach. So this a much smaller bill of fixes*, based on President Obama's
recent 11-page proposal. Please send comments and questions to wyomingforhealthcarereform at gmail dot com. ______________________ *Warning: link will open a PDF of the actual bill, 153 pages. Reassurance: with some patience, mere mortals like us can actually make sense out of much of it. If you're short of time, here's a summary of the nine major changes. ProPublica has taken the reconciliation-bill changes and merged them into the original Senate bill so you can see the final product. No wonder Americans are cynical about Washington. "Before the health care fight, before the economic stimulus package, before President Obama even took office, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had a strategy for his party: use his extensive knowledge of Senate procedure to slow things down, take advantage of the difficulties Democrats would have in governing and deny Democrats any Republican support on big legislation." Yet the Republican party has blamed Democrats for the severely partisan state of affairs in Washington. The New York Times Here's a good article on the case for reform as it applies specifically to Wyoming. It's from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on healthreform.gov. Here's a link to a report titled "Policy Options for Expanding Health Insurance Coverage in Wyoming". The report was prepared in 2007 by John Gruber of MIT for the Wyoming Health Care Commission (since dissolved, but web site will be up till September 2010.) |
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