Like every piece of major legislation that moves through Congress, there are many fingerprints that have helped form it at every level. Health Care Reform is no different. Be it President Obama, members of Congress or special interests, here you’re going to find the ins and outs of who is involved and what organizations are contributing.
Consider that 535 members of the House and Senate, plus hundreds of lobbyists will have a say in what the final legislation will look like, I’m going to focus mainly on the President’s plan, who is involved in the House and Senate and the major groups or organizations pushing certain kinds of reform.
President Barack Obama
On May 11th, President Obama outlined his three principles for the real reform in health care. They included:
- Rising costs of health care must come down
- Americans must have the freedom to keep whatever doctor and health care program they had or to choose a new doctor and health care plan that they want.
- All Americans must have quality affordable health care
During his press conference, he committed to having a transparent process where all views were welcome as long as the above principles were upheld.
Since that time, he has said that if a reform package is not passed this year, it will likely never get done. That statement has accelerated the process with the target date of significant changes in our health care policy coming before the Senate adjourns for the August recess of this year.
His overall agenda can be found at http://www.healthreform.gov/
Democrat Senators Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana
Ted Kennedy, current Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is a seasoned veteran of the health care reform battle. A long time advocate for universal coverage, Kennedy’s voice has been more of a behind the scenes player early on during the Obama administration due to battle with brain cancer. But keeping in the with the President’s timeline, his committee issues a “12-page “policy overview” on a bill to guarantee universal access to health care” according to Politico.com.
His partner is Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Max Baucus who is presiding over a similar health care reform bill, though many feel that Kennedy’s bill is far to the left of the more moderate Baucus.
The Politico reports:
“…in an e-mail summary that began circulating this week, Kennedy was described as considering a public insurance option that would pay providers slightly more than Medicare rates - a structure that would draw fierce opposition from private insurers, Republicans and moderate Democrats.
He would also expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover individuals up to 26-years old - up from 18 - and provide insurance subsidies on a sliding scale to families with incomes 500 percent above the poverty line. Both proposals provide more generous coverage than what is under consideration in the Finance Committee.”
While Baucus has not currently responded to Kennedy’s ideas, he has said that he is looking forward to working with Senator Kennedy and the HELP Committee as their committees begin working on legislation in June.
Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Ranking Member on the HELP Committee
Judd Gregg recently came out with his own plan as an alternative to what is being proposed by Senator Kennedy. In it, he suggests that one of the weaknesses of our current health care system is that it is tied to having a job. If you don’t have a job, you more than likely don’t have health insurance. He wants to overhaul that by requiring insurance companies in every state to offer a low cost health insurance policy to every person regardless of how health you are or what job you have. To me, this sounds a lot like a “Safe-Auto” for health insurance, though he claims that his plan is not like the “phony insurance” we see on TV.
To make sure his plan would be affordable on all levels, there would be options for subsidies for low income individuals.
He would also like to reform the way we pay for insurance, comparing the way we pay for it to that of an assembly line. We put quantity over quality and we need to pay doctors and hospitals for the quality of their work.
In addition to a renewed focus on preventative care, Gregg believes his plan would save the Americans “hundreds of billions of dollars” and reduce the cost of health care over time.
House GOP/House Republican Conference
Why list them all as one? Because, House Republicans have come across as the faithful and loud opposition to the Obama administration, especially in regards to issues where it would give the government more involvement and say in our lives as well as choices. I’m sure pointing to the government take over of General Motors would be one of the major things they could point to right now. But health care isn’t far behind.
Before the Memorial Day recess, the House Republican Conference and the House GOP health care task force sent talking points home with GOP members who went back to their districts. They included reminding constituents that Republicans are for putting patients first and not a “government takeover of health care”.
How did Democrats respond?
Special Interests - Health Care for America Now/SEIU/AARP/Organizing for America
These groups and many others having used the recent congressional recess to conduct town halls, run television ads targeting moderate Republican senators, sending members to meetings hosted by lawmakers, or hosting meetings in targeted states.
President Obama even made a call directly to the group Organizing for America as it is an extension of his presidential campaign. These would the volunteers who worked feverishly to get Obama elected. They are also the ones who will work to get his agenda passed.
They are also combined efforts by progressive groups. According to Politco, in addition to the groups listed above, $82 million will be spent by The Children’s Defense Fund, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, USAction, Campaign for Community Change, Rock the Vote, Campaign for America’s Future, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in addition to the
As we can see there are many players involved in this battle. Will the sweeping changes that President Obama and Ted Kennedy are working towards be too much for moderate Democrats in the Senate to take? Will the advocacy groups and lobbyists be able to twist enough arms, make enough calls and rally enough troops to “send a message”?
Could the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor be seen as too much of a distraction to Republicans to slip health care reform through?
This is what I’ll be looking at. You want the inside skinny or political machinations of health care reform, you’ve come to the right place. All you want to know and more and all in one place!
