Mere days ago, healthcare reform was stalled in committee in both the House and Senate and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced that getting bills to the floors of their respective chambers by the August recess - in an effort to have a final bill ready for President Obama’s signature in October - was not going to happen.
There is no chance that it’s going to be done by August. President Obama was right about one thing. He said if it’s not done quickly, it won’t be done at all. Why did he say that? Because the longer it hangs out there, the more the American people are skeptical, anxious, and even in opposition to it. (Republican Senator Jon Kyl - As told to ABC News’ This Week.)
The AP is reporting the administration’s Democratic partners in Congress hinted they would not deliver legislation before leaving town for an August recess. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Obama should be pleased with lawmakers’ progress; Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said “there really is plenty of time.”
Those comments came out on Sunday. Now, we have not one but two bills on the table. The first, released by House Democrats yesterday is called America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Today, we get the Quality, Affordable Health Coverage for All Americans bill out of the Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions) Committee. The HELP Committee bill contains many of the elements included in the House bill: employer and individual mandates, a requirement that insurance companies waive any pre-existing condition clauses in their policies, and the highly contentions public option insurance plan. Where it differs from the House bill is on financing.
The House bill was a tri-committee effort out of Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce as well as Education and Labor. The end result is a bill that includes not only reform legislation but also the controversial tax language necessary to finance the bill. The Senate process will see senators try to merge a forthcoming bill from the Senate Finance Committee with the HELP Committee bill released today.
President Obama was quick to seize the moment and take advantage of the newfound momentum in the healthcare reform debate.
Like the legislation produced by the House of Representatives, this proposal would offer Americans quality, affordable health care that is there when they need it. No longer will insurance companies be able to deny coverage based on a pre-existing medical condition. No longer will Americans have to worry about their health insurance if they lose their job, change their job, or open a new business.
When this proposal is combined with other proposals that the Senate Finance Committee is working on, it’s estimated that health reform will cover 97% of all Americans.
The HELP committee’s success should give us hope, but it should not give us pause. It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess.
The progress over the last two days certainly puts Democrats back in the drivers seat after several failed attempts to release previous incarnations of reform bills over the past six weeks, but this debate appears to be far from over. If the Senate Finance Committee does not come forth with a bill that contains a similar tax mechanism to that in the House bill or an alternative revenue scheme that the House can support, it is going to be a long road ahead for Congressional Democrats.
That notion was clearly on the mind of Republican Mike Enzi - ranking member of the HELP Committee - in his rebuttal to passage of the HELP bill.
“If we can somehow stay on track in the Finance Committee, and not rush to meet an arbitrary deadline, I think there’s still a chance we can have a good, bipartisan bill. The American people won’t have confidence in a starkly partisan plan like the HELP Committee bill, and it will likely fail.”
Similarly, Senate Democrats still don’t have the votes necessary to pass a bill that includes a public option insurance plan. The HELP bill made it out of committee on a purely party line 13-10 vote which does not bode well if this bill were taken to the Senate floor. Exclusion of the public option is clearly a deal-breaker in the House and President Obama has yet to reveal whether he would sign a bill that did not include it.
All eyes now turn to Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee. The consensus opinion all along has been that the Finance Committee will be the key to getting healthcare reform passed this year.
Tags: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, Barack Obama, Debbie Stabenow, Education and Labor, employer mandate, Energy and Commerce, HELP Committee, House of Representatives, House Ways and Means Committee, individual mandate, Jon Kyl, Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, Mike Enzi, public-option, Quality Affordable Health Coverage for All Americans, Senate, Senate Finance Committee, taxes
