This Week in Health Care Reform EasyToInsureME health insurance

January 22, 2010

This Week in Health

After months of public debate and private negotiations, stalled health care reform debate next Tuesday by the Senate to vote in the Senate lost Massachusettsu.Demokratska 60th supermajority vote when Republican Scott Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate special election in Massachusetts.

Health Care Reform Negotiations post-Massachusetts special election


Massachusetts election of senators Recasts Debate: After the election, Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate seat on Tuesday night, Democratic leaders are scrambling to revive what could now be dying bill. Democrats' 60th loss vote in the Senate legislation opens the Republican filibuster - something Democrats have so far managed to avoid the debate.

House and Senate Democrats met this week to discuss how to go ahead with the reform legislation in the light of these elections and vowed Wednesday to push ahead. There are a number of features that Democrats are considering, but at this point are not charted their course.

On Wednesday, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) House Democrats tried to bring together around a strategy to push the Bill through the Senate, House and President Barack Obama's desk in order to avoid the need to re-secure the 60 votes of the Senate. However, the president noted on Thursday that does not believe that it needs 218 House votes needed to move forward. This option would allow lawmakersto then propose additional modifications to the approved legislation through a process called "reconciliation", which requires only 51 votes in the Senate.

Other remaining options:

First
House and Senate Democrats also quickly end up merging the two accounts and vote on the combined package before Mr. Brown was sworn in.
Second
Democratic leaders could try to re-engage Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME), the only Republican who voted for the Senate Finance Committee passed a law in October. Democrats should allow her to change the law so that it can support its adoption and give the Democrats the required 60th vote, or,
Third House and Senate Democrats could essentially start over in their chambers and propose a scaled-back version of the law under the "reconciliation" procedures or regular orders. Reconciliation procedures will greatly limit the scope of the legislation on the issue only in terms of raising or spending federal funds, therefore, many provisions, such as creating a new insurance exchange and the individual mandate, may be excluded.