Back Recess Congressional leaders; Action on Health Care Expected

Democratic lawmakers back from suspension this week are expected to concentrate on the development of health care law review summer because they believe it is the main policy objective is most likely to succeed this year, Wall Street Journal reports.

Legislators believe they are more likely to get bipartisan support on health reform on climate change - the other major objective put forward by President Obama - and that health reform is a most tangible achievement to present to voters financially stressed "until mid-term elections of 2010, the Journal reports (Hitt, Wall Street Journal, 4 / 20).

Capitol Hill efforts

This week the Senate Finance Committee will begin a series of three round tables that will serve for a hearing to review legislation being prepared by the Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

The first meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, will focus on the delivery of health care and how payment systems might stress the coordination of care, greater use of preventive care and other initiatives.

May Two sessions will focus on improving access to health coverage and how to finance a bill of review.

Baucus and a member of the grading committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will also "walk-through" in which committee members will review the proposals under consideration for the final invoice. Baucus hopes to mark the legislation in June.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions also hopes to mark his bill in June, before combining the measure with the Finance Committee bill in the Senate (Armstrong / Wayne, CQ Today , 4 / 17).

Senator Jeff Bingaman (DN.M.), who heads a working group of the HELP Committee on the expansion of the coverage, said: "As this work period ends, we will have a very good idea of what this bill will look like and where the bill is ", and" we will move very quickly on this bill after the suspension of Memorial Day "(Drucker, Roll Call, 4 / 20).

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said: "It is very attractive in the truce philosophical grasp of the Senate. Démocrates right on the idea that we have to cover everybody. Republicans have been right on the role of private sector, no frost and innovation staying away price. "He added:" You meld these philosophical views and you are on the way from 68 to 70 votes. "

Grassley said: "It is the most difficult problem we have ever taken on - each party has had the chance to skip" (Werner / Alonso-Zaldivar, AP / Albany Times Union, 4 / 20).

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) will meet this week in the House and Labor, Education Committee Chair George Miller (D-Calif.), House Energy and Commerce, Chairman of Committee Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (DN.Y.) to discuss the details of the bill for revision of health care presidents said they have the intention to write together.

Hoyer said the party leaders hope to develop a proposal with the participation of the Obama administration, the key decision makers, intraparty groups and external stakeholders. Miller said: "We try to act as a committee of one" (Ota, CQ HealthBeat, 4 / 17).

Potential barriers

Some lawmakers and senior staff are concerned that the House and Senate budget language of health care requires the revision of legislation to be budget neutral means that "Congress has no choice" but to change the federal tax free employer-provided health insurance, the New York Times.

However, the White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said, "By combining Medicare and Medicaid and the economies of these game-changing, with some improvements in the effectiveness of additional revenue, I think that the deficit neutral health care reform is quite feasible "(Hulse, New York Times, 4 / 20).

The Republicans have not opposed the introduction of a health insurance plan, which they say would be able to take advantage of its size and customers to leverage private insurers, leaving the residents of United with a limited coverage options.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said: "I think we believe that the long Democrats believe that all Americans should have access to high quality and affordable health insurance", but "we are not for a plan that puts the government in charge of health care, has decided that doctors should be paid or that the treatment should be prescribed "(Lengeler, Washington Times, 4 / 20).

Republicans also oppose the House plans to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the revision of legislation in the Senate.

Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Senate HELP Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), said: "Our first choice is to continue working with our colleagues in the Republic in this effort, and if not bipartisan negotiations not produce the desired results, then the reconciliation would be an important measure to have. "

Instructions for reconciliation are not included in the budget resolution the Senate, but the conference of House and Senate is expected to include in a final settlement (Drucker, Roll Call, 4 / 20).

Republicans

The House Republican Health Care Working Group is to provide a platform for health care in the coming months, but the message of health care has so far been "vague and inform," Politico reports.

According to Politico, many Republicans fear that "the party has waited so long to know where it happens, this will make it harder to block what the president Barack Obama is trying to do." Assistance of a senior Republican legislator said: "There is some catching up in terms of we talk about in public. There is a good basis of ideas, but we have not discussed the issue as much as Democrats. We play catch up. We are walking against the wind. They have a lot of momentum. "

Nick Simpson - a spokesman for Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who heads the working group health Republican - said: "This group wants to arrive at new solutions and not just part of the rhetoric - and that takes some time" (Budoff Brown, Politico , 4 / 20).

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said on Sunday that "the challenge is: Will the Republicans are at the table with ideas on topics such as health care. He said:" The objectives health care costs are under control ", adding:" Now, [Obama] is open to different routes to get there "(Allen, Politico, 4 / 19).

Advocacy

Families USA and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, this week, urging Congress to begin by lobbying and advertisements to spend three parties on the reform of health care. The proposal includes:

* Increased Medicaid eligibility to 133% of poverty and enable beneficiaries to use Medicaid funds for private purchase coverage if it saves the program money;
* Provide subsidies adjusted income for families who purchase coverage on the private market and the restructuring of the insurance market to prevent insurers from denying coverage to those who have pre-existing and
* Limit sundries to provide families with financial protection.

The proposal does not take a position on a public insurance option (frates, Politico, 4 / 20).

In addition, a working group of health care, trained by the pharmaceutical industry Labor-Management Association, is sending lawmakers a list of health care principles supported by its members.

The plan does not address the option, but to promote the creation of a safety net for workers who lose their insurance. It recommends requiring employers to cover workers or pay into a fund the government healthcare system.

The proposal also rejects the possibility of tax benefits and the employer says that people buy insurance in the market, should enjoy the same tax exemption.

The group includes PhRMA, the five branches of the state of the AFL-CIO and several other national unions (Edney, CongressDaily, 4 / 17).

Letter to the Editor

"I read with amusement of the Journal editorial," The End of private health insurance "(13 April), parrots talking points of the health insurance lobby," House Ways and Means Health Deputy Chairman Pete Stark (D-Calif.) wrote a Journal letter to the editor.

Stark concludes: "The insurance companies have been reaping billions of profits by depriving people of care and coverage. No wonder they do not want to compete with a system of health insurance that keep them honest and accountable to the people "(Stark, Wall Street Journal, 4 / 18). (source)