FixHealthCarePolicy

The Health Care Fight is Not Over

Although the left has been celebrating the passage of Obamacare in the Senate as further evidence that the President’s health care reform initiative is a done deal the health care reform fight is not over. The truth is that this bill can not yet be transmitted to the President until very different versions of Obamacare are reconciled. The House and Senate must agree on what to send to the President for his signature before this fight is over.

There are key differences between the House and Senate approaches to Obamacare as explained by Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. in a paper published by the Heritage Foundation lists 6 key differences between the two bills. Procedurally, the House passed a version of Obamacare with a public option, an income surtax and with strong language forbidding the use of federal monies to fund abortion. The Senate chose not to take up the House bill and passed a version of Obamacare with no public option, taxes on expensive health care plans and with weak language forbidding the use of federal funds for abortion. Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have since blocked the appointment of conferees to reconcile the differing versions of Obamacare. The options liberals have to get the bill to the President’s desk are therefore limited. (more…)

Tags: 6 key differences, House of Representatives, ObamaCare, Senate

Industry Groups Oppose House Health Reform Plan

More than 30 business trade groups, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the American Farm Bureau Federation, yesterday voiced their opposition to the House’s latest health reform bill, saying in a letter to representatives that the legislation “would not improve the [health care] system, but in fact would jeopardize the parts of the system that currently work.”

Among the more contentious provisions the coalition opposed:

– The creation of a government-run health insurance plan.

– Mandates on employers to provide health coverage for workers or pay an 8 percent payroll tax (”pay or play”).

– A new Health Benefits Advisory Council that would determine health benefit requirements in coverage plans.

“We call on Congress to enact reforms that lower cost, improve quality and provide greater access to affordable coverage for all without jeopardizing those who currently have coverage,” the group said.

Tags: chamber, farm bureau, House of Representatives, public plan