Legislative
Updates
 President Obama announced Wednesday during an address to a group of health care professionals at the White House that four Republican provisions mentioned during last Thursday's health care summit would be incorporated into the administration's reform proposal. The provisions include offering high-deductible plans in the insurance exchanges to encourage the use of health savings accounts, increasing Medicare reimbursements to physicians, authorizing undercover investigations of health care providers who receive Medicare and Medicaid payments, and disbursing $50 million for grants to states taking innovative approaches to reduce medical malpractice abuse.
The president in his Wednesday address also strongly urged Congress to pass health care reform through reconciliation. The next day, the administration called for a completed bill to be passed by March 18. To do this, the House first must pass the bill the Senate previously passed on Dec. 24 (H.R. 3590). Both chambers then would have to pass a series of adjustments to the Senate bill under reconciliation rules reserved for budget-related legislation, which require 51 votes to pass a bill instead of a filibuster-proof 60. The final bill is expected to resemble the proposal released by the administration last week, including the four additional provisions announced by the president on Wednesday.
After a new reconciliation package agreed to by the House and Senate leadership and the White House is scored by the Congressional Budget Office, Senate Republicans have indicated they will use the "Byrd Rule" to analyze the proposal and identify provisions they can challenge during the reconciliation process. The Byrd Rule prohibits provisions with only a minor budgetary effect from being included in a reconciliation bill. The rule requires 60 votes to waive points of order, which any senator can raise in an attempt to strike provisions that are not primarily related to federal spending or revenue.
|
