American Public Human Services Association

This Week in Washington

TWIW Sneak Peek

6/26/2009, Vol. XXX, No. 23

Senate HELP Committee Suspends Health Care Markup Until Next Month
On June 24, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee suspended markup of its health overhaul markup, a day and a half earlier than planned. Acting Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said the panel will reconvene the drafting session July 6, with the goal of completing it by July 10. The Congressional Budget Office scored the plan as reducing the uninsured population by just 16 million at a 10-year cost of $1 trillion, and the plan has been criticized by Republicans as incomplete and too costly. Dodd cited incomplete scoring of long-term care provisions as the reason for suspending the committee’s work; the session was originally set to run through June 26 before reconvening after the July Fourth recess.

Before adjourning, the committee approved two amendments by Ranking Member Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), one of which would ensure that the secretary of Health and Human Services conducts workplace wellness evaluations of publicly funded programs before evaluating privately funded programs. Dodd told committee members that he expected to get them the language shortly that deals with the unaddressed provisions, including creation of a public plan and “pay or play” mandates that would penalize employers who did not offer coverage. Earlier this week, committee hearings focused on preventative care and the health care workforce. Dodd hopes the panel will have numbers on how to cover the uninsured and pay for the proposals after the July recess. Republicans have offered some 200 amendments to the proposed legislation.

Meanwhile, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he has developed language that would reduce the price tag of his plan to about $1 trillion over 10 years and gain bipartisan support. Baucus and his committee had been working closely with the Congressional Budget Office to trim the cost of the proposal. Although the committee did not release details of the plan, it did release some information on what will be included. The bill proposes capping the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored benefits; giving more power to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission—an outside body that sets Medicare payment rates—while allowing Congress to overturn the recommendations; and replacing the controversial public plan option with a consumer-owned “co-op” plan. The plan does not include a mandate on businesses to provide health care insurance. Employers would not have to provide coverage under the proposal, but there would be pressures on them to do so. They would have to contribute to the cost of covering workers on Medicaid and those who got coverage in the subsidized insurance exchange. In return, workers would be allowed to leave their employer-provided insurance only if the coverage available through their jobs was unaffordable.

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