Health Insurance Reform Easytoinsureme February 5 2010

incorporate changes agreed upon last month by White House negotiators and members of the House and Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) did not commit to a timeline for reform, but hopes that Democrats can agree to a path forward by next week. So far, he has been unable to identify compromise language that will win the needed 51 Senate votes.

At the same time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) indicated that the House would vote on a small piece of the overall health care reform package next week. The proposed bill would overturn the insurance industry’s exemption from federal antitrust laws. The Senate version of health care reform did not include this measure because Sen. Reid could not secure the 60 votes needed to include it; however, Sen. Reid indicated the Senate would reconsider the measure.

Additional Activities

President Obama’s Budget Assumes Health Care Reform: On Monday, White House officials released a proposed .8 trillion 2011 budget including several measures aimed at improving health care:

·        Hiring more fraud detectives to root out waste in Medicare and Medicaid

·        Providing .5 billion to help state Medicaid programs swelling with enrollment due to unemployment

·        Eliminating Congressional earmarks for building hospitals and other facilities, including million for Alaska and million for Mississippi