Health Care Reform Is Still On the Agenda

The election of now Senator Brown from Massachusetts is not the reason Congress has not passed Health Care Reform. His election did bring to a halt the passage of a bill at the end of last year, but remember that the Democrats held a super majority in both Houses from the day that President Obama made reform his first priority.  In the year that has passed everyone acknowledges the need to control costs and improve access; and everyone from the President down wants it done.......as long as they don't have to give up their piece of the pie.....and therein lies the core of the failure of Congress to pass legislation prior to Senator Brown's election.

So what happens going forward.  Much of the discussion now going on in Washington is more about posturing for the high ground in light of the upcoming November elections than it is about true reform.  Still, it is likely that there will be health care legislation passed this year although no one knows what it's final form will be.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "We need to get this done. Process, I don't care about. But we need to get this done, one way or another."  She has indicated that it is her intent to move forward with passage of the Senate Bill in the House and use budget reconciliation (Does not require a 60 vote majority in the Senate) to modify the bill so it will be acceptable to Democrats in both houses.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Friday that a dispute over differences over taxes, a national clearinghouse for buying insurance and special state exemptions for Medicaid has held up an agreement between House and Senate Democrats.  He was hopeful although he didn't sound overly optimistic in an interview with Maryland reporters in Annapolis.   "I think we certainly have a framework of a basis for an agreement between the two houses but we haven't gotten there yet".

If this can be accomplished is an open question.  Budget reconciliation is limited to those items of a bill that relate to balancing the budget and could not be used to address issues such as the differences in the Senate and House Bills related to abortion and other non budget items.