Sen. Kennedy Taps Senators To Lead Various Working Groups Aimed at Improving U.S. Health Care
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Tuesday named committee members to lead three working groups that will target specific aspects of the health care system in writing overhaul legislation, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as head of the group on insurance coverage, the Washington Post's "The Trail" reports (Connolly, "The Trail," Washington Post, 11/19). Kennedy also named Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chair and HELP Committee member Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to lead the task force on prevention and public health, and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) to lead the task force on quality of care (Levey, Los Angeles Times, 11/19).Kennedy said, "Our committee is fortunate to have the services of major leaders who are committed to improving health care for the American people," adding, "I look forward very much to working with them" (Marcus, Bloomberg, 11/18). The naming of subgroup leaders signals that Kennedy "will produce legislation that originates in Congress rather than try to ram through a bill from the White House," CongressDaily.
Harkin on Tuesday released his ideas for improving preventive health, including providing incentives for schools and employers to offer wellness programs, encouraging childhood nutrition and physical activity, and granting FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. He said, "I have long believed that prevention and wellness are the keys to solving our health care crisis," adding, "We must re-create America as a 'wellness society' focused on fitness, good nutrition and disease prevention -- ultimately keeping people out of the hospital in the first place." Clinton's and Mikulski's offices did not comment on the announcement reports (Edney [1], CongressDaily, 11/19).
Kennedy is scheduled to meet with Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and other Senate leaders on Wednesday to discuss how they will move forward with a health care overhaul. Baucus last week released details of his own universal health care proposal. When asked whether he or Kennedy would be in charge of moving an overhaul bill through the Senate, Baucus said, "I don't care, as long as we get it done." He added, "That's why we're meeting [on Wednesday], to show that we're working together" and to "parcel out which committee is working on what" (Armstrong, CQ Today, 11/18). The meeting will also include HELP Committee ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Finance Health Subcommittee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Finance Health Subcommittee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) (CongressDaily, 11/18).
Baucus Proposal
In related news, a provision included in Baucus' plan that could change the tax treatment of employer-sponsored health plans "has raised a few eyebrows," CongressDaily reports. Currently, employees' health coverage is not subject to income or payroll taxes, which Baucus says leaves people purchasing coverage on the individual market at a disadvantage. Baucus wrote in his proposal, "Those covered through their employers are rewarded with the largest tax breaks, while those who must obtain coverage on the individual market receive a much smaller tax break or none at all."
Union, business and insurance groups have been "[c]areful not to criticize" Baucus' proposal, but are "treating the plan with some caution, nervous that changing the tax code could disrupt a system valued by employers and employees," CongressDaily reports. AFL-CIO legislative representative JoAnn Volk said, "Once you start to go in and play with the tax system, there might be some implications for employer-based coverage." Volk said potential consequences include employees opting to drop coverage or businesses reducing benefits. According to CongressDaily, "While Baucus' tax exclusion proposal might be raising more questions for some than answers, the chairman did note in his proposal his desire is to balance any tax reforms with Americans' preference for employer-based coverage" (Edney [2], CongressDaily, 11/19).
Health IT
At a policy and health care briefing on Tuesday, Bill Pewen, health policy adviser for Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), said that privacy language intended to speed passage of legislation promoting interoperable electronic health records has not gained the full support of lawmakers. He also said that he hoped 2009 would be the "big year we've been waiting for," when wide-ranging health care reform legislation is passed, but that appropriate privacy and security language must be in place. The latest version of the EHR bill passed the HELP Committee more than a year ago and is expected to be reintroduced in some form in the 111th Congress. He said that the data included in EHRs "is extremely valuable" and needs to be protected, adding that breach notification language put forward by Snowe also has failed to gain support (CongressDaily, 11/19).
Appropriations Bill
In other news, House Democrats in the next six weeks are working to complete an omnibus fiscal year 2009 spending bill that includes the nine remaining fiscal year 2009 appropriations bills, including funding for HHS and health care research, to allow the new Congress and the Obama administration to "quickly turn to a broader agenda," CQ Today reports (Clarke, CQ Today, 11/18). Congress in September voted to fund federal government programs through a continuing resolution after President Bush threatened to veto spending measures exceeding levels recommended in his FY 2009 budget. The CR expires March 6 (Sanchez/Bourge, CongressDaily, 11/18).
Lawmakers in both chambers on Tuesday said that plans for an omnibus have not been finalized and that President-elect Obama has not agreed to a timetable. Harkin said, "We hope to have all of our appropriations bills put together and be voted on early in January and sent to President Obama on his first day in office" (Clarke, CQ Today, 11/18).
Dingell, Waxman
Also, the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Wednesday will meet to recommend a candidate to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over health care. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "insiders" say the race is close between incumbent Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and challenger House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) (Coile, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/19). The 50-member steering committee will vote by secret ballot on whom to recommend. If the loser receives 14 or more votes, he can be nominated for the position in the House Democratic Caucus meeting on Thursday, where a final vote will be taken. If the loser receives less than 14 of the 50 steering committee votes, he will need to collect 50 names on a petition contesting the panel's decision in order to be placed on the ballot Thursday (Friedman, CongressDaily, 11/19).
Letter to the Editor
Baucus' universal health care plan "is a partial step in the right direction, most notably with his common-sense suggestion to expand Medicaid and Medicare," Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, writes in a New York Times letter to the editor. She continues, "Medicare has just a fraction of the bloated administrative costs of private insurance, which slices 30% off the top for profits and paperwork, much of it spent on denying needed care."
However, she writes that "the Baucus plan has several poison pills: it would force everyone not presently covered to buy private insurance, and revives the discredited McCain plan of taxing health benefits for many employees, which would push some workers ... into the shark-infested private market." DeMoro adds, "Both steps would buttress and further enrich the health insurance industry, which hardly needs the help, and fail to solve the health care crisis." She concludes that a "better, more cost-effective approach would be to simply expand Medicare to cover everyone, the only real way to assure guaranteed health care for all" (DeMoro, New York Times, 11/19).
