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Government
& Public Affairs Update
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Government &
Public Affairs Team
Reginald M. Turner
John
Van Fossen, Practice Group Leader
Lucius A. Vassar
Chris Wagner
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Health Care
Back on Center Stage
Ahead of Thursday's Health Care
Summit at the White House which both Democrats and Republicans will
attend, President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
have made major announcements that will likely shape the path forward
for health care reform.
Last Friday, Reid expressed support for moving an eventual health
care reform bill via the budget reconciliation process in the Senate,
which allows for a simple majority vote to pass legislation that
Senate Democrats designated earlier this year as critical to
the federal budget. Normally, passing contentious bills in the
Senate requires 60 votes to end debate on those bills.
Earlier this year, Senate Democrats designated health care reform and
climate change as issues for which the Senate could invoke
reconciliation. Given the Democrats' current 59 vote majority,
invoking reconciliation which only requires 51 votes for passage
would prevent Republicans from further delaying the bill, but
would not ensure final passage as Democrats would need to keep more
than 8 Senators (including 2 Independents who currently caucus with
Democrats) from opposing the final bill.
Furthermore, it is unclear what a final bill would look like and
whether it could retain liberal Democratic support if it excludes a
public option. Today, President Obama released his proposal for
discussion at the upcoming Health Care Summit.
According to the White House, the proposal will:
- Provide additional Federal
financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid
- Completely close the
Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" coverage gap
for senior citizens
- Strengthen the Senate
bill's provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals
and families, while also strengthening the provisions to fight
fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid to save
taxpayer dollars
- Provide $11 billion for
Community Health Centers to provide care to underserved areas
- Raise the threshold for
the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000
for a family plan to $27,500 and will start in 2018 for all such
plans
- Protect consumers by
creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to review and
rein in unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices
of insurance plans.
Notably
absent from the proposal is a public option. However, the White
House is hoping that improvements on the Senate bill will result in a
bill that Democrats and a select few of Republicans chambers will be
able to support. When the House passed its health care reform
legislation in November, only one Republican voted for the
bill. Likewise, only Senator Olympia Snowe supported the Senate
bill during the Finance Committee markup.
With Democrats threatening reconciliation in advance of the Health
Care Summit, the tactic could facilitate the restart of negotiations
or put Democrats in a tough spot of moving forward alone and adding
more gasoline to the fire during a mid-term election year, which has
been historically unfavorable for the ruling party.
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If you have any questions concerning these issues,
please contact Chris Wagner at 202.772.0924 or cwagner@clarkhill.com.
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To find out
more about Clark Hill and our Government & Public Affairs
Practice Group, visit clarkhill.com
or call 800.949.3124
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