Senate to Begin Debating Healthcare Reform on Monday, November 30th

After months and months of waiting, the Senate finally has a healthcare reform proposal, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that will begin being debated on Monday, November 30th. The Senate voted this past Saturday to invoke cloture and had the magic number of 60 votes, which means there is no opportunity for those opposed to the legislation to filibuster. It also means there will eventually be a floor vote in the Senate. When that will occur and how the bill will look by the time a floor vote comes; remains to be seen.

There are many rural provisions and amendments that our national partner organization, the National Rural Health Association, hope are added to the Senate bill. For a specific list of these rural provisions, please click HERE.


Now is the time to contact Senator Udall and Senator Bennet and urge their support for these rural amendments.

I'd like to contact Senator Udall.
I'd like to contact Senator Bennet.

House Passes Medicare Fix for Physicians

The House of Representatives passed HR 3961 yesterday (11.19.09). This bill eliminates the 21% cuts to Medicare Payments that would have started in January and provides a long term fix for the Sustainable Growth Rate formula. The bill passed by a vote of 243 to 183. Colorado's Democratic Representatives voted in favor of this legislation, while the two Republican Representatives (Lamborn & Coffman) voted no.

Even though this legislation has passed in the House, its outlook in the Senate remains in doubt. Though the Senate's most recent health reform bill holds off the 21% cut from this year, it offers no long-term solution to this problem; but rather simply prevents cuts from taking place this January.

Stay tuned......

Senate Bill is finally (maybe) Moving Forward

Finally, the wait is over. The long-anticipated Senate health reform bill (a bill blended from the two bills reported from the Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committees) has been filed. The bill number is HR 3589. It is over 2,000 pages, so not a quick & easy read! It is believed that most of the rural provisions that were gained during the Senate Finance Committee debate are still included. Preliminary discussions of the bill have begun on the Senate Floor - - but there will be a few procedural hurdles that must be overcome before we get to the actual debate where amendments will be offered.

The bill has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) at $849 billion over ten years, ie, within the target that the Democrats were shooting for. CBO indicates that the bill will actually reduce the deficit by $127 billion over ten years and $650 billion over the following ten years. The bill is also projected to insure 94% of the population.

As of right now, it looks like the Senate will work on procedural maneuvers through the weekend. Majority Leader Reid will file a procedural motion know as “cloture” today. The purpose of the vote is to end current debate and allow a motion to proceed to the health reform bill -- the first of these two procedural votes will be Saturday and the second will be Sunday. However, this is very fluid and may change. One current roadblock that may delay this strategy is that Senator Baucus (D-MT) is in Montana due to a family matter - - if he is unable to return for the weekend votes, it will be delayed.

If 60 votes can be gained in the motion to proceed, the Senate rules then require the Clerk to read the bill. It is standard operating procedure that this perfunctory move is waived - - however, because we anticipate a Republican filibuster, the motion to waive the reading of the bill is expected to fail. This will require the Clerk to read out loud the full 2000+ page bill - - which could easily take until next Wednesday. The Senate will then be in recess on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. This means that actual debate will not begin until the following Monday (November 30).

Thanks to our friends at the NRHA for providing this information. Stay tuned for more up to the minute information as it becomes available to us!

Center for Rural Affairs - Health Reform Reports

The Center for Rural Affairs recently highlighted some reports that specifically address how health reform will impact rural America. Please click HERE to access the reports in full.

H.R. 3962 - How Will the House Reform Bill Impact My Community?

The Committee on Energy and Commerce prepared, for each House member, a district-level analysis of the impact of House Bill 3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act. This analysis includes information on the impact of the legislation on small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured. It also includes an estimate of the impacts of the surtax that will help to pay for the legislation.

You may access this information by clicking HERE.

House Passes Health Care Reform Bill

On Saturday, the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) with a vote of 220-215. Even with the passage of the House bill, overall healthcare reform has some hurdles to clear. The Senate bill is still awaiting a score (cost) from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Once the CBO provides its analysis, the Senate will have a floor vote, which will most likely be contentious. If and when the Senate passes its reform bill, the House and Senate reform proposals will have to be merged before anything is sent to the President to sign.

To learn about the key points of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, please visit The Kaiser Family Foundation.

Stay tuned......

Health Reform Update 11.4.09

National health reform is still moving along, though where it is going to end up still reamins to be seen. Here is a quick update on both the House and Senate side as to where the two proposals stand......

House: The House has merged the three committee proposals that were passed this summer and the total price tag of the compiled House bill is close to $1 trillion dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office. There are still some sticky issues in the House proposal that are being worked out and a floor vote is expected this Saturday, November 7th. Some key rural health provisions are not included in the House bill and it is unlikey that there will be many (if any) floor amendments offered. This means the Senate is the key focus of adding any rural health provisions. Some of these provisions include: improving reimbursement for Rural Health Clinics, allowing Critical Access Hospitals more flexibility with their bed count (currently capped at 25 occupied beds per day), and allowing CRNAs to be reimbursed at cost through Medicare.

For a complete list of the rural health amendments that are hoping to be addressed on the floor of the Senate, please visit the National Rural Health Association Health Reform page.

Senate: The Senate has compiled both proposals that were passed this summer/fall and have sent their bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO will analyze the bill and provide a price tag to the proposed reforms. It is still unknown when the Senate will have a floor vote on their reform bill and there is talk it may be pushed into 2010.

Keep checking back regularly for updates!

Expanding Health Insurance Coverage for Rural Residents through Health Reform

The Rural Policy Research Institute recently released a report entitled "Assuring Health Coverage for Rural People," which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Health Reform brief suggests that the challenges that rural people face in obtaining health insurance are partly due to the structure of the rural economy: 64 percent of adults working in rural are employed in jobs where health insurance is provided, compared to 71 percent of their urban counterparts. At the same time, rural workers are far more likely to be self-employed. Rural businesses also pay higher premium costs than urban businesses for similar health insurance plans.

Please click HERE to access the report.