Health Summit Leaves No Clear Path for Enactment

Those anticipating theatrics during the February 25 Health Summit were somewhat disappointed. There were few sharp exchanges and a fair number compliments yet the health summit ended with no sign of any bipartisan breakthroughs.

President Obama and nearly 40 lawmakers met for over seven hours to discuss health reform, but neither Democrats nor Republicans left with changed ideas on how to reform the health care system. Following the summit, House Majority Leader Hoyer (D-MD) tipped his hand that the Democrats intend to move their proposals forward believing many of the Republican ideas are included in current proposals. Speaking of the health summit he offered “There were substantive differences to be sure, but there were also areas of agreement - many of which are already included in the House and Senate-passed bills and the President’s proposal.”

Under a procedural strategy known as “reconciliation (which is now being discussed by House and Senate leaders), the House would pass the Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) in its current form and send it to the President for his signature. However, House Democrats are skittish about going first and passing the Senate bill, fearing that the Senate will not take up a reconciliation package after the House approves the Senate bill. In order to alleviate these concerns, the Democratic leaders would agree to a set of corrections to the Senate's bill, which would then be sent to the House with a letter signed by at least 51 senators pledging to pass the agreed upon fixes through reconciliation.

Legislation can be passed under reconciliation with 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to bypass parliamentary roadblocks. However, the reconciliation process is complicated - provisions not directly related to the budget cannot be included in a reconciliation package, and Republicans could substantially slow the process by offering numerous amendments to the package.

In the meantime, with a 406-19 victory on the repeal of the antitrust immunity afforded the “business of health insurance” provided by the McCarran-Ferguson Act, House Democrats are looking for other single-issue health bills. Those include allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance until their mid-20s, guaranteeing people do not lose their health insurance if they lose their job, prohibiting insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Thus far the Senate has not shown interest in adopting the smaller bill strategy.

NAIFA Staff Contact: Diane Boyle, Vice President – Federal Government Relations, at (703) 770-8252.