Health Care Reform: What Happens From Here?
Before we took a break for Christmas, the Democrats in the Senate were able to come together in time to secure the 60 votes that they needed to pass the health care bill. The legitimate question now is — what happens now? The Los Angeles Times shared some answers to health care reform questions that may be in people’s minds at this point.
When the debates on health care reform began, it had already been mentioned in various news reports that it may take a bit of time before these debates are concluded. According to the LA Times article, that end may just possibly come in February, a few months after it began. There are indications that point to the fact that the House and the Senate will be able to arrive at a version of the bill with all their differences “ironed out” by end of January, which means that there will be a version that is ready for President Obama around the time of the State of the Union address in February.
A deal struck by Sen. Ben Nelson with Senate leaders was able to save his state of Nebraska about $10 million annually. Under the deal, the federal government will assume the cost of expanding Medicaid to 133% above the poverty level.
The proposed Medicare “buy-in,” where citizens aged 55 to 64 would have been allowed to pay a premium to join Medicare, was removed from the Senate bill. This means that the qualifying age to avail of Medicare will remain at 65.
The significant part of the “manager’s amendment” that was added to the Senate bill last week is said to be the provision that will create “multi-state private health insurance plans operated by Office of Personnel Management”. The objective for the provision is to give consumers with alternative insurance options.
Tags: health care amendment, health care bill, health care changes, health care reform
