|
The Senate late on December 20 approved by a 60-40 margin a procedural motion that will allow a vote on a manager's amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Bill (HR 3590), paving the way for final passage before Christmas. The vote came after Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., made a deal on December 19 with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on language in the bill regarding federal funding of abortion, and gave Democrats the 60 votes they needed to advance the bill.
The manager's package negotiated by Reid over the past several days incorporates the abortion language Nelson demanded and several other changes from the original bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee, including new tax provisions. The amendment adds $12 billion in small business tax cuts slated to take effect in 2010, an expansion of the adoption tax credit and a new 10-percent tax on tanning salon services.
Nelson said he still can withhold his support of the health care reform bill if a conference to merge the House and Senate versions significantly alters the measure approved by the Senate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said after the procedural vote that the conference report will have to resemble the Senate's legislation in order to achieve final passage in that chamber. The conference is expected to take place shortly after lawmakers return from the Christmas recess on January 5, 2010.
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said leadership was still considering whether to hold a full formal conference, or an abbreviated conference where changes are negotiated in private and then presented to conferees for a vote. How to pay for the health care overhaul will prove one of the more contentious items in the conference, said Harkin, a conferee designee due to his chairmanship of the one of the committees that wrote the bill.
The Senate bill raises revenue for health care reform by imposing a 40-percent surtax on high-end employer-sponsored health plans and increasing the Medicare tax to 2.35 percent for couples with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) over $250,000 a year and individuals with AGI over $200,000. The typical premium threshold for the so-called "Cadillac plans" begins at $8,500 for individuals and $23,000 for a family. The House bill would impose a 5.4-percent surtax on high-income earners, hitting couples with adjusted gross incomes over $1 million and individuals with AGI over $500,000.
White House Reaction
President Obama on December 21 said the Senate vote "has moved us closer to reform that makes a tremendous difference for families, for seniors, for businesses, and for the country as a whole." Obama noted that the bill would provide tax credits to small businesses and individuals who are not covered by their employer and cannot afford to buy insurance on their own.
Countering criticism about the cost of the measure, the president pointed to Congressional Budget Office estimates that the health care reform bill would lower the deficit by $132 billion over the first 10 years and up to $1.3 trillion in the second decade. "For all those who are continually carping about how this is somehow a big-spending government bill, that argument that opponents are making against this bill does not hold water," Obama contended.
The White House in recent days has equated the insurance reform provisions in the Senate proposal with the Patient's Bill of Rights legislation that Congress failed to approve for several years. Only this time, the president is counting on a different outcome and that a health care reform bill reaches his desk as soon as possible. "After a nearly century-long struggle, we are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the United States of America," Obama said in remarks on December 19.
By Jeff Carlson and Paula Cruickshank, CCH News Staff
Manager's Amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590)
White House Press Release: Statement by the President on Health Care and Climate Change
White House Press Release: Remarks by the President on the Save Award and Making Government More Efficient and Effective
JCT Estimated Revenue Effects of the Manager's Amendment to the Revenue Provisions Contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
|