Healthcare Reform in the Senate

Analysis…

 With the House having passed a healthcare bill over a week ago, all eyes have been on the Senate.  Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released the details of the Senate’s version of the bill.   There are important differences between the Senate bill and the House version, particularly with regards to access to abortion.  Providing that the Senate passes the proposed bill, the weeks ahead will be a time of compromise between the houses of Congress.

Talking Points Memo | As advertised, the bill reduces the deficit considerably in both the near- and long-term, while expanding coverage to 94 percent of Americans. By 2019, 25 million people would be buying insurance through a health insurance exchange.

However, it’s not all roses. For instance, based on an assessment of the political popularity of the public option, the CBO has concluded that enough states will “opt out” to prevent a full third of consumers from purchasing government insurance.

The Huffington Post | The Senate version would require at least one plan within the health insurance exchange that the bill sets up to offer a plan that covers abortion and one that doesn’t. It would also authorize the Health and Human Services Secretary to audit plans to make certain that abortion isn’t being paid for with federal dollars.

Big Government | Among the bigger items are a tax on medical devices ($19 billion), a tax on insurance providers ($60 billion.) Supporters of the legislation can pretend these taxes will be paid by the apparently-now-evil medical device companies and the already-known-as-evil insurance companies. Of course these taxes will simply be passed onto consumers, making medical devices and insurance a bit more expensive than it otherwise would have been.

Marketwatch | A health-care overhaul proposed by Senate Democrats will cost $849 billion over 10 years, Senate leaders said Wednesday, and slash the deficit by $127 billion over the next decade.   The estimates, from the Congressional Budget Office, also showed that the bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 31 million people.

News…

The Plight of Homeless Sex Offenders | Change.org

Up until that time, I had rather a hard stance on this subject. I thought sex offenders were dangerous, a threat to society. Who cares if they have to continue paying for their crime once their jail time is up? But one look into this man’s eyes gave me different point of view; he was so filled with hopelessness, so beaten down from trying to survive. It’s a difficult memory.

Tom Coburn Joins Campaign Against Muslim Group | Talking Points Memo

it looks like Tom Coburn (R-OK) has become the first senator to cast his lot with the group of House Republicans pursuing a campaign against the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Though not explicitly invoked in a new letter to the IRS, the effort stems from purported revelations in the book Muslim Mafia, whose author recently made — then retracted — a call for a “backlash” against Muslims in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings.