Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Earlier today, Speaker Pelosi introduced the re-tooled House version of healthcare reform, now titled The Affordable Health Care Act. The 2,000 page bill is the result of weeks of backroom negotiations designed to forge a possible consensus, principally among Democrats, and to financially wrangle, a targeted budget neutral spending level. According to Pelosi, the Bill … Read more
If you are a baseball fan, you’ll appreciate the correlation between a baseball game and the present course of healthcare reform. A baseball game starts with anticipation and fanfare; speeches, the throwing out of the first pitch, the national anthem and the players taking the field. The fans settle in and the game begins with cheers … Read more
The Senate Finance Committee this afternoon, on a vote of 14-9, approved the Baucus Bill out of committee, sending it theoretically to a floor vote. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, was the lone Republican vote in support. The Bill, a center of recent controversy in terms of its lack of reported details, incomplete … Read more
This afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office released a statement saying that the Senate Finance Committee Reform Bill (the Baucus Bill) prices out at $829 billion over ten years. At this price-tag, given the revenue assumptions (fees, cuts, taxes, etc.) contained in the Bill, the CBO estimates that the Bill actually produces a modest deficit reduction … Read more
The Senate Finance Committee voted yesterday to eliminate the public option from its reform bill (aka the Baucus Bill) by a margin of 15 to 8. All Republicans and a hand-full of Democrats voted against inclusion. Of note, the Bill’s author, Senator Baucus voted for the removal of the public option stating that in his … Read more
After weeks/months of meetings, Senator Baucus of Montana representing the “gang of six” (three Democrats and three Republicans) released the Senate Finance Committee version of “healthcare reform”. What started as a bi-partisan sub-committee alternative to the House version (HR 3200) ended as essentially, a Baucus bill; legislation lacking any real support from Senate Democrats and … Read more
I know this is supposed to be a blog about healthcare issues, primarily that which falls in the post-acute, long-term care and senior housing world but some stuff in the news right now is just too hard to ignore. After all, healthcare reform does affect long-term care and post-acute care directly and economics, especially the … Read more
Not unexpectedly, the politicians are all a “buzz” about healthcare reform right now. The President even did a live radio/television talk-show to “clarify” what healthcare reform is really about; to translate as it were. From CNN to Fox to certainly every Sunday talk show, politicians or members of the President’s cabinet are trying desperately to … Read more
Recess – when I was a kid it was the best part of school. Recess was a period of task abandonment; a temporary reprieve from the classroom engagement and the pedagogy. Unfortunately for Congress, recess means a time to confront constituents and to engage on the home front. For members of the House facing early … Read more