Senate Passes Health Care Reform; Congress on Track to Send President a Final Bill in January

After 25 straight days of debate, by a vote of 60-39, today the Senate approved the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In January, the House and Senate will begin the difficult task of reconciling the differences between the bills they have passed.

There are a number of provisions in both the House-passed and Senate-passed health care reform bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients. Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing these provisions.

The two key differences between the House and Senate bills are the public option and pay-fors. The House bill would create a government-sponsored insurance plan (i.e., a public option), but the Senate bill is silent on this point. How to finance the health care expansion is also a contentious issue. House members refused to consider the so-called Cadillac tax (i.e., a tax on expensive insurance plans) but the Senate has taken the opposite approach to financing and included a wealth surtax (the so-called millionaires’ tax) rather than including a Cadillac tax. The House bill also has stricter language against funding for abortion.

While negotiators are expected to closely adhere to the Senate-passed bill in order to ensure the 60 votes needed to pass a final conference report in the Senate, they will have to make some changes in conference in order to keep the support of House Democrats. The House version of the bill passed by only three votes, and the Speaker knows that rank and file members will not accept a final conference report without changes.

Leadership and committee staff are expected to start meeting in the next week to design a framework for the final negotiations and committee chairs are expected to be back in DC the first week of 2010 to start negotiating in earnest.

Congressional leaders hope to send a final bill to President Obama by the end of January or early February.

C3 will continue to work with legislators to advocate for improvements to the pending bills that will provide all Americans with the access to care that is critical to preventing, treating and beating colorectal cancer. Click here to see a chart outlining and comparing the provisions in the House-passed and Senate-passed bills that will affect colorectal cancer patients.

Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving comments below.

This news article was originally posted on December 24th, 2009 and was accurate at the time of publication. Since then, information may have changed or links may now be outdated. Please call our Answer Line 1-877-427-2111 for the latest information, or talk to your doctor before making any medical decisions.

Posted by Catherine Knowles on December 24th, 2009
Tags: Health Care Reform, House of Representatives, President Barack Obama, Senate

Comments

Kate Murphy

December 25, 2009 at 9:39am

One of the most painful, most difficult stories I hear when someone is diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer is that they have no health insurance and no way of paying for treatment.

We’ve made strides in the past few years in preventing early cancer from coming back, increasing the time that people live after advanced colorectal cancer, and curing advanced cancer that has spread with surgery.

But these advances in treatment — that save lives — are not easily available to someone without health insurance. Often they are completely out of reach.

So, I applaud the action of the Senate yesterday, and I look forward to the House and Senate coming to an agreement that will mean no one will go without treatment for colorectal cancer because they cannot afford it.