Leading up to this evening’s vote on health care reform legislation in the House, much of the debate has focused on whether or not Speaker Pelosi has lined up the 216 votes needed to send a bill to the President.

So, what exactly will the pending legislation do?

Take a look at a side-by-side chart comparing some of the provisions in the House-passed, Senate-passed, and pending House reconciliation bills that C3 thinks are important for people living with colorectal cancer.  The chart also includes links to the full text of each of the bills, so that you can read the complete legislation.

The House Budget Committee is expected to begin marking up the health care reform reconciliation bill on Monday, beginning the next step in the legislative process to get a final health care reform bill sent to the President.  Democrats are still awaiting a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, which is expected to be released at some point this weekend.

The reconciliation bill will contain changes to the Senate bill needed to get the support of House Democrats.  Passing an amended bill under reconciliation rules will allow the Senate to consider and pass the changes under special rules requiring a simple majority to pass rather than a 60-vote majority.  Congressional leaders hope to send a final bill to President Obama no later than the Easter Congressional recess.
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At 10am (eastern) this morning, the President will host a bipartisan meeting at the Blair House to discuss health reform legislation.  The meeting will be broadcast live – C‑SPAN coverage begins at 9:45am ET on C‑SPAN3, C‑SPAN.org and C‑SPAN Radio.  The entire meeting will also be streamed live on www.WhiteHouse.gov.

View a side-by-side comparison of the House-passed and Senate-passed bills here.  View the President’s health reform proposal here. Read the rest of this entry »

C3 President Carlea Bauman at the National Press Club

Today, C3 hosted a forum with Olympus in Washington DC to discuss current trends in colorectal cancer screening and prevention.

C3 President, Carlea Bauman, gave keynote remarks at the forum.  Carlea spoke about the frustration that we face at C3 when we receive calls to our Answer Line from individuals looking for assistance finding affordable screening services and we only have a patch-work network of assistance available to them.  Carlea explained that the way to change this is with enactment of a national screening and treatment program, “I look forward to the day where a national program exists so that when these calls come in, we can say, ‘Yes, you can get screened and yes, you can afford it.’”

I spoke on one of the panels about the impact the pending health care reform legislation will have on colorectal screening and why even if health care reform passes we will still need to enact legislation creating a national screening and treatment program for colorectal cancer.  To read the text of my remarks, click here.

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Today, C3 joined with twenty-one groups to send a letter to Congressional leaders about ways Congress can improve the final health care reform bill to make high quality and affordable health care available to cancer patients.

House and Senate Leadership were back at the White House today for another day-long negotiation session aimed at reconciling differences between the House-passed and Senate-passed bills.  President Obama is scheduled to met with Democrats this evening at the Democrats’ annual issues conference to talk about health care reform.

Congressional leaders are working to get a final compromise agreed to, and sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) by Friday.  CBO will need 10-15 days to analyze the bill and put together a cost estimate.  Members want to see a final cost estimate and analysis before voting on the package.

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