Last Friday the United States House of Representatives quietly left town without much resolve on the much touted Tri Committee Health Care Reform Bill. They made announcements that that the Blue Dog democrats (those members representing traditionally republican districts) had reached an agreement in the Energy and Commerce Committee Version, but the bill is still a long way from being acceptable to the much more reasonable members of the US Senate.
The Energy and Commerce Changes to the health care reform bill included:
· Raising the minimum size of payroll for companies to offer insurance for their employees and from $250K, $500K in total payroll expenses
· Pre-existing condition exclusions for health care coverage moved from 12 months to 3 months
· Added a minimal provision requiring showing a photo ID to prevent illegal aliens from using the system (most states don’t require proof of citizenship for photo ID’s)
· Added to the Federal Food Drug Act making it illegal for Pharma and Device companies from settling patent infringement cases out of court
· Required that MedPAC add rural physicians to their roster
· Creating a regulatory frame work for bio-similars (bio tech generics)
· Re-enforced their support of the Public Option for health insurance and going one further allowing states to set up their own health insurance plans.
· Allows for Direct Negotiation of prescription drug prices for Medicare Part D
· Creates a government mandated formulary committee to control prices and limit physician choices
- Prohibits sale of precriber data for marketing purposes
This is by no means a complete listing of the changes in the bill from the original. There are 50 – 60 amendments left to be taken up in September when the committee gets back. They did a procedural maneuver so that the additional amendments can only be offered from the floor and there will be no more markups in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on this bill.
The bill as written with amendments borrows from Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the reforms plus adds billions in new taxes to small businesses. The house has succeeded in alienating key constituencies including senior citizens and small business owners, not to mention the millions of people currently employed in the delivery of healthcare. We wish them the best as they try to explain this very complicated and far reaching bill to their now angry constituents back home.
House Energy and Commerce Committee