On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved, 13-10, a draft health care reform bill, The Affordable Health Choices Act; the marathon markup began last month (see The Source, 6/26/09). The legislation (as-yet-unnumbered) aims to overhaul the existing health care system and provide coverage to some 47 million uninsured Americans. The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the House version of health reform legislation on June 23 (see The Source, 6/26/09).
On July 13, the committee adopted the following amendments:
· an amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) to prevent health care providers who object to performing abortion services on moral or religious grounds from being excluded from contracting with any health insurance plan, by voice vote;
· an amendment by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) to allow businesses with 50 employees or less to select health insurance plans through the bill’s exchange program (see section 3101, p. 40), by voice vote; and
· an amendment by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to increase the discount that employers may award employees who participate in an employer wellness program from 20 to 30 percent of the health care premium price, by unanimous consent.
The same day, the committee defeated several amendments related to abortion services, including:
· an amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to include the provisions of the “Hyde Amendment” in the bill, 11-12. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funds, including Medicaid funds, from being used to perform abortions except in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest;
· an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to prohibit the secretary of Health and Human Services from overturning state laws on abortion services, 11-12;
· an amendment by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) to prohibit any provision in the bill from being construed as a federal requirement to cover abortion services, 11-12; and
· a second amendment by Sen. Coburn to require that nothing in the bill would invalidate or preempt a state law regulating abortion services, including parental notification for minors, 11-12.
On July 14, the committee adopted:
· an amendment by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) to establish a grant program for locating primary and specialty care in community-based mental and behavioral health centers, 14-9. Eligible grantees would include those that serve children and adolescents with mental and emotional disturbances who have both primary care conditionsand chronic disease;
· an amendment by Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) to exclude “temporary or seasonal agricultural workers…for the purposes of determining the size of an employer,” by voice vote. The bill would require employers with 25 or more workers to provide health insurance or pay $750 per employee, per year to the federal government; and
· an amendment by Sen. Coburn to require that one-third of the nominees to a medical advisory board providing recommendations to the secretary of Health and Human Services be practicing, active clinicians.
