It's been a busy week for health reform, and we've made a lot of good progress. Here's a quick wrap up:

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, after a marathon markup session, approved the Affordable Health Choices Act.

Late last night, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Democratic healthcare plan (introduced earlier this week) by a vote of 23-18, reports CongressDaily. Early this morning, the House Education and Labor Committee also approved the bill by a 26-22 vote. (We have to applaud their dedication -- CongressDaily reports they worked until 6 a.m., took a few hours break, and then voted.) Now we're just waiting on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And while we're on the subject of the Tri-Committee House health care bill, the American Medical Association has endorsed the House health reform bill. (And yes, we're talking about the AMA that hasn't been too keen on health reform for about a century.)

Following in the footsteps of Wal-Mart, Target and Kelly Services also endorsed an employer mandate for health insurance.

Harry and Louise, the face of the anti-health reform movement in the early nineties, have returned (again) in support of health reform.

The American Nursing Association joined President Obama in the Rose Garden earlier this week in support of health reform. Obama urged everyone to "buck up...that's what nurses do all the time. The nurses are on board. The American people are on board. It's now up to us." Obama made it clear he wants health care bills out of both houses of Congress before August recess.

We're disappointed that we're still waiting for legislation to come out of the Senate Finance Committee. They've suspended talks until next week, but Chairman Baucus told Politico he remains "confident." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants to start floor debate in the Senate by July 27th, giving the Finance Committee 10 days to get their bill out, according to Politico. Politico also reported,

Finance Committee aides said the three-day break shouldn't be interpreted as an ominous sign. The group reportedly made progress Thursday. They appeared together at 6:30 p.m. to address reporters, which does not usually happen if talks break down. And their staffs will work through the weekend, the senators said.

 

 

 

CBO director Douglas Elmendorf and OMB Director Peter Orszag have expressed concern about the cost of the health care overhaul, saying we still need more incentives to get it right. But we still have more numbers to crunch, and many of those numbers won’t become clear until we get a bill out of Finance. The Wall Street Journal reports,  

Mr. Elmendorf addressed his analysis generally to the main bills moving in the House and Senate. He suggested the analysis is evolving, noting the House bill was only released "two days ago." He made clear he wasn't referring to legislation being fashioned by the Senate Finance Committee, because leaders of that panel "have not yet released" that bill.

 

 

 

 

Not too long ago, we asked if the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place on health care reform. The conclusion? Yes -- we've made good progress so far, and we're still making good progress. Health reform is a complex issue and there are no quick fixes -- but we’re getting there.