Action Alerts

Ongoing:

• Health Care Reform: Now It's Personal

Major Events Last Week

Health Care Reform

With Congress still in recess, action on health care reform continued in Members' home districts. Due to the well-publicized disruptions of Members' town hall meetings by opponents of health care reform, many Members have moved their town halls to the internet or to teleconference calls. Meanwhile, key leadership in both the House and Senate continue to work to resolve outstanding issues. The three Democratic and three Republican negotiators working on the Senate Finance Committee's version of the bill have continued to meet over the recess.

However, reflecting comments he has previously made, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, indicated that he would be unwilling to vote for a bill that did not have the support of a large number of Republicans, including that he would "absolutely not" vote for a health care bill that had only three or four Republicans backing it. In addition, Senator Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, indicated that he would not "steal from Medicare to start new programs outside of Medicare."

On another front, there continues to be speculation about whether the Senate Democratic leadership will decide to split the health care reform efforts into two pieces. This approach would allow the more controversial pieces, such as a government-run alternative health plan, to go through the "budget reconciliation" process which avoids potential filibuster problems and requires only a simple majority vote. Under that scenario, provisions that have bipartisan support, such as prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, would go through the process requiring 60 votes to close off a filibuster.

Social Security

There is new attention being paid to a portion of the recent Social Security Trustees report that indicates the possibility of no cost of living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries for 2010. The Associated Press and member news outlets have recently reported the possibility of no COLA. Annual Social Security benefits increases are, by law, based on the rate of inflation in the third quarter of the previous year; the law prevents benefits from being reduced based on negative inflation. Since it is predicted that this years' third quarter (July through September) will show no increase in inflation, the expectation is that there will be no COLA for benefits in 2010. Advocates for Congressional intervention point out that an automatic increase in Medicare prescription drug program premiums will result in reduced funds available to meet beneficiaries' monthly expenses. The Social Security Administration typically reports on the up-coming COLA amounts in mid-October.

Major Events Ahead

U.S. Congress

Congress will continue to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Announcements

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Read previous Capitol Insider issues now.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at acosta@thedpc.org.

Sincerely,

Annie Acosta
Director of Communications and Grassroots
Disability Policy Collaboration