Daily Pulse on Health Care Politics
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 15th, 2009 4:36 am by HL
Daily Pulse on Health Care Politics
House Democrats released their proposed health care reform package yesterday and all the coverage focuses on who pays for it.
New York Times: “House Democratic leaders took a big step toward guaranteeing health insurance for most Americans on Tuesday as they unveiled a bill that detailed how they would expand coverage, slow the growth of Medicare, raise taxes on high-income people and penalize employers who do not provide health benefits to their workers.”
Washington Post: “House Democrats announced a plan yesterday that would force the richest 2 million U.S. taxpayers to shoulder much of the cost of an expansion of the nation’s health-care system, by imposing a surtax of as much as 5.4 percent on income above $350,000 a year.”
Wall Street Journal: “House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled sweeping health-care legislation that would hit all but the smallest businesses with a penalty equal to 8% of payroll if they fail to provide health insurance to workers.”
Nonetheless, the bill is still a work in progress and as Roll Call notes, House Democratic leaders “acknowledged they still have much work to do to bridge intraparty differences and get a bill passed by August.”
In the Senate, The Hill notes the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee “was poised to complete its four-week-long markup of its portion of the upper chamber’s bill Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, the Finance Committee would begin its markup as soon as next week.”
Democrat Chu Wins California Special Election
Judy Chu will be headed to Congress after winning Tuesday’s special election in California’s 32nd congressional district, reports CQ Politics.
She was a heavy favorite in the House district vacated in February after Hilda Solis was confirmed as President Obama’s secretary of Labor.
