Congress moving ahead with health reform

Voting along party lines, the U.S. House and U.S. Senate have approved blueprints for next year’s federal budget. By and large, these blueprints follow the $3.5 trillion budget proposal offered by President Obama in February.

Each plan includes general provisions to reform our health care system.

The main difference between the two plans is whether to include a powerful procedural shortcut known as “reconciliation”. The House version includes this shortcut, which would authorize Congress to include big chunks of health system reform in the budget bill for the coming year. The Senate blueprint does not include this shortcut. Why is this important? Because under Senate rules, a budget bill can not be filibustered and so can pass with a simple majority 51 votes). If health reform is attempted through the usual procedure, then opponents of reform are certain to filibuster in the Senate; 60 votes will then be needed to end the filibuster and get to a vote.

While 60 votes in the Senate is obviously more difficult to achieve than 51 votes, doing so has the advantage of requiring Republican support. With legislation as far-reaching as health reform, which will restructure 17 percent of our national economy, it’s helpful to have both Democratic and Republican support.

The differences between the House and Senate versions of the plan are currently being negotiated with the full membership expected to take up the compromise when they return to session April 20.

Writing April 12, the editorial board of the New York Times indicated its support for the House version, which includes the procedural shortcut. “There are reasons to be wary about resorting to the expedited process, known as budget reconciliation. But it is a weapon that the Democrats would be foolish to give up without evidence that Republicans will truly cooperate in fashioning meaningful reform. Not one Republican in the House or the Senate voted for the budget resolutions, and only three supported the stimulus bill.”