Health Reform Legislation Passes Senate
The US Senate on Dec. 24, 2009, passed health system reform legislation on a 60-39 vote.
The Senate and the House of Representatives must now convene a conference committee to iron out differences in the versions of HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, that were passed in each chamber.
The biggest difference is that the House version includes a public health insurance option, while the Senate version does not. Both bills would ban insurers from denying coverage or raising rates due to pre-existing conditions. They also would require most Americans to carry insurance.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society, while pleased with several elements of this legislation, has serious concerns about the lack of any substantive medical liability reform, a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment system, and protections for the patient-physician relationship.
The State Society has analyzed this federal legislation, using our Eight Essential Principles of Health System Reform for comparison.
“We developed our principles with this purpose in mind,” said James A. Goodyear, MD, president of the State Society. “We needed a guide or a roadmap, something to use to test legislation against our core beliefs.”
Both the House and Senate bills far exceed 1,000 pages and both will cost around $1 trillion.
Last Updated: 12/30/2009