Yesterday at the Washington Examiner, Byron York pointed out that there has been a missing step in the legislative process that is being followed to pass the healthcare reform bill. He asks, "Where is the House-Senate Conference Committee?" The article points out that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid decided to skip the conference committee because it would be public and might reveal (and strengthen) the major differences between the Senate and House bills. Meanwhile, the problem they are currently having in passing healthcare reform is dealing with the major differences between the Senate and House bills.
The problem for the Democrats in passing healthcare reform involves some basic philosophical differences within the Democrat party about what the bill should do and how it should do it.
One of the major differences between the House and Senate bills is the way the healthcare reform package is funded. In the House bill, there is a 5.4 percent surtax on individuals earning more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million. There is also a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical devices, an end to some tax breaks for multinational companies and a closing of a biofuels tax loophole for paper companies. In the Senate bill, there is a 40 percent tax on 'cadillac health care plans', payroll taxes on Medicare are increased, and special fees are levied on insurers, drug companies and medical device makers.
There are also differences in the language banning federal funding of abortions, the public option, and mandates on employers and consumers.
Some of the information may have changed (my source was from 2009), but the basic fact remains the same--the Democrat party controls the House and the Senate. If the Democrats had the votes, this bill would have already passed.
The President's current approach to rallying public opinion to support this bill is to make it appear that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of the public and making enormous profits. This is not the case. The health insurance companies have a profit margin of about 2 to 5 percent--other areas of the healthcare business have a profit margin of between 15 and 25 percent. Remember that as you listen to the speeches given by people who want you to support the present bill.
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