Health Policy Matters Post

One Simple Agenda

Let's cut to the heart of the matter: First, let's start by setting aside the extraordinary complexity of thousands of pages of health reform legislation. Next, let's throw out the labyrinth of details about the Senate reconciliation process. Not important. Only one thing matters. And that is convincing the House to pass the Senate bill. Everything else is a side show at best.

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Save the Date - Galen Institute Event

Intelligent Health: Exploring the value of innovation in health care

Please join the Galen Institute for another in our series of well-attended conferences in which leaders in the business and policy communities offer insights into the progress and challenges of continued innovation in the health sector. Our March 25 conference will explore creative private sector initiatives in personalized medicine and health information technology as well as the challenges of intellectual property protection.

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What's New

Fact Checking President Obama
The Missouri Record
March 10, 2010

President Obama will be visiting the St. Louis area Wednesday to garner support for his health reform plan. As Washington prepares for a final bare-knuckled battle this month, the stakes could not be higher. While the president can make a compelling case for action, his assertions about his plan are not backed by facts. Based upon his most recent health reform statements, the president will continue to make arguments refuted by the facts and independent analyses when he visits Wednesday.

Irreconcilable Differences on Federal Level
Grace-Marie Turner
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 10, 2010

Talk about hard to swallow. At last Wednesday's White House press conference, President Obama urged Congress to pass his massive health reform bill without Republicans votes. This would be possible only by using a procedural tactic known as reconciliation, which would allow the Democrats to pass their measure with a simple up or down vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi support this move.

Nancy's Nutty New Rules
Grace-Marie Turner
New York Post, March 10, 2010

The next act in the drive to pass ObamaCare is the mother-of-all political maneuvers -- in which Democrats will use an incredibly convoluted and possibly unconstitutional process. Things were already arcane: President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been threatening to enact "health-care reform" through the narrow path of budget reconciliation. It's a ploy to allow the Senate to pass "reform" with just 51 votes -- making the election of Scott Brown as the 41st senator against ObamaCare irrelevant.

Dangerous Negotiations Over Abortion
Grace-Marie Turner
National Review Online: Critical Condition, March 6, 2010

America’s Catholic bishops are being used in a negotiating ploy that could lead to enactment of Obamacare and to federal funding of abortion. Representatives of the bishops reportedly are working with the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress to write legislative language that would “fix” the liberal abortion provisions in the Senate health-care reform bill.

The End Game
Grace-Marie Turner
Medical Progress Today, March 5, 2010

The health reform debate can be bewildering, with thousands of pages of legislation and mind-numbing complexity of parliamentary procedures. But none of that matters now. The Congress is just one vote away from passing legislation that would put one sixth of our economy under permanent government control. How can that be when this legislation is so overwhelmingly disapproved by the American people?