WASHINGTON, D.C., and SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — While President Obama rallied the public in Ohio on Thursday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid was in Washington conceding that the Senate won’t make the early August  deadline to pass health care reform legislation before leaving for summer recess, according to the L.A. Times.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable. This is a complex and difficult issue,” said Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, according to the L.A. Times. In Ohio, Obama also was backing off his Aug. 7 deadline for having a completed health reform bill on his desk. The president justified setting a deadline to get legislation moving in Washington, saying, “We have never been closer to achieving quality, affordable care for all Americans.”
The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Montana Democrat Max Baucus, has been working for months without success to find more than $300 billion in revenue to pay for its reforms, the Times said. The president has said repeatedly — and said again in Ohio on Thursday — that he would not support reform legislation that “added one dime” to the federal deficit. The Senate already has identified $600 billion in cost savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other programs.
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Once the Senate Finance Committee’s bill is ready, it will be merged with a bill by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Reid said.
Meanwhile, the House moved forward on its own health care reform legislation, which is being pushed toward a floor vote by the body’s July 31 recess by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. That vote won’t come easily, the L.A Times said. Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, still is haggling with other Democrats about a surcharge on the wealthy, which would help pay for the health care reform bill.
In Shaker Heights on Thursday, President Obama said about two-thirds of health care reform would be paid for by cutting waste in Medicare and Medicaid, the federal health insurance programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
Also on Thursday, Obama praised the Cleveland Clinic for its operating efficiency, which is partly enabled by paying its doctors salaries that don’t depend on how many patients they treat. Most health care providers are paid for the quantity of care they provide. “Incentivizing” more care providers to give quality care rather than a high volume of care is part of the solution for reforming the nation’s health system, Obama said.
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More news worth a read:
- For public, Obama didn’t fill in health blanks (New York Times)
- Associated Press fact-checks Obama’s press conference (Covering Health blog)
- President visits Cleveland (Akron Beacon Journal)
- Teamwork, technology and coordinated care improve outcomes and lower costs (PRNewswire)
- Main Street CEOs say health care costs would threaten business growth (BusinessWire)
- GOP’s John Boehner warns of health-care rationing (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- George Voinovich says ‘no’ to new health-care entitlements, while Lee Fisher urges him to say ‘yes’ (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Agreeing with the president on comparative effectiveness (Health Business blog)
- Mayo Clinic CEO discusses health care reform, Medicare shortfalls (Becker’s Hospital Review)
- Mental health funds in state budget tied to Medicaid not ‘real’ money (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- The hot issue: Do you think the economy can recover without health care-reform? (Columbus Dispatch)
- H1N1 flu shots ready in months, winter a risk: World Health Organization (Reuters/Boston Globe)
- Non-embryonic stem cells pass major hurdle in mice (Associate Press/Akron Beacon Journal)
- AAI Pharma sells division to Water Street Group (Triangle Business Journal)
