Health Reform and the 111th Congress

Hinda Chaikind
Specialist in Health Care Financing

The health reform debate in the 111th Congress continued and expanded upon the work begun in the 110th Congress. On November 12, 2008, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, released a white paper detailing his principles for health reform. This provided a framework for work within the committee for the 111th Congress. Several bills were introduced when the 111th Congress first convened, and these bills focused on a broad spectrum of approaches to health reform. 

On November 7, 2009, the House passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. H.R. 3962 is based on H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which was originally introduced on July 14, 2009, and was reported separately on October 14, 2009, by three House Committees—Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means. The U.S. Senate passed its version of health insurance reform on December 24, 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in H.R. 3590, as amended by the Senate (hereafter referred to simply as H.R. 3590). H.R. 3590 consolidated and amended bills passed by the two committees with principal jurisdiction, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which ordered reported S. 1679, the Affordable Health Choices Act on July 15, and the Senate Finance Committee, which ordered reported S. 1796, America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, on October 19, 2009. The House and Senate must agree to the same measure with the same legislative language before a bill can be presented to the President. In an effort to move the process forward, the President released a health reform proposal on February 22, 2010, which combines and modifies provisions in the Senate and House passed bills. On February 25, 2010, the President held a bipartisan meeting on health reform, attended by both Democrats and Republican Members of Congress. 

The health reform bills passed by the House and Senate focus on simultaneously expanding private and public coverage options. Some of the other bills introduced in the 111th Congress take a similar approach to health reform. Additionally, other bills have focused on other solutions, attempting to expand coverage using one of the following approaches: 

• Largely replace existing coverage with a national government-provided health insurance program (or a national health service). 

• Expand existing public programs for certain individuals. 

• Expand privately sponsored coverage. 

• Encourage state-based reforms. 

• Simultaneously expand private and public coverage options. 

This report presents basic background on health insurance that may be useful to legislators considering health insurance reforms. It describes reform approaches and provides brief descriptions of health insurance reform bills introduced in the 111th Congress, as well as some of the general principles currently being considered by the Congress. The potential impact of the various approaches and bills is not analyzed in this report, however. As a result, it does not provide evaluations of how well different bills, once enacted, would meet their objectives.  .


Date of Report: February 25, 2010
Number of Pages: 28
Order Number: R40581
Price: $29.95

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