Two bills recently advanced in the House will be coming up for debate in the near future.  The first is the already infamous 1990 page “monster” bill, HR 3962, which is the House version of health reform.  At almost 2,000 pages, it would have to be deemed a entire body makeover, not reform.  However, when one begins to read the bill, one finds that large sections, perhaps as much as 40% is devoted to the Indian Health Service and penalties for various failures at obtaining or implementing reform.  In fact, there remains too much legalese and double speak about the most simple reform issues, such as elimination of pre-existing conditions exclusions.   The second bill, HR 3961, has to do with physician Medicare payment reform, repealing the despised SGR (sustainable growth rate) with a new, less complex it is hoped, formula.  To be sure, SGR reform will continue to garner support of organized medicine groups and it is likely to help obtain some of that support for HR 3962.  Still, this is sad politics, as the SGR issue should have been addressed a decade ago, and seems to be getting attention now only for political reasons.

Real health reform does not require 2000 pages of text. It requires simple steps, such as we have outlined in “the plan” to address the basic needs of the system.  We remain hopeful that in conference committee and upon final vote, that sanity will prevail and a more streamlined, meaningful final bill will emerge out of all this posturing . . . obi jo and jomaxx

H.R. 3962 – http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

H.R. 3961 – http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_sgr1.pdf

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