NAHU & Health Care

This came from the National Association of Health Underwriters

On Saturday, December 19, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) released his manager's
amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009, or H.R. 3590. This
383-page amendment, which makes substantial changes to the 2000+ bill, has only been available
for Senators and the American people to read and digest since Saturday morning.

Over the course of the weekend, through a series of deals with various Senators, the Democratic
leadership secured the 60 votes they needed to move forward with the legislation on the Senate
floor. At about 1:15 a.m. on Monday, December 21, the Senate voted 60-40 on a cloture vote
on the manager's amendment to H.R. 3590. This vote sets the Senate procedural clock hurling
toward an eventual vote on the entire reform bill later this week. No opportunity will be allowed
for our Senators to debate or make changes to the manager's amendment between now and then.

The need to pass a health care reform bill before Christmas is an artificial deadline, and it does
not give our Senators enough time to read and thoroughly debate this $878 trillion dollar bill that
will dramatically impact all Americans and 1/6 of our nation's economy. Unless a Democratic
Senator agrees to switch his or her vote and oppose the overall bill, H.R. 3590 will pass this
week and a conference committee with the House will begin in the New Year.

NAHU has many concerns with H.R. 3590 as currently structured, as it contains many elements
that will only serve to drive up private health insurance costs significantly for millions of Americans
families and businesses. Instead of passing this flawed measure under a compressed time-frame
during a holiday week, we need to encourage our Senators to instead work together on a
bipartisan basis to develop an affordable and responsible means of achieving the needed reforms
to our nation's health care delivery system.