On health care, Connolly sees room to work
By Dan Roem
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11th) said last week in Dominion Valley after a meeting with the Haymarket-Gainesville Business Association that he is open to the idea of supporting the Senate health care bill if certain changes are made through a process known as reconciliation, though a lot would need to change for him to vote for it.
Connolly explained that there are three options for health care reform in Congress at the moment. Members can do nothing and let reform efforts die, pass the Senate bill with fixes to placate the House of Representatives majority, or vote on separate reform items individually.
Contention between the House and Senate over health care lies in several areas, particularly funding for the bill. Connolly and House Democrats generally prefer to largely finance reform efforts by raise taxing on those making more than $500,000 annually ($1 million for couples) back to the levels they were under Pres. Bill Clinton. Centrist Senate Democrats pushed for – and won – a plan to tax so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans on those whose plans are valued above $24,000.
Anything in the bills related to financing can be streamlined through the Senate via “reconciliation,” though the Senate parliamentarian rules on what can be included under this procedure. Bills that undergo reconciliation are not subjected to filibusters. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster, but only 51 to pass a bill.
In the case of health care reform, taxes and the so-called public option would likely qualify for reconciliation because they directly affect government spending. However, forcing insurance companies not to deny coverage for anyone with a pre-existing condition and repealing anti-trust exemptions for those companies are in grayer areas as arguments could be made about how it does and does not affect federal finances.
“Those are pretty popular reforms,” said Connolly.
He added that he could support the idea of putting those issues up to votes separately from the bigger bill, especially since individual issues tend to be more popular with the public than either the larger, 2,000-plus page bills put out by the House and Senate. Connolly voted for the House bill last year which included the public option. The Senate bill does not.
“Do Republicans really want to be on record as (not) addressing pre-existing conditions?” Connolly asked.