This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) dismissed the weeks of mark-up in both the Senate Finance and HELP committees and the months of public hearings surrounding health care reform and criticized the Senate health bill for failing to incorporate Republican ideas into the legislation. McConnell called on the Senate to support Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) amendment to “start over from the beginning and craft a bill that they [the American people] can actually support…then we could start over.” Watch it:
As it turns out however, many of McConnell’s ideas for how to start over are already incorporated in the Senate bill. McConnell hasn’t read the legislation:
MCCONNELL ASKED FOR – ENDING JUNK LAWSUITS: “We could start over and end junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up costs, something the majority didn’t find any room for in their 2,074-page bill. Not a word about controlling junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals.”
SENATE BILL – DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS FOR TORT REFORM: While malpractice is not a major contributor to rising health care costs, the bill expresses the sense of the Senate that health reform presents an opportunity to address issues related to medical malpractice and medical liability insurance, states should be encouraged to develop and test alternative models to the existing civil litigation system, and Congress should consider state demonstration projects to evaluate such alternatives. [pg. 1858-1859]
MCCONNELL ASKED FOR – WELLNESS AND PREVENTION: “Then we could encourage healthy choices like prevention and wellness programs, something that the majority somehow couldn’t squeeze into their 2,074-page bill.”
SENATE BILL – INVESTS IN WELLNESS AND PREVENTION: Title IV of the health care bill addresses wellness and prevention. The bill invests $15 billion in a Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund to provide an expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs. [pg. 1134 - 1266]
MCCONNELL ASKED FOR – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: “Then we could lower costs by letting consumers buy coverage across state lines, something the majority must have overlooked in their 2,074-page bill.”
SENATE BILL – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Starting in 2016, states may form ―health care choice compacts to allow for the purchase of individual health insurance across state lines. Once compacts have been agreed to, insurers would be allowed to sell policies in any state participating in the compact. [pg. 219]
MCCONNELL ASKED FOR – END WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE IN MEDICARE: “Then we could address the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse, something our friends didn’t think was important enough to seriously address in their 2,074-page bill.”
SENATE BILL – ENDS WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE IN MEDICARE: Subtitle F of Title VI of the health care bill would reduce the waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Section 6508 specifically requires “States to implement fraud, waste, and abuse programs before January 1, 2011.” [pg. 1783-1791]
Previous in TP Health
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.