

Actual benefits of health care reform, by year - Xichekolas
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319

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Xichekolas
I wish I would have had this link earlier. This is probably the best
explanation of _what the reform actually does_ that I have ever seen.

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hga
I haven't read it, but how useful can it be until we see what, if anything,
comes out of the reconciliation process?

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jbooth
What's in the bill right now is pretty much set in stone -- the reconciliation
process is just the process of merging the current house version with the
previously passed version in the senate. The house doesn't trust the senate,
so they set it up as an "all or nothing" reconciliation process -- so it's not
going to change.

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Xichekolas
My understanding is that they passed two things last night.

First was the Senate version of the bill, so that is basically the baseline
now.

Second was an amendments package that "fixes" some parts of the bill. This
package is what is going to the Senate for "reconciliation". The
reconciliation process allows these amendments to be passed by a simple
majority, provided there are no amendments added by the Senate (there is a
risk the Republicans will try to add some). If the Senate passes the
amendments as they stand, then they would also become law. If the Senate
passes them with changes, then they would go back to the House for another
vote.

Either way though, the reform voted on in the first part (the existing Senate
version) is law.

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jbooth
As I understand it, if the Senate changes anything, then the house passing the
senate bill in the first place undoes itself. I'm not positive on the exact
mechanics at this point because they were changed a couple times but I do know
that the plan, as publicly pronounced by leadership in both houses, is that
what's on paper now is what will be passed by the senate and signed by the
president.

Don't count the sale till the money's in the bank and all that, but it seems
like that's the most likely scenario at this point, they only need 51 / 59
democratic senators.

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Xichekolas
According to CNN, Obama is going to sign the bill on Tuesday. The amendments
are a totally separate bill, which will now be punted back and forth between
the House and Senate, assuming the Senate doesn't just pass it as it stands.

Source: [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/22/obama-to-
sig...](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/22/obama-to-sign-health-
care-bill-tuesday/?fbid=LxKDyJDFK9x)

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tocomment
How will the senate be able to pass this without a 60 member majority anymore?
None of the articles I have seen have addressed this.

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thedjpetersen
from: <http://www.cnsnews.com/news/print/62051>

"As a result, a new plan would call for the House to pass the Senate bill and
send it to Obama. The Senate would then use budget reconciliation rules to
make several changes demanded by House Democrats. Those rules prohibit
filibusters."

What reconciliation rules they are I don't know.

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tocomment
Interesting. I wonder why the democrats didn't think of this right away?
Everyone was saying the bill was dead when that republican senator got elected
right?

Was this procedure hard to figure out?

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Xichekolas
I'm sure the house leadership had the plan worked out pretty quickly, it just
takes time to work out the details with the Senate leadership, then
communicate it to the >250 democrats in the House and line up the required
number of votes.

Was the plan hard to figure out for the media and other commentators?
Probably, because they don't have access to the House rules people, nor do
they think about procedural maneuvers all day.

In retrospect, passing two bills was a very elegant solution. By passing the
Senate version straight up, they guarantee that at least some version of
victory is achieved without having to deal with the 59 seat issue. Then
sending an amendment package back to the Senate with only carefully chosen
amendments that allow the reconciliation maneuver gives it a decent shot
despite the loss of the supermajority. Had they tried to pass one bill that
combined the original and the amendments, the filibuster could have killed it.

