How Scott Brown Could Affect the Nation’s Health Care Policies
Posted on February 2nd, 2010
Democratic Senators had been working diligently to sculpt a health bill that they thought would please enough of the nation to justify being passed. And even though it wasn’t satisfactory to Republicans, it didn’t matter because Democrats carried 60 seats – enough to overcome a Republican filibuster.
That is, until Tuesday, when a shocking event occurred – the Democrats lost their easily-won Senate seat to Republican Scott Brown. In just a few hours, the Democrats lost their advantage and possibly their opportunity to pass their health care bill without Republican consent.
Now the Democrats have to come up with a new game plan to get the bill passed, leaving many wonder just how this Massachusetts election could have affected the nation’s health care reform.
Pre-Massachusetts Election
Before the Massachusetts election, the Democrats and Republicans bickered endlessly over the health care bill. It went back and forth between House and Senate committees for the better part of 2009, eventually making some ground on Oct. 13, 2009 after been passed by the Senate Finance Committee.
But even at this point, it still needed to merge with bills that had passed within other committees in Congress. Senate was given the responsibility of coming up with a merged bill to then hand over to the House for revisions.
As the months passed, we saw additions and subtractions to issues like taxes on plastic surgery, the Medicare expansion, premium increases and state opt-in/opt-out options. With nearly every Senator chiming in on ways to make adjustments, the possibility of a completed bill before the end of the year looked grim.
However, Santa delivered a great present on Christmas Eve when Senate finally passed their version of the bill before heading off to their winter break.
They were certain that they would send their version of the bill over to the House after the winter break, maybe have some things to clean up there and get President Obama a final version within a few months.
However, something very ironic occurred. During the winter break, the Republicans vowed to stop the health care bill with all their might. And then
Scott Brown Enters the Picture
As members of Congress returned from their winter break, news of the need to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat emerged. There wasn’t much fear expressed regarding the fate of the seat because it had long been filled by Democrats.
However, almost out of nowhere a new hero emerged on the Republican side with charm that we hadn’t seen since Barack Obama made his presence known during the primaries. In addition, he was able to play to a state that has more independent voters than Republicans and Democrats combined.
Couple that with a shortened campaign period and Brown was able to win a seat that hadn’t been filled by a Republican in nearly 40 years.
Just like that, the Democrats were blind sighted by the unexpected win and scrambling to determine just what would happen to the health care bill without their 60th seat.
What Happens to the Health Care Bill Now?
After Brown’s surprising win, many were left wondering what would happen to Obama’s dream for the health care bill. The amount of time it had taken to pass the Senate’s bill had left everyone exhausted, including those merely looking on. Now, there would be a chance that the bill would have to be scrapped and rewritten.
What’s worse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained on Jan. 21 that she didn’t think the bill appealed to enough Democrats to pass in the House of Representatives. In order to pass, the high-cost health insurance tax as well as the less-restrictive policy on using federal funds to cover abortions would probably have to be scrapped.
The good news is that Senate Republicans say they don’t want to fight over the health care bill anymore. They want to try their best to get it all resolved and passed in a timely fashion. This sentiment was cosigned by Obama who pleaded with both parties to come to some type of resolution in his State of the Union address.
To date, there is no official strategy set forth to pass the health care bill; however, Democratic leaders in Congress are confident that they will be able to pass the legislation this year.
Pelosi in particular expressed a strong desire to get reform passed. “We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, well parachute in,” she said in a recent news conference.
She believes that the focus should remain on making sure Americans are insured. Brown agrees; however, has already pledged to be the 41st GOP vote against Obama’s health care bill.
Maybe in some huge stroke of luck, both parties will come to some consensus and pass the darn thing so we can get the insurance ball rolling. If not, 46 million Americans will be spending the better part of 2010 twiddling their thumbs and spraying their houses down with Lysol in hopes of staying healthy until they can afford their own outrageously expensive health insurance.
Photo by Rob Weir
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