HELP Committee Marking Up Health Care Reform Bill, Finance Committee Delayed - 6/22/09

With the June 9, 2009 release of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s health reform bill—the first health reform bill to be issued by a congressional committee—Congress took an important step toward enacting comprehensive health reform legislation this year. The HELP Committee began to markup its legislation on June 16 and is expected to continue to consider the legislation through the week of June 22.  The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) release of a report indicating that the health insurance exchange proposal in the HELP Committee’s bill will leave approximately 37 million people uninsured in 2019 and will exceed $1 trillion dampened Senate Democrats’ hope for quick passage of a reform package and has fueled Republican criticism of the HELP Committee proposal.  The Senate Finance Committee, which was expected to release its mark this week, has postponed this release and its scheduled June 23 markup in light of a finding by the CBO that an early draft of the proposal will cost $1.5 trillion over ten years