House of Representatives Releases Revised Health Reform Legislation - July 14, 2009

As expected, the House of Representatives today released revised health reform legislation. Last month, the House released a draft bill which was missing key details, such as how to finance reform proposals. This revised legislation – supported by the three House Committees with healthcare jurisdiction – now includes financing details and amends proposals contained in the earlier draft. The House has provided this summary of the legislation.

NAPH is working with members and staff of the key House Committees on various aspects of this bill, including the extent to which Medicaid and Medicare DSH payments would be reduced to help pay for expanded coverage. The House bill does include $20 billion in savings from the Medicare and Medicaid DSH programs ($10 billion from each program). This is considerably less than the $50 billion in DSH savings announced last week as part of the "deal" between the Senate Finance Committee and the American Hospital Association. Also, under the House bill the savings would not start until 2017, which is less than the 2015 expected from Senate legislation. NAPH is scheduling a call with its Executive Committee tomorrow morning, after we have had a chance to analyze the DSH provisions (and the rest of the bill), in order to discuss NAPH's position.

The House will turn to markup of the legislation on Thursday. The House aims to have the bill passed before recessing on July 31st. However, reform challenges persist given concerns voiced to House leadership by the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog Democrats" last week.