Health Reform Begins on the Hill
I’m going to try to post regularly about health care as the debate gets going on Capitol Hill, hopefully linking to articles and sites that are covering the issue full time, which I am not. (Karen Tumulty of Time, for instance, runs down the politics here.)
Today, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held its first markup, largely taking opening statements. According to C-SPAN, the markup will continue all week. (How fun!!)
Health care jurisdiction is spread among the HELP and Finance committees in the Senate; the latter panel has not yet held a markup.
Last week, the chairmen of the three House committees with jurisdiction (Education and Labor, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce) released a discussion draft for health care reform, which includes the much-discussed public plan, but not a whole lot of detail. NPR was among many news outlets that covered the release of the House plan.