Update Health Care Reform

On October 13, the Senate Finance Committee voted on its version of the bill to overhaul health care in the United States.  The Senate Finance committee was the last congressional committee of jurisdiction to tackle the issue of health care reform.  The Senate leadership is in the process of merging the Finance Committee legislation with a bill approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). The HELP bill contained several provisions supported by NASW and not included in the Finance Committee proposal, including a public option plan. 

According to Senate rules, they will permit a huge number of floor amendments, threatening perhaps several weeks of debate, if opponents have the votes to tie up consideration. It is likely that at least some of these amendments will raise high-priority concerns for NASW.   For example, one such amendment would focus on including the public plan option in the final bill.  Please go here to see an earlier NASW action alert supporting the public option plan.

The House leadership has been meeting over the past month in an effort to merge the bills passed out of three committees of jurisdiction (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Education and Labor).

With important issues still outstanding in both the House and Senate versions, we believe it is vital to focus on NASW’s floor strategy and message points.  The NASW Government Relations department will be calling on its members to quickly contact their members of congress to take action, possibly on a variety of issues of importance to NASW members and constituents. We hope our strategy will maximize our advocacy effectiveness and enable us to best address the unique needs of social workers and our clients and ensure passage of meaningful health reform legislation that will help expand access to affordable and quality health care.  Thank you for your support and advocacy.

For ongoing information, please visit our health care reform page.