Budget:
House Bill Pummels Home Care
Published on Wed Jun 17, 2009
Lawmakers call for billions in Medicare home care cuts. Health care reform legislation is taking shape in Congress, but that shape is looking like bad news for home care providers. The effort to enact sweeping health care reform this year has been losing steam, political observers say. Republicans are refusing to vote for a plan with a public insurance option and Democrats are fighting amongst themselves over how to pay for reform, among other items. In the face of the momentum loss, President Barack Obama has put pressure on congressional leaders to produce their health care reform bills before the August recess, which begins Aug. 3 in the House and Aug. 10 in the Senate. On July 14, the three House committees of jurisdiction responded to the president's pressure with their own so-called "tri-committee" bill (H.R. 3200). Unfortunately for home health agencies, the bill that was circulated in draft form [...]