Advocacy Update
August 3, 2009
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate forged ahead on health care reform; however,
neither the House nor the Senate were able to pass their respective versions of health care reform
before adjourning for the August Congressional recess period which begins on August 3rd.
Unfortunately, this delay means that Congress will miss the deadline set by the President earlier this
year to enact health care reform.
Before leaving to begin the August Congressional recess period, House Energy and Commerce
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (DCA) reached a deal with 4 of the 7 Blue Dog Coalition
members that sit on the Committee. The Blue Dog Coalition, who so far had been a roadblock to
finalizing the House bill, consists of 50 fiscally conservative Democratic members of the House. With
this deal, the markup of H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (the House
version of health care reform), continued so that the Committee could finalize the bill. The Energy and
Commerce Committee markup was the one of the remaining hurdles for the bill before reaching the
House floor. The deal with the Blue Dog Coalition reduces subsidies to lowincome Americans,
prevents a new public insurance plan from being based on Medicare rates, increases exemptions for
small businesses and cuts the cost of the overall package by more than $100 billion. Additionally, this
deal pushes off until September a vote on the House floor.
In the Senate, the Finance Committee continues bipartisan negotiations on their portion of the health
care reform bill and is expected to release its version of health care reform upon returning from the
August Congressional recess period. In the Senate, the Finance Committee members negotiating the
sweeping reform package are close to dropping a requirement that employers provide health
insurance for employees as well as a governmentrun public insurance plan to forge a compromise,
despite the President's support for such measures. The Finance bill is shaping up to be significantly
different from H.R. 3200 and the health care reform bill passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions (HELP) Committee. It is expected to lack both a governmentrun insurance plan and a
mandate that employers cover their workers. Additionally, Finance members are leaning toward a tax
on generous insurance plans to fund their bill, instead of the surtax on wealthy Americans included in
H.R. 3200.
Both the House and Senate expect to pass their respective health care reform bills when they return in
September. The IMF will continue to keep patients, family members, health care providers and
supporters apprised of the developments for U.S. health care reform. Please visit the IMF advocacy
page at www.myeloma.org for more information on health care reform or other important advocacy
issues that impact the myeloma community.

Please visit our Advocacy Action Center (http://www.capwiz.com/myeloma/home/) to see how you
can help with these and other efforts.

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