Senate Health Reform Proposals Hit Bumps

The HELP committee began marking up this week its version of health care reform as scheduled. The incomplete proposal, according to the CBO, has an initial price tag of $1 trillion. HELP and Finance originally planned to mark up their bills this month and then merge negotiations after the July Fourth recess. However, Senate Finance Chairman Baucus (D-MT) announced that the Finance committee’s scheduled markup next week would be delayed until after July Fourth due to his determination to bring the $1.6 trillion Finance proposal down to less than $1 trillion AND make it deficit neutral.