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The Senate Finance committee passed its version of health care reform by a vote of 14–9, with Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine the only Republican voting in favor of the legislation. The Finance committee will now begin work on combining their version of health care reform with the version that passed in August by the Senate Health, Energy, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee.
The Finance committee was the last of five congressional committees to take action on health care reform which brings the debate one step closer to consideration by the Senate. The House has yet to consider H.R. 3200, its health care reform proposal. There are many differing opinions between the House and Senate on numerous critical issues including, how to finance the reform and whether or not to include a public option. The Finance committee proposal has been viewed by many as the base bill from which to develop a compromise. Should the bill pass the Senate, it would still need to be approved by the House before being sent to the president for his signature.
Both the Senate HELP committee and H.R. 3200 bills provide for a more robust basic benefit package that includes insurance companies to cover both habilitative and rehabilitative services. The Finance committee proposal would extend the therapy cap exceptions process for two year. ASHA will work to ensure that these, as well as other provisions that impact speech-language pathologists and audiologists, are appropriately addressed as the debate moves forward. For further information, please contact Ingrida Lusis, ASHA's Director of Federal and Political Advocacy, at ilusis@asha.org or 202-624-5951.
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