Legislative Update

Happy New Year from your OSR Legislative Affairs team. With 2010 comes many exciting legislative changes on the horizon for both medical students and physicians. We will continue to keep you informed on these issues as they develop and, as always, will be available to respond to your emailed questions or concerns.

As you may already know, prior to the congressional holiday recess the Senate passed H.R. 3590: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act more commonly known as the "Senate health care reform bill." Similar to a bill passed in the House, this Senate reform bill has a mandate that all Americans have health insurance, prohibits insurance plans from denying individuals with pre-existing conditions, creates a subsidy program to help low income pay for insurance, and expands the Medicaid program. Items in the bill which may be pertinent to you include:

I. Additional Residency Positions

II. Federally Qualifiied Health Center (FQHC) Spending

II. The Future of Health Care Reform

IV. Other Health News

I. Additional Residency Positions

Section 5503 of H.R. 3590 calls for an increase in the available number of residency positions effective July 1, 2011 and the distribution of these positions amongst training programs. The majority of increases, 75%, will be designated to primary care or general surgery programs. Furthermore, increases will favor regions with physician shortages. In total, the bill allows for an increase in residency positions of up to 15%.

II. FQHC Spending

Health care reform measures proposed sought to emphasize increased funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in order to provide primary care services to low-income, underserved, or uninsured Americans. FQHCs include community health centers, migrant health centers, and health care for the homeless. Section 5601 calls for increased funding for FQHCs up to $8.3 billion by 2016.

III. The Future of Health Care Reform

With different health care reform bills passed in the House and Senate, the next steps for legislators is to reconcile the two versions of the bill to present to President Obama. While a publicly funded health care option was included in the House bill, it was dropped from the Senate version in order to garner the necessary 60 votes. House leaders acknowledged that if a public option is not in the final bill, a fair concession plan must be put in place to ensure all Americans now mandated to have health insurance have an affordable option. Other contentious issues that must also be resolved in talks between the two chambers, include how to handle abortion coverage and undocumented immigrants, which taxes to raise to pay for the expansion of insurance coverage in the Medicaid program, how to enforce the proposed payment cuts to Medicare providers, and the level of subsidy offered to low income individuals to purchase insurance. For more detailed commentary on the resolutions needed between the House and Senate Bills, please visit here.

To read the complete text from H.R. 3590 and the read the sections referenced in this email, please visit the Library of Congress, click "bill number" and enter search term "HR 3590."

For some questions and answers regarding H.R. 3590 not discussed in this email, please visit here or New England Journal of Medicine article.

IV. Other Health News

The House of Representatives voted to temporarily delay 2010 Medicare payment cuts to physicians. Read the article.

The President extended COBRA, temporary health care insurance for laid-off workers. Read the article.

NIH approved thirteen more stem cell lines for research use. Read the article

Your OSR Legislative Affairs Team:

Nathan Copeland, Southern Region
nathan.copeland@gmail.com

Amanda Mure, Central Region
amandamure@gmail.com

Ryan Padrez, Western Region
ryan.padrez@ucsf.edu

Matt Reilley, Northeast Region
reimat@gmail.com

Thure Caire, National Delegate
mcaire@health.usf.edu