Thursday, July 9, 2009

Health Care Reform Continues

On June 17, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee began its markup of the Affordable Health Choices Act. Prevent Blindness America and a number of affiliates have reached out to Committee members to help promote the inclusion of vision and eye health related items in this bill. The HELP Committee, which has already considered more than 200 amendments to the bill, resumed consideration of the legislation this week.

The House Tri-Committee bill is expected to be introduced on July 10. The Energy and Commerce Committee is set to begin markup on the bill on Monday, July 13 through Thursday, July 16. Prevent Blindness America has reviewed the Tri-Committee discussion draft released last month and looks forward to evaluating the the bill when it is introduced to ensure that eye and vision health are included in this health care reform piece.

For more information on the HELP Committee bill, go to http://help.senate.gov/index.html. For more information on the Tri-Committee bill, go to http://waysandmeans.house.gov/MoreInfo.asp?section=52. Information on the Senate Finance Committee bill will be available when it is introduced.

Prevent Blindness America's positions on health care reform may be found at http://www.preventblindness.net/site/PageServer?pagename=advocacy_Resources.

1 comment:

Jennifer Pennock said...

The Associated Press reports that the House bill will not be released until some time next week.
http://tinyurl.com/mbpraz