When you listen to news reports on health care, do you know there are FIVE different health care bills under active consideration in Congress? The different bills originate from the following committees: the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions(HELP), and the House Ways and Means, Education and Labor, and Energy and Commerce committees. The three House bills were mercifully consolidated into a 2000 page behemoth entitled the TriComm Bill(warning: very large file). Which one is the news media talking about? And how care you decide which bill is the best one? The Commonwealth Fund, one of the premier charitable health foundations in the country, has published a side-by -side comparison of these bills broken into many separate components ranging from prescription drugs to malpractice reform. It has also issued its own report on these bills. And do not forget the Kaiser Family Foundation, another major charitable organization, and its own side-by-side analysis. The American Public Health Association also has its own comparative version as well(this one is dated mid-September whereas the other two are current through early November). The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Project has issued its Comparing Health Care Plans. The Wall Street Journal takes into consideration the just-released Republican outline. The entire proposed Republican plan is available along with their comparison to the “Pelosi”(read TriComm) bill.
