Road to Healthcare Reform
Anyone who lives in an area where a major road construction project has been planned has probably experienced this. You go to a meeting at the local high school or community center where Department of Transportation engineers explain the proposed location of each route, compare the costs of constructing each route and, of most concern to the community, whether any route will cut through homeowners' properties and displace them.
Later this summer, a similar scene will play out in Washington. Two Senate committees, three House committees, as well as a group of former senators, are currently designing individual plans to reform healthcare in the U.S. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee released the first draft of its 600-plus-page Affordable Health Choices Act last week.
The other committees too are focused on expanding coverage, improving care and cutting costs. Their drafts are still in the works.
Yet, by the end of the summer, members of each house of Congress are expected to nail down their reform plans and ways to pay for them into one plan and send the bill to President Obama in the fall for approval.
Of course, like those highway projects, the road to healthcare reform isn't expected to be smooth sailing, and could come to a sudden halt or derail completely.
As the healthcare reform debate heats up, ADVANCE for Nurses will follow the goings-on inside the Capital Beltway, get opinions from nursing associations and explain how the reform will affect ordinary taxpayers.
In the meantime, tune in to ABC on Wednesday, June 24 at 10 p.m. when President Obama will speak about his plans for healthcare reform.