What Went Down On Health Care This Week

If the health care bill ends up in a conference committee between the House and the Senate, it could be a while before a final bill is agreed to by both chambers. Since 1980, reconciliation bills that have passed both chambers and then gone to a conference committee have taken anywhere from three days to 126 days between original passage (the date that the second chamber passed the bill) and final passage.

Reconciliation bills that went to conference committee

FISCAL YEAR	ORIGINAL PASSAGE BY BOTH CHAMBERS	FINAL PASSAGE BY BOTH CHAMBERS	DAYS ELAPSED	DAYS ELAPSED
1981	September 17, 1980	December 3, 1980	77	–
1982	July 13, 1981	July 31, 1981	18	–
1983	July 23, 1982	August 19, 1982	27	–
1983	August 11, 1982	August 18, 1982	7	–
1986	November 14, 1985	March 20, 1986	126	–
1987	September 25, 1986	October 17, 1986	22	–
1988	December 11, 1987	December 22, 1987	11	–
1990	October 13, 1989	November 22, 1989	40	–
1991	October 19, 1990	October 27, 1990	8	–
1994	June 25, 1993	August 6, 1993	42	–
1996	October 28, 1995	November 20, 1995	23	–
1997	July 23, 1996	August 1, 1996	9	–
1998	June 25, 1997	July 31, 1997	36	–
1998	June 27, 1997	July 31, 1997	34	–
2000	July 30, 1999	August 5, 1999	6	–
2001	July 18, 2000	July 21, 2000	3	–
2002	May 23, 2001	May 26, 2001	3	–
2004	May 15, 2003	May 23, 2003	8	–
2006	November 18, 2005	February 1, 2006	75	–
2006	February 2, 2006	May 11, 2006	98	–
2008	July 20, 2007	September 7, 2007	49	–
Average			34	–

The Senate may be preparing to include changes to some complicated but consequential waivers in the “skinny bill” it’s writing. A little explanation about what those are: One provision of Obamacare was that states can apply for waivers to many of the health insurance regulations in the law if they want to experiment with different models of health coverage. They can be used to waive the Essential Health Benefits, or to change the subsidies to help low-income people buy insurance. The trick is that in order to be approved, states must show that at least as many would be covered as under the normal rules, and that the coverage would be at least as affordable and as comprehensive, all without increasing the federal deficit. A previous iteration of the Senate bill (one that effectively failed earlier this week) included changes to those waivers. Under that plan, states would have been able waive the regulations so long as they showed it wouldn’t increase the federal deficit. States would only need to write a description of how the new model would address the other issues of who is covered, how much it would cost and what that coverage would look like. It’s not yet clear whether the provision in the bill being written today would be similar.

The Senate reportedly hasn’t written the draft legislation for the “skinny bill” we’ve been talking about for the last couple of days, but information is starting to trickle out on what it might include. The bill is widely expected to include a repeal of the individual mandate. According to Axios, it would also defund Planned Parent for a year and expand waivers that states can apply for in order to get around the regulations on the insurance market imposed by Obamacare, though it’s not clear what those waivers would allow. There are at least two problems in there for the GOP: One, the Senate parliamentarian has said defunding Planned Parenthood doesn’t comply with Senate rules, meaning it would need 60 votes to pass. And two, the parliamentarian has also ruled that the waivers don’t comply with the rules.