NAAOP Election Update and Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care
NAAOP
Description
Collection
Title:
NAAOP Election Update and Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care
Creator:
NAAOP
Date:
11/10/2010
Text:
NAAOP Election Update and Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care
A resurgent Republican Party seized control of the House of Representatives
on November 2nd but fell short in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry
Reid survived a tea party-fueled challenge to win a fifth term. Republicans
more than recovered their large losses from the 2006 and 2008 cycles by
claiming the seats of several highly endangered Democrats and winning at
least 239 House seats, a 60 seat pick-up as of today with 9 races still
undecided. Of these nine close races, 4 show Democrats leading (AZ-8, KY-6,
NY-25, and VA-11), 3 show Democrats losing (CA-20, TX-27, and WA-2) and 2
are dead heats (CA-11 and IL-8).
Fueled by voter anger about a sputtering economy and the national health
reform effort, Republicans made deep inroads in Democratic-held districts
from coast to coast, knocking off long-time Democratic incumbents. The
number of Democratic seats won by the Republicans tops the 54 seats gained
in 1994 during President Clinton's first term. One measure of just how bad
Democratic losses were: at least half the Blue Dog Caucus won't be back for
the 112th Congress. Twenty-two of the 54 conservative Democrats lost on
Tuesday, and six more didn't stand for reelection. Of the 63 incumbent
Democrats that lost, 60 of them voted in favor of the health care reform
legislation. The gains are the GOP's largest since 1938, when the party
captured 80 seats.
With the announcement today that Nancy Pelosi will run for Minority Leader
in the next Congress, the Congressional leadership will look much the same
as it did this Congress, except with Minority Leader Boehner becoming
Speaker of the House, House Republicans in charge and House Democrats in the
minority.
Democrats also lost control of nine gubernatorial races but managed to keep
their majority in the Senate despite the loss of six seats. The Senate race
in Washington was called today in favor of the sitting Democratic Senator,
Patty Murray. The GOP will win in Alaska, whether the race goes to Sen. Lisa
Murkowski or her Tea Party challenger, Joe Miller. In another close race not
decided until yesterday, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett eked out a win in
Colorado. Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) defeated Tea Party-backed Sharron
Angle (R) and will remain Senate Majority Leader in the next Congress and
Senator Mitch McConnell will remain Senate Minority Leader.
Republicans picked up several key seats, including Pat Toomey (R) defeating
Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in Pennsylvania; Ron Johnson (R) defeating Senator Russ
Feingold (D) in Wisconsin; and John Boozman (R) defeating Senator Blanche
Lincoln (D) in Arkansas. In open seats, Rand Paul (R) won in Kentucky,
defeating Democrat Jack Conway and Marco Rubio won in Florida, defeating
Gov. Charlie Crist (I) and Kendrick Meek (D).
The electoral map for 2012 looks similarly promising for Republicans.
Democrats will defend 21 seats, including some members who will face tough
reelections such as Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben
Nelson (D-NE) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Also, lost in the news about the GOP
sweep of the House were the results that could solid if Republican gains for
a decade or more. Big wins in governorships across the country, and stunning
victories in state legislatures (the GOP picked up at least 19 state House
and Senate chambers across the country, totaling hundreds of seats), mean
Republicans will control redistricting in most states. This will help them
solidify their gains for years to come.
Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care:
Lame-duck Agenda: The GOP's first order of business in the lame-duck session
will be trying to extend all the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of
December. In terms of deficit reduction, not much can happen until President
Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission delivers its recommendations
on December 1st. Unemployment insurance is another issue that may be
addressed by the lame-duck Congress, in addition to the outstanding
appropriations bills, both of which may be temporarily addressed through a
Continuing Resolution (CR). Congressman Boehner will be pushing to resolve
every one of the outstanding appropriations bills by rolling back the clock
and adhering to FY 2008 spending levels.
But the most important bill that needs to be passed in health care involves
another extension of the doc fix. In early summer, Congress passed an
extension (including a 2.2% update) of the Medicare physician fee fix
through November 30, 2010 but without further Congressional action,
physician payments will be cut by 24.9 percent beginning on December 1 and
reduced by an additional 6 percent beginning January 1, 2011. The American
Medical Association (AMA) has called for Congress to extend the existing fix
for an additional 13 months through 2011. Passage of some form of doc fix
offers a potential opportunity to tack onto that bill legislation relevant
to the O&P profession. There may also be an opportunity to try to fast-track
the Injured and Amputee Veterans Bill of Rights, H.R, 5428, although this is
less clear at this point.
Repealing Health Reform: House and Senate Republican leaders including many
Committee Chairmen and Ranking Members have said that repealing the historic
health reform bill will be their top priority. And, the day after Democrats'
huge losses at the voting booth, both Obama and Senate Majority Leader Reid
signalled after the elections that they are open to tweaking the health care
law but not to substantially dismantling it.
But, due to the cost of repealing many of these policies or programs and
facing the likely challenge of potential Obama vetoes, Republicans likely
will have little choice but to whittle away at pieces of the reform law,
delaying programs, mandated studies, and reports. If they so choose, they
may attempt to de-fund HHS by prohibiting appropriations from being spent to
implement health reform, but that approach will likely draw veto-level
opposition. Still, Republicans have made it clear that they will do
everything in their power to repeal health reform, including voting to
repeal the bill every day in the next Congress to make the point clear.
In the meantime, NAAOP will be working with HHS, CMS, and other federal
agencies as they continue to press forward at a furious pace with the
issuance of federal regulations implementing health care reform. Unless a
repeal bill is ultimately successful or the courts invalidate the reform
bill as unconstitutional, a large number of regulations that will be
critical to O&P patient care in the future will take hold in the months and
years to come. NAAOP will continue to make the O&P case, regardless of the
ultimate fate of the national health care debate.
Please visit our website at: www.naaop.org
NAAOP
1501 M Street, NW
7th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-1700
e-mail: <Email Address Redacted>
(800) 622-6740
(202) 624-0064 Phone
(202) 785-1756 Fax
www.naaop.org
A resurgent Republican Party seized control of the House of Representatives
on November 2nd but fell short in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry
Reid survived a tea party-fueled challenge to win a fifth term. Republicans
more than recovered their large losses from the 2006 and 2008 cycles by
claiming the seats of several highly endangered Democrats and winning at
least 239 House seats, a 60 seat pick-up as of today with 9 races still
undecided. Of these nine close races, 4 show Democrats leading (AZ-8, KY-6,
NY-25, and VA-11), 3 show Democrats losing (CA-20, TX-27, and WA-2) and 2
are dead heats (CA-11 and IL-8).
Fueled by voter anger about a sputtering economy and the national health
reform effort, Republicans made deep inroads in Democratic-held districts
from coast to coast, knocking off long-time Democratic incumbents. The
number of Democratic seats won by the Republicans tops the 54 seats gained
in 1994 during President Clinton's first term. One measure of just how bad
Democratic losses were: at least half the Blue Dog Caucus won't be back for
the 112th Congress. Twenty-two of the 54 conservative Democrats lost on
Tuesday, and six more didn't stand for reelection. Of the 63 incumbent
Democrats that lost, 60 of them voted in favor of the health care reform
legislation. The gains are the GOP's largest since 1938, when the party
captured 80 seats.
With the announcement today that Nancy Pelosi will run for Minority Leader
in the next Congress, the Congressional leadership will look much the same
as it did this Congress, except with Minority Leader Boehner becoming
Speaker of the House, House Republicans in charge and House Democrats in the
minority.
Democrats also lost control of nine gubernatorial races but managed to keep
their majority in the Senate despite the loss of six seats. The Senate race
in Washington was called today in favor of the sitting Democratic Senator,
Patty Murray. The GOP will win in Alaska, whether the race goes to Sen. Lisa
Murkowski or her Tea Party challenger, Joe Miller. In another close race not
decided until yesterday, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett eked out a win in
Colorado. Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) defeated Tea Party-backed Sharron
Angle (R) and will remain Senate Majority Leader in the next Congress and
Senator Mitch McConnell will remain Senate Minority Leader.
Republicans picked up several key seats, including Pat Toomey (R) defeating
Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in Pennsylvania; Ron Johnson (R) defeating Senator Russ
Feingold (D) in Wisconsin; and John Boozman (R) defeating Senator Blanche
Lincoln (D) in Arkansas. In open seats, Rand Paul (R) won in Kentucky,
defeating Democrat Jack Conway and Marco Rubio won in Florida, defeating
Gov. Charlie Crist (I) and Kendrick Meek (D).
The electoral map for 2012 looks similarly promising for Republicans.
Democrats will defend 21 seats, including some members who will face tough
reelections such as Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben
Nelson (D-NE) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Also, lost in the news about the GOP
sweep of the House were the results that could solid if Republican gains for
a decade or more. Big wins in governorships across the country, and stunning
victories in state legislatures (the GOP picked up at least 19 state House
and Senate chambers across the country, totaling hundreds of seats), mean
Republicans will control redistricting in most states. This will help them
solidify their gains for years to come.
Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care:
Lame-duck Agenda: The GOP's first order of business in the lame-duck session
will be trying to extend all the Bush tax cuts, which expire at the end of
December. In terms of deficit reduction, not much can happen until President
Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission delivers its recommendations
on December 1st. Unemployment insurance is another issue that may be
addressed by the lame-duck Congress, in addition to the outstanding
appropriations bills, both of which may be temporarily addressed through a
Continuing Resolution (CR). Congressman Boehner will be pushing to resolve
every one of the outstanding appropriations bills by rolling back the clock
and adhering to FY 2008 spending levels.
But the most important bill that needs to be passed in health care involves
another extension of the doc fix. In early summer, Congress passed an
extension (including a 2.2% update) of the Medicare physician fee fix
through November 30, 2010 but without further Congressional action,
physician payments will be cut by 24.9 percent beginning on December 1 and
reduced by an additional 6 percent beginning January 1, 2011. The American
Medical Association (AMA) has called for Congress to extend the existing fix
for an additional 13 months through 2011. Passage of some form of doc fix
offers a potential opportunity to tack onto that bill legislation relevant
to the O&P profession. There may also be an opportunity to try to fast-track
the Injured and Amputee Veterans Bill of Rights, H.R, 5428, although this is
less clear at this point.
Repealing Health Reform: House and Senate Republican leaders including many
Committee Chairmen and Ranking Members have said that repealing the historic
health reform bill will be their top priority. And, the day after Democrats'
huge losses at the voting booth, both Obama and Senate Majority Leader Reid
signalled after the elections that they are open to tweaking the health care
law but not to substantially dismantling it.
But, due to the cost of repealing many of these policies or programs and
facing the likely challenge of potential Obama vetoes, Republicans likely
will have little choice but to whittle away at pieces of the reform law,
delaying programs, mandated studies, and reports. If they so choose, they
may attempt to de-fund HHS by prohibiting appropriations from being spent to
implement health reform, but that approach will likely draw veto-level
opposition. Still, Republicans have made it clear that they will do
everything in their power to repeal health reform, including voting to
repeal the bill every day in the next Congress to make the point clear.
In the meantime, NAAOP will be working with HHS, CMS, and other federal
agencies as they continue to press forward at a furious pace with the
issuance of federal regulations implementing health care reform. Unless a
repeal bill is ultimately successful or the courts invalidate the reform
bill as unconstitutional, a large number of regulations that will be
critical to O&P patient care in the future will take hold in the months and
years to come. NAAOP will continue to make the O&P case, regardless of the
ultimate fate of the national health care debate.
Please visit our website at: www.naaop.org
NAAOP
1501 M Street, NW
7th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-1700
e-mail: <Email Address Redacted>
(800) 622-6740
(202) 624-0064 Phone
(202) 785-1756 Fax
www.naaop.org
Citation
NAAOP, “NAAOP Election Update and Impact on Health Reform and O&P Care,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 23, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/232021.
