Health Reform and the 111th Congress
February 25, 2010 - R40581
The health reform debate in the 111th Congress continued and expanded upon the work begun in the 110th Congress. On November 12, 2008, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, released a white paper detailing his principles for health reform. This provided a framework for work within the committee for the 111th Congress. Several bills were introduced when the 111th Congress first convened, and these bills focused on a broad spectrum of approaches to health reform. On November 7, 2009, the House passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. H.R. 3962 is based on H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which was originally introduced on July 14, 2009, and was reported separately on October 14, 2009, by three House Committees--Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means. The U.S. Senate passed its version of health insurance reform on December 24, 2009, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in H.R. 3590, as amended by the Senate (hereafter referred to simply as H.R. 3590). H.R. 3590 consolidated and amended bills passed by the two committees with principal jurisdiction, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which ordered reported S. 1679, ...