Congress won’t get serious about health care…again.
The Hill is reporting that
After months of heated debates on hot-buttonhealthcare issues, congressional leaders are looking to pass a fewlower-profile health bills before the end of the 109th Congress.
The politics of healthcare issues typically do not lend themselvesto election-year compromises and 2006 has not proved exceptional inthis regard. President Bush vetoed the stem-cell-research bill and theGOP leadership in Congress endured the Democrats’ sustained assault onMedicare Part D without giving in to demands to amend the law.
But congressional aides and healthcare lobbyists have not given uphope that lawmakers will take final action on some smaller measuresbefore heading home for the election.
The Senate Health, Education, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)Committee looks to have a busy few weeks ahead as Chairman Mike Enzi(R-Wyo.) and ranking Democrat Edward Kennedy (Mass.) are workingtogether in the hopes of negotiating deals with their Housecounterparts on two relatively popular pieces of legislation.