Health care reform: a collection of links

Just in case you want to write your Representative or Senator and tell him to Pass. The. Damned. Bill.

From a reader:

While writing a fax to send to our Congresswoman urging her to “pass the damn bill,” I found it disturbingly time-consuming to locate “the damn bill” so I could double-check some provisions in it.

The Senate bill is a substitute amendment to a House bill utterly unrelated to health care: Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 — “Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) exempt members of the uniformed services, the Foreign Service, and employees of the intelligence community on official extended duty service from the recapture requirements of the first-time homebuyer tax credit; (2) extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit through November 30, 2010, for individuals serving on official extended duty service outside the United States for at least 90 days in 2009; (3) exclude from gross income payments to military personnel to compensate for declines in housing values due to a base closure or realignment; and (4) increase penalties for failure to file a partnership or S corporation tax return. Amends the Corporate Estimated Tax Shift Act of 2009 to increase corporate estimated tax payments in the third quarter of 2014 by an additional 0.5%.” Yup, that’s where I would’ve thought to look for health-care reform.

I suspect others might experience a similar difficulty. Here are the links I’ve added to my “Favorites” so I don’t have to retrace last night’s efforts:

The Senate bill - H.R. 3590 (as amended and passed the Senate) - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Senate Amendment 2786 to H.R. 3590 (as introduced): http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590AS/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590AS.pdf

Information page for H.R. 3590, as amended by the Senate

Senate Democratic Policy Committee: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (collection of links)

The House bill - H.R. 3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act (enrolled version; as passed on 11/7/2009)

Information page for H.R. 3962

Speaker Pelosi’s page on Affordable Health Care for America Act (collection of links)

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

2 thoughts on “Health care reform: a collection of links”

  1. Thanks, Mark!

    (I wonder why somebody doesn't insert a line saying 'blah blah blah - Joe Smith is hereby Imperial Lord and subject to no laws')

  2. "The Senate bill is a substitute amendment to a House bill utterly unrelated to health care"

    Ah, so, as a revenue measure, it also violates the requirement that revenue measures originate in the House?

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