Hurdles remain for Senate primary care plan
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Sens. Roger Marshall (left) and Bernie Sanders. Photos: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders on Thursday won a bipartisan stamp of approval on a plan he co-authored to boost funding for community health centers and expand primary care. But big hurdles remain in the Senate and beyond.
Driving the news: The Senate health committee that Sanders (I-Vt.) chairs passed the bill he drafted with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) in a 14-7 vote, with Marshall and two other Republicans joining all of the panel's Democrats in favor.
- It would boost funding for community health centers from $4 billion to $5.8 billion per year, triple funding for the National Health Service Corps, and take other steps to try to address a shortage of primary care doctors, nurses and mental health professionals.
Yes, but: Ranking Republican Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, as well as a majority of Republicans on the committee, opposed the measure over the fact that new spending isn't entirely offset. There also are disagreements over whether the legislation has strong enough wording to prevent funds from being spent on abortion.
- The GOP misgivings could potentially keep the plan out of a year-end funding package, usually the most likely path to enactment.
- The House does have bipartisan agreement on a more modest increase for community health centers at the committee level, but the bill containing that provision is mired in that chamber's meltdown over keeping the government open.
Between the lines: The legislation pokes at the powerful hospital industry with a range of payfors, which could also save consumers money.
- Those include banning hospital facility fees for certain services such as telehealth and requiring off-campus hospital departments to have unique identifiers to address what critics call "dishonest billing," a reference to when health systems charge higher hospital rates for services that can be delivered in a doctor's office.
- Cassidy cited the opposition of hospital industry groups as part of his case against the bill.
Go deeper: Even though it takes on hospitals, the bill is far from fully paid for at the moment. Backers say they will address that down the road, including by using payfors borrowed from other committees.
- But there are not yet firm commitments from Finance or Judiciary committees on those fronts.
The bottom line: Sanders said in a statement that he and Marshall "will work with Senate leadership in the coming weeks to move this bill forward and ensure that millions more Americans can get the health care they deserve."
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