About Scott Hensley
Scott Hensley runs NPR's online health channel, Shots. Previously he was the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog and covered the drug industry and the Human Genome Project for the Journal. Hensley serves on AHCJ's board of directors. You can follow him at @ScottHensley.
Speechmaking has given way to lawmaking. Now that the complex task of making health reform real is under way, it’s shaping up as a pretty tough slog.
The Senate Health Committee began its public deliberations over a draft bill with some testy sparring between Republicans and Democrats. Pick your winner in the soundbite battle over the legislation.
In the Republican corner, Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire: “I don’t know who wrote it, but if it had been Rube Goldberg, Ira Magaziner, and Karl Marx you might have gotten this product.”
Counterpunching for the Democrats, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland: “Our current system is a combination of Adam Smith, Darth Vader, and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ .”
A sobering financial challenge lies behind the sniping – cost estimates have ballooned to $1.6 trillion. Democrats “privately acknowledged” to the Washington Post that finding a way to pay for an expansion of health coverage without blowing up the federal budget “is proving excruciatingly difficult.”
Indeed, the powerful Senate Finance Committee postponed the release of its draft amid worries about cost and a push for at least a little bipartisan support. “We’re not there yet,” said Chairman Max Baucus (D.-Mont.), The Wall Street Journal reported.
Scott Hensley runs NPR's online health channel, Shots. Previously he was the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog and covered the drug industry and the Human Genome Project for the Journal. Hensley serves on AHCJ's board of directors. You can follow him at @ScottHensley.