Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Six Months Later, Where Is the Oversight?

Tomorrow marks six months since the health care law passed – a milestone the President acknowledged this morning in Virginia.  But while Americans may be asking “Where are the jobs?” when it comes to the economy, they could also be asking “Where is the oversight?” when it comes to the implementation of the massive, 2,700-page health care law.  Consider the following:

  • Exactly six months after the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) was signed into law (on December 8, 2003), the Finance Committee held a hearing on the prescription drug card program.  Six months after the health care law was signed, the only Members of Congress meeting to investigate the law’s impacts are Senate Republicans – at a forum to be held tomorrow.
  • In the six months following the MMA’s passage, the Finance Committee also held other hearings regarding Medicare provisions in the law – as well as confirmation hearings for Dr. Mark McClellan to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Six months after the health care law was signed, the Finance Committee has yet to hold a single hearing on the law, and Dr. Donald Berwick was recess appointed by President Obama to head CMS, as Chairman Baucus declined to hold hearings on his nomination – and has thus far also declined requests from Republicans to have Dr. Berwick testify before Congress after his appointment.
  • Likewise, the House Ways and Means Committee held four days of hearings on the MMA in the six months following its passage – including a two day, full Committee hearing on the 2004 Medicare trustees report.  Conversely, in the six months following the health care law’s passage, Ways and Means Democrats refused Republican requests to have the Medicare actuaries testify at a hearing about the health care law’s impact on Medicare patients’ access to care.
  • In the six months following the MMA’s passage, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held hearings on the new Medicare prescription drug card program and the Medicare physician fee schedule.  In the six months following the health care law’s enactment, the Energy and Commerce Committee has held a whopping 18 health-related hearings, on topics ranging from synthetic genomics to smokeless tobacco in major league baseball.  Not a single hearing has focused on the health care law.

A total of five Congressional Committees* hold jurisdiction over the massive new health care law.  Even though Speaker Pelosi said in March that Democrats had to pass the health care bill “so that you can find out what is in it,” oversight of the sprawling, 2,700-page measure has been largely nonexistent.  The American people deserve to know exactly how the $2.6 trillion health care law is being implemented, and how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent.

 

* The Senate HELP and House Education and Labor Committees have jurisdiction over PPACA, but do not have jurisdiction over Medicare and thus did not call MMA-related hearings.