Those Sunday Talk Shows

Senators were on the talk shows this morning, and they had a lot to say about what we can expect to see this week about the Senate health care reform bill.

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) says that the bill could very well pass this week, assuming the public option and some other things he doesn't like about it are taken out.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) says that a deal between conservative and liberal Democrats, which will be necessary if the bill is to pass, is near.

The Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on the other hand, believes that a bill will not pass before Christmas.  He says the Republican caucus is united against the bill, whereas Democrats have many different positions.

"A Scandalous Shortage of Midwives"

In the U.K., that's what they're calling the situation at a hospital where a baby recently died during a botched emergency Caesarian section.  It's a sad situation where the young mother came in wanting a Caesarian, was denied one, and then had to have one anyway when the baby's heartbeat became erratic.

The coroner's report that has caused all the uproar faults maternity care in Great Britain on multiple levels; they're facing a rising birth rate and don't have the resources to deal with it.  In Britain, midwives are quite integrated into the health care system.  Unfortunately, that means that where there is a shortage of doctors, there will probably also be a shortage of midwives.

End of the Week

Health care reform legislation hit a few roadblocks at the end of this week..

The Business Roundtable, which is made up of 161 CEOs of big corporations, has supported the idea of health care reform legislation.  But it doesn't appear to like any of the legislation it's seen so far.  The Senate bill's cuts in Medicare would threaten the profitability of one in five hospitals.  And the pharmaceutical lobby isn't happy about plans to allow reimportation of drugs from other countries.  Overall, not a good day to be the White House liaison with the business community.

A report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services released today says that the Senate bill would result in increased total national health expenditures.  That's not what the bill's authors had been hoping it would say.

What is the House of Representatives doing while it waits for the Senate to finish its version of the health care reform bill?  It's regulating the financial industry.

Senator Merkley Comes Out for Breastfeeding Mothers

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has inserted a provision into the Senate version of the health care reform bill that would require companies with fifty or more employees to give nursing mothers reasonable unpaid breaks to express milk for their babies.

USA Today calls this provision a "hidden nugget" in the health care reform bill.  "Many of these ideas have failed to gain traction in the past," says the article by John Fritze.  He is presenting breastfeeding as "pork", a pet issue inserted by a craven legislator, and unrelated to the health care system.  Fritze would only have to read USA Today to learn that he is wrong.  Breastfeeding is good for mothers and babies, and if it's a "nugget" in the health care reform bill, it's an awfully tasty one.

Today's News

Here are some links to stories that might interest MAMA Campaign supporters.

Yesterday, it looked like the Senate was approaching some kind of compromise on health care reform.  Today, it no longer seems that way.  The negotiating Senators apparently disagree on the exact nature of the agreement they reached; in other words, they did not reach an agreement after all.

The Senate had to take a break from working on health care today, anyway, to vote on the annual omnibus spending measure that keeps the government from shutting down.

In the House of Representatives, the more liberal members may be losing patience with the Senate's lengthy process of negotiation.

The fight over abortion in the House of Representatives isn't going away, either.