Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) are leading the way, joined perhaps most significantly by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY). Harkin and Enzi, as senior members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, are among those likely to be in the room when the final versions of the health reform bills are worked out.
From today’s Boston Globe:
“It’s time to end the discrimination against alternative healthcare practices,’’ Harkin said at a congressional hearing.
Harkin is the cosponsor of an amendment that says healthcare plans will not be allowed to “discriminate’’ against any healthcare provider who has a license issued by a state, an amendment Senate aides said was designed to provide coverage for alternative medicine. Backers of the amendment say it could save tens of billions of dollars in the long run by providing less expensive and better alternatives to drugs and surgery in a variety of cases. The amendment was adopted by a Senate committee writing health legislation, but details are still being negotiated.
