A man who could help draw out whatever flames emerge from the embers of health reform talks may take his seat in the Senate Thursday.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, D, has told Boston newspapers that he hopes to have the results of the special election that sent Scott Brown to the Senate certified by about 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
If Massachusetts meets that deadline, that could pave the way for Vice President Joseph Biden to swear Brown in by the end of the day.
Brown, a Republican, is set to fill a seat long held by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and become 1 of 41 Republican votes in the Senate.
Backers of the Democratic approach to health reform need 61 votes in the Senate to end "filibusters," or endless rounds of debate, and get most types of measures to the Senate floor.
Even without having 41 votes, Republican senators have succeeded at slowing action on Senate health measures for months.
Brown won in Massachusetts by campaigning against the current versions of the House and Senate health bills, and he says he now opposes his state's approach to health reform. But Brown, a lawyer who has been a Republican state senator, supported the Massachusetts health reform package back when it was proposed, and he ran in Massachusetts more as an independent than as a Republican.
Brown could fit in with other New England senators – including Joseph Lieberman, Independent-Conn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine – who have expressed support for some of the Democrats' health reform goals but opposition to the complexity and cost of the House and Senate health bills, along with opposition to specific bill provisions, such as provisions that could create a new system of public health plans.
"Small business owners are confronted with uncertainty on so many levels – access to capital, skyrocketing health care costs, onerous taxes, an ever-increasing regulatory burden, and volatile energy prices – all of which undermine confidence," Snowe said in a statement issued in response to Obama's State of the Union address.
Snowe said she supports extending critical safety net programs, including the 65% federal subsidy for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act health coverage continuation benefits.
But Americans need an affordable health reform bill that addresses their critical concerns, Snowe said.
Snow and Collins represent a state where Unum Group Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn., (NYSE:UNM) is a major employer, and Lieberman represents the home state of Aetna Inc., Hartford (NYSE:AET), which is also the home of the managed care division of CIGNA Corp., Philadelphia (NYSE:CI), and of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Springfield, Mass.
New mandates and taxes could hurt all of those companies, but reform measures that helped people with disabilities qualify for affordable major medical coverage might help the disability insurance operations at Aetna, CIGNA, MassMutual and Unum, by reducing pressure on disability claimants who are waiting to qualify for Medicare disability insurance benefits.
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