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HELP: A Sampler of Amendments

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee continues to plow through hundreds of amendments as it works on its health overhaul bill. The amendments, which show a wide range of interests and concerns, are pending unless otherwise marked. A short selection follows:

1. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.: To provide a cap on private insurance company executive compensation.

2. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.: To establish a demonstration project that uses practicing health care professionals to conduct undercover investigations of other health care providers in order to determine the quality of health care provided by such other providers.

3. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska: To make federal American Indian and “tribally operated” health service programs eligible for grants from the secretary of Health and Human Services to collect data on quality measures (adopted).

4. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.: To provide employees who are nursing mothers with reasonable break times to express breast milk.

5. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.: To allow expert advisory panels comprising doctors and other clinical experts with relevant specialized experience to advise the government how to conduct comparative effectiveness research studies (adopted).

6. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.: To ensure that health care reform does not increase the rate of growth of health care spending.

7. Sen. Gregg: To ensure the fiscal security of the United States.

8. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah: To ensure that community health teams include doctors of chiropractic (adopted).

9. Sen. Sanders: To provide student loan forgiveness or cancellation for volunteer firefighter and volunteer emergency medical service personnel.

10. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.: To require a health team established under the grant program to support primary care practices to use a medical home model based upon evidence-informed medicine (adopted).

11. Sen. Coburn: To provide for the establishment of an Office of Unborn Children’s Health.

12. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.: To protect all patients by prohibiting the use of data obtained from comparative effectiveness research to deny coverage of items or services under Federal health care programs and to ensure that comparative effectiveness research accounts for advancements in personalized medicine and differences in patient treatment response (rejected).

13. Sen. Coburn: To ensure adequate regulation of state-legalized medical marijuana (adopted).

See the full list here.