Alaska Politics Blog : UPDATED: Murkowski health care amendment fails

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Erika Bolstad

Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau in 2007, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

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Alaska political corruption

The FBI raided state legislature offices in Aug. 2006, and the fallout since has been epic in Alaska's political world.

UPDATED: Murkowski health care amendment fails

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: December 3, 2009 - 8:52 am

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From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. --

The Senate voted 41-59 against Sen. Lisa Murkowski's amendment, only the second to be voted on as the Senate begins consideration of its version of a health care overhaul bill.

Murkowski's amendment would have banned the government from using guidelines from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to deny coverage. It would have applied to private insurers and government insurance plans. The Republican-backed amendment aimed at guidelines the task force released last month calling for pushing back the age and frequency at which women get screened for breast cancer.

Note that the Department of Health and Human Services funds the task force, but it makes its decisions independently from the federal agency. Also, when it was developing its recommendations, cost was not a consideration, only scientific evidence. The task force is "prohibited from considering costs when they make guidelines," the New York Times reported last month.

The Senate on Thursday did vote 61-39 to pass a competing amendment sponsored by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. That amendment allows a woman's doctor to determine whether mammograms are medically necessary. If so, it would require insurers to cover the screenings.

Also, Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, split ways with his Republican counterpart, Murkowski. Begich voted against her amendment and for the Mikulski version.