By Jocelyn Guyer

Brace yourselves for a hectic few weeks leading up to the Congressional recess.  According to CQ, House leadership is preparing for a possible final vote on health reform as soon as next week.  It is still unclear whether or not they have the votes to pass the measure, which would actually be the Senate bill along with a reconciliation bill that includes agreed-upon “fixes” to the Senate bill.

The process of moving the legislation through the House is expected to begin Monday in the House Budget Committee. The next stop would be the Rules Committee then the floor.  We are expecting to see the actual legislative language of the final bill on Tuesday after which members (and the rest of us) would have at least 72 hours to review it before a vote is taken.

There are a number of procedural questions that remain to be answered but if all goes well, the bill could be on the House floor for a final vote around March 19th or 20th. Members have been told to prepare for a vote at the end of the week, staying through the weekend if necessary.  Then, of course, the Senate still would need to pass the “fixes” included in the reconciliation package.

Right about now, you probably have to “pinch” yourselves to make sure you’re not dreaming this.  Believe me, I had to pinch myself while writing it.  In a sign that health reform really is moving forward again, President Obama postponed his March 18th trip to Indonesia so that he would be around for the final push for passage in the House. 

Now, back down to earth … In other developments impacting health coverage, the Senate moved forward as expected on fiscal relief to states through an extension of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) increase as part of the American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act (aka “jobs bill”).  The House already has passed the FMAP provisions. The jobs bill is now moving through the final stages of the legislative process and, as always, it’s not cut and dry.  However, the outlook for enactment of the FMAP provision still looks positive, which is good news for the country’s children.  As we noted in a new analysis, when families lose their jobs, they often lose employer-based coverage and turn to Medicaid and CHIP, especially for their kids.  In fact, children represent more than 60 percent of those who have gained Medicaid coverage over the past year.  If the Medicaid program doesn’t remain strong in the months ahead in the face of persistently high unemployment and ongoing state budget problems, we can expect that children will be particularly hard hit.