HELP Committee postpones day of reckoning

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Jun 10 2009

Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions released their health care proposal today, but left out for now the two elements Republicans dislike the most -- a new government-run insurance plan and a requirement that employers provide coverage or pay a penalty.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is managing the bill, said he would confer with Republicans over the next two days in hopes of working out some differences before the markup next Tuesday. Dodd is managing the bill due to the absence of Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling brain cancer. Dodd said he conferred with Kennedy over dinner on Sunday and that he plans to try to wrap up the markup before the July 4 recess.

"I have every hope Sen. Kennedy will be back to take part," Dodd said. "I much prefer to be sitting next to the chairman rather than acting as a manager."

But even as Dodd said he would try to work with Republicans, the panel's ranking member, Michael Enzi, R.-Wyo., said yesterday that the draft bill was "a partisan wish-list that will put us on the road to government-rationed health care." The final bill, Enzi said, would need to look "very different" before Republicans could support it.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters that "the sooner we get the government plan off the table, the sooner we can get a (health care) program for the American people."

The bill, according to a committee summary, would allow individuals to maintain their current coverage, while providing "new, more affordable options" for health insurance. The bill would also promote preventive services such as early screening for heart disease, cancer and depression, and provide increased funding for training of physicians, nurses and other medical personnel. Elderly and disabled individuals would receive more resources to help them live at home, such as ramps in their homes or an aide to check on them.

Separately, chairmen of the three House panels briefed their fellow Democrats on their bill, which did include requirements that both individuals and employers purchase health insurance, a government-run plan and an insurance "exchange" to help individuals and small employers purchase coverage.

The House plan also would include subsidies to help individuals and families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level afford coverage and would prohibit insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions.

The measure also would replace Medicare's "sustainable growth rate" method of paying physicians, who face a 21 percent cut in January unless Congress takes action. While making that change could increase the cost of the bill, it's a necessary step, said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

"If we don't have the doctors on board, we're in trouble," Rangel said. "We have to address this in this bill."

Rangel said the bill would call for a "public plan" immediately rather than waiting to see if the private market offers affordable coverage, an idea advanced by a group of fiscally conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs.

"We're going to have a public plan. We're not going to wait two, three, five years to see what happens," Rangel said.

While he has previously expressed opposition to the idea of taxing employees' health insurance benefits as a way to finance a health care overhaul, Rangel said the idea remains on the table, although he did not seem enthusiastic.

"There's nothing, no matter how stupid it sounds, that I'm rejecting," he told reporters.

House Democrats plan to mark up the bill late this month or just after the July 4 recess.

By Mary Agnes Carey, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Posted in: Healthcare News

Tags: Brain, Brain Cancer, Cancer, Cardiology, Depression, Education, Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Reform, Heart, Heart Disease, Labor, Medicaid, Medical Legislation, Medicare, Mental Health, Poverty, Taxation

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Brittanicus on HELP Committee postpones day of reckoning

Brittanicus says:

June 10, 2009 at 10:21 PM

Healthcare in America is a privilege and a multi-trillion dollar industry, just benefiting the ultra wealthy insurance companies. Here is a very ominous example of our so called 'medical care'. Professor and surgeon Dr. Richard Foster of Indiana University medical center operated on a cancerous kidney, that was partially successfully removed. After she was operated, on my relative she found herself in incessant chronic pain and has been on the strongest of pain killers since then. The surgeon in question severed the intercostial nerves under her rib cage. As with many states physicians are never held accountable, as it's hard to prove medical malpractice even if you can afford the attorney fees. She is now appealing Federal disability, because two pain doctors say she can never work again. Since then she spends more time fighting with her California state-backed insurance company, for her pain medication to elevate the awful pain. These insurers have denied her over and over again, and forced her into federally mandated emergency room. This is an outrageous travesty of what we have a nerve to call health care. Health care in most European civilized countries has been exceptional, but since the advent of unparalleled immigration, a once Universal health care, single payer system has rapidly gone downhill. Yet if I had a chance at being a member of Canada's, France, United Kingdom method of delivery, I would grab it happily with both hands any day. In America it's run for profit, that is monopolized by giant wealthy insurance companies, who deceives the American people with 'co pays', premiums and and almost impossible referrals, once the doctor has seen you. Of course the--BIG ONE--is pre-existing condition clauses, and small print in documents that you need a magnifying glass to read, if at all. Time this superpower called the United States accommodated it's citizens with a single payer system for all and not just the high income families.

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Harold on HELP Committee postpones day of reckoning

Harold says:

June 11, 2009 at 4:44 PM

My suggestions for fixing it.

Eliminate the health insurers. They provide no actual useful service. Immediately releasing billions of dollars to actually reach actual service providers. It could be done by creating a national insurance plan available to all citizens without regard to income or resources and charge $1/year. Make it a functional replacement for Medicare, Medicaid, drug plans et al. Models to this form of doing business can be easily found in the rest of the world (minus the $1) and as close as the other side of our Northern boarder.

Jobs will be lost; but the economy and our citizens will benefit forever.

The only thing insurance companies actually do is to come up with methods of limiting coverage for each and every commercial contract and requiring complex reporting and form submission, only to argue
with the medical treatment and its' necessity. Just eliminating all the paperwork and followup arguments for the providers will save immense resources and should improve cash flow. Providers can wait months to receive payment from insurers.

Medicare is already a possible basis for the single claim (actually more like a report) processing. Making these processes fully electronic can also save a lot of people time and general delays.

Require the surrender of all privately funded health care systems, including the medical portion of retirement plans. Henceforth all the people involved will be covered by the federal plan.

Be sure that doctors and other service providers get a reasonable wage/return on investment. Either keeping insurance payments at proper levels or simply hiring/buying many of the resources. These people are due a wage commensurate with skills and training, and the cost of acquiring them. Medicare is currently screwing with this part of the equation to the point where it is now difficult to find doctors or facilities willing to take Medicare patients. If the 21% decrease is implemented, everyone on Medicare will have to travel to Canada or Belize to see a doctor.

Another result of the current system is that hospitals charge really huge amounts for uninsured individuals to make up for the insurers driving their reimbursement numbers below survivable rates for the providers. When you get your accounting sheet from the hospital, if you can figure out what it says, look at what the hospital billed and what they got paid. Someone walking in uninsured will pay the first amount. Most I have seen are twice or more the insurance companies rates.

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