What’s next on healthcare reform? — Enroll America
Democrats are still celebrating their historic achievement on healthcare reform, but the looming question is what’s next?
For Republicans and other opponents, it’s a campaign to repeal the law and replace it with something more to their liking.
For healthcare reform advocates and industry groups, including some who opposed the legislation, it’s implementation of the new law and getting people to sign up for coverage.
Ron Pollack of Families USA, a healthcare advocacy group, is spearheading a massive effort called “Enroll America” that will try to make enrollment for new healthcare insurance subsidies and the expanded Medicaid program go as smoothly as possible.
The effort will involve healthcare advocacy groups as well as hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, doctors and community health centers, Pollack said.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry group that opposed the health reform legislation and became a target for sharp criticism from healthcare overhaul supporters, is also on board.
“All of them have a common interest in getting everyone enrolled whether it is for altruistic or business reasons, they all have a common reason for doing it,” Pollack said.
Obama: no ‘Armageddon’ as healthcare becomes law
President Barack Obama, campaigning in Iowa on Thursday to sell his landmark healthcare overhaul, couldn’t resist mocking Republicans for warning that the reform would provoke “Armageddon” and other tactics he rejects as alarmist scaremongering.
“I’m not exaggerating. Leaders of the Republican Party called the passage of this bill Armageddon. Armageddon! End of freedom as we know it,” he told a rally in Iowa City.
“So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling, some cracks opening up in the earth? Turned out it was a nice day. Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall,” he said.
Opponents of the bill warn it will unleash another federal entitlement program that the American economy cannot afford that will inevitably lead to higher taxes and bigger deficits.
Obama denies this complaint and said that the American people would be able to make their own minds up as they compared their own experience with the claims of his opponents.
“From this day forward, all the cynics, all the naysayers, they are going to have to confront the reality of what this reform is and what it isn’t. They will have to finally acknowledge this isn’t a government takeover of our healthcare system,” he said.
Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama in Iowa), Reuters/Jim Young (cherry blossoms in Washington)
I love my country. I respect the Presidency. I pray for our President and his family. But at this point in time, I must say, we have YET to experience such a arrogant, prideful man in that office. He knows no bounds, apparently. Imagine…an American president who actually taunts 55+ % of the American citizens. Scary. The gloves are coming off, Mr. Obama. You are certainly revealing your stripes, aren’t you?
Did health insurance industry report backfire?
Support for a “strong public option” appears to be growing in the House of Representatives.
One of the reasons is that a health insurance industry report predicting higher premiums if Congress fails to enact a healthcare overhaul without a strong mandate for individuals to purchase coverage appears to have backfired.
Democratic aides say support for a strong public health plan to compete with insurers is gaining strength in the House which is weighing three versions of the public option.
The White House and congressional leaders blasted the report, written for America’s Health Insurance Plans, calling it misleading and flawed.
The report’s author, PricewaterhouseCoopers, acknowledged that it only took into account certain aspects of the bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee and omitted analyses of provisions, including government subsidies, that would lower premium costs.
Democratic leaders in the Senate are working to blend the Finance Committee bill, which has no public option, with a measure with a public option passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
They appear more determined than ever to stop insurers from raising premiums.
Mandating that private citizens puchase insurance or they will be fined/taxed/penalized only guarantees those profits in perpetuity. Let’s see what 67 year old diabetic Mitch McConnell’s or 40 year old chain smoker John Boehner’s premiums would be. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 per month
