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.
The First Draft: Let it Snowe, Let it Snowe, Let it Snowe
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe is having her day in the sun.
Snowe blanketed morning TV talk shows. The main question posed to the Maine moderate: How does it feel to be all alone?
“I have to focus on what I think is right. My constituents expect that in Maine, they want me to do what I think is right for the country, for the state,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“And so I decided to set aside my own differences and try to see what was right for the country and moving forward.”
After becoming the first (and only) Republican to vote for healthcare reform, siding with the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee bill Tuesday, everyone is imagining all sorts of intrigue.
Will she get a stern talking-to by Republican leaders (plenty of hidden backrooms in the warren of Capitol Hill)? Will they try to lure her back to toe the line with promises of a top seat on a top committee? Will Republicans outright shun her, make her stand in a corner, wear a big red letter???
With all the Republican pressure, will she melt?
She voted against making the bill available for debate
Unions oppose Baucus healthcare bill
Twenty-seven U.S. labor unions warn that the healthcare bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee is deeply flawed and they want to see some changes — or else they will oppose it.
The coalition of major unions, who support healthcare reform, issued its warning in a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Washington Post. “Unless the bill that goes to the floor of the U.S. Senate makes substantial progress to address the concerns of working men and women, we will oppose it,” the ad says.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ healthcare plan does not include a government-run “public” insurance option backed by President Barack Obama.
And Labor is not happy about that.
The labor organizations say in their ad that “a public health insurance plan option is essential to reform.”
The public option tops a list of what the labor groups say is their “bottom line for health care reform.” They also say healthcare can’t be paid for by a new tax on middle-class benefits and that employers have to pay a fair share of costs.
A measure passed earlier by the Senate Health panel does include a public insurance option — and the two bills will have to be merged. So there’s no telling what the final version is going to look like.
The Unions aren’t dropping their support for reform, but they are right in not supporting a bill that won’t produce what the citizens of this country really need, a public option.
There are 45+million Americans, most of which are the youth of this country fresh out of college, who are uninsured. A public option is for the people who cannot and could never afford most “Cadillac” plans that the House representatives and Senators, fashioning the future of Provider Care reform, can already afford 3 or 4 times over.
Maya Rockeymoore frames the point well by stating, “It is not true that a public plan will kill private industry. A public plan provides Americans with more options for affordable, efficient health care. Medicare is a public/private partnership and the industry remains alive, well and very much a part of the system. Also, the Federal Employees Health Benefit program, which is maintained by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is in partnership with private insurers. Similarly, the Department of Defense’s TRICARE plan for military personnel and families and the Department of Veterans Affairs CHAMPVA for veterans both enjoy a relationship with private insurers. In each of these cases, private insurers participate in a plan sponsored by the federal government. These partnerships allow beneficiaries to access high quality, affordable care.” http://www.ourblook.com/component/option ,com_sectionex/Itemid,200076/id,8/view, category/#catid107
The entire industry is bloated with cost. I wish that the primary focus of reform actually had significant regard for the medical industry in policy as opposed to the emphasis we currently have on provider care reform. However, I do also hope that the changes being made will target and impact practice.
Snowe jumps ship in attempt to turn healthcare “Titanic”
Well, she did it.
Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine, jumped off the Republican steamer to vote yes on the Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare reform bill.
In explaining why she was voting against the Republican line, Snowe likened changing the healthcare status quo to “turning the Titanic around” before it hit the iceberg.
She became the first Republican to vote for changing the healthcare system, which has become President Barack Obama’s signature domestic issue.
The committee voted 14-9 for the bill, almost fully on party lines.
Snowe cited hurdles that have in the past sunk healthcare reform attempts and said it was time to change the trend of inaction.
“So is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls,” Snowe said.
The First Draft: H-Day
Will Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine, become the first Republican in Congress to back a healthcare reform bill?
Will one or more Democrats defect from President Barack Obama’s signature issue?
The suspense is almost too much to bear…
The Senate Finance Committee meets at 10 a.m. to vote on its version of sweeping healthcare reform.
While the panel is expected to approve it, the drama is all in the HOW and WHO…
Of course today’s vote is still some steps away from when a bill would go before the full Senate for consideration, but it will offer some insight into how the rest of the journey will progress (or not).
A classic example of what will happen with a government single payer system was amplified for me today.I walk my dogs in a park which has it,s upkeep contracted out to a private company.They employ a young man who on his own manages the park and does a great job in the process.Occasionally the city “Parks and Recreation”crews show up and no one seems to know what they do! Today two trucks pulled up and 6 city employees got out,and the 2 hours i was there all they did was lean against their trucks doing nothing apart from the occasional “high fives”.Welcome to government heath care!
Dust-up over healthcare reform ahead of Senate panel’s vote
The fragile consensus in favor of healthcare reform may be coming apart.
With the Senate Finance Committee due to vote on its reform bill Tuesday, the insurance industry’s trade group released an analysis saying the measure would drive up costs by thousands of dollars over the next decade.
The White House quickly fired back.
“This is a self-serving analysis from the insurance industry, one of the major opponents of health insurance reform,” spokesman Reid Cherlin said.
“It comes on the eve of a vote that will reduce the industry’s profits. It is hard to take it seriously,” he said.
The analysis commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans says insurance premiums under the Finance Committee plan would rise even faster than if the United States did nothing to reform its $2.5 trillion healthcare system, the costliest in the world.
The report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the average insurance premium for a family of four is $12,300 today and would rise to $21,900 by 2019 if nothing is done.
Will there be deductibles involved in a government single payer system?if not the hospitals will have to compete with the Malls as a venue for the inhabitable none working segment of our community to pass their time.
The First Draft: Achoo
The U.S. government wants you to know the H1N1 swine flu vaccine is safe.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius blanketed morning television talk shows with basically the one message. “This definitely is a safe vaccine for people to get,” she said on NBC’s “Today” show, urging the public to visit flu.gov.
People are worried, but how much depends on which poll you look at.
A Consumer Reports survey last month found that nearly two-thirds of American parents said they would hold off having their children vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu or wouldn’t get them immunized at all, expressing wariness about whether the new vaccine had been tested enough.
A Harvard School of Public Health survey earlier this month found that 75 percent of parents would get the swine flu vaccine for their children.
“This flu is a younger person’s flu, kids have no immunity to this flu,” Sebelius said.
It’s going to be a long day for Sebelius. She did the morning TV talk show rounds and will do late-night television tonight appearing on the Jay Leno Show.
Is there a doctor in the (White) House?
Doctors do make house calls after all.
OK so it helps if you’re the president of the United States and your house is on Washington postcards.
The White House Rose Garden was a sea of white lab coats as doctors from around the country were the latest audience for President Barack Obama’s pitch on healthcare reform.
“I am thrilled to have all of you here today. And you look very spiffy in your coats,” Obama said.
The current state of play on the legislation is that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on its version on Tuesday, and it is expected to be approved. That bill then gets melded with one passed earlier this year by the Senate Health committee. Then the mixed concoction hits the Senate floor for a vote, expected by mid-October.
The public option is the wild card — whether it gets included and if so in what form.
A New England Journal of Medicine poll last month found that most American doctors favor having both public and private options in healthcare reform.
This is another example of the misrepresentation that we are accustomed to from the democrats TC.This is not a random group of doctors they are liberal activists.They now call themselves “doctors for america”,THEY CHANGED THEIR NAME,during the campaign the called themselves “doctors for Obama”.There is such a naivete about this Whitehouse trying to pull a stunt like this and thinking they could get away with it,it is amazing.
Healthcare, unplugged
It’s never going to top any charts, but the folks who put a recording of HR3200 online for your listening pleasure are back.
This time, they’re offering a digital recording of the Senate Finance Committee version of healthcare reform offered by chairman Max Baucus. And they keep the site updated with all modifications to the bill as it moves through the committee.
The voice actors doing the reading see their performances as a public service. “We read, you listen, we ALL decide,” is the slogan atop their Web site.
The way they see it, voters need to know what’s in the bills — minus the political spin. But they know some of us don’t take time to actually read the contents, including some members of Congress.
HR3200, formally known as America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is over 1,000 pages. But the voice artists make it easy for you to catch every word. You can even download the recordings to your favorite MP3 player.
In America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, the Baucus bill, you gotta love hearing Title III Subtitle A Part II on strengthening the quality infrastructure read by a professional.
For more Reuters political news, click here.
Healthcare public option on life support, will it be revived?
The healthcare “public option” was dealt a blow by the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, so now the question is whether it can be resuscitated when the legislation hits the Senate floor.
The Senate Finance Committee was always going to be the hardest sell.
The government insurance option will get another shot when the healthcare overhaul bill goes to the Senate floor, and let’s not forget the House of Representatives which is likely to pass a public option in its version of the legislation.
A Thomson Reuters poll found that 63 percent of Americans surveyed were willing to pay for healthcare reform. But only 35 percent of them said President Barack Obama’s reform agenda and the debate in Congress would lead to better health service.
In other healthcare news, Obama announced a plan to spend $5 billion for medical and scientific research, including jobs and supplies. It will come out of the $787 billion economic stimulus.
And tomorrow, doctors plan to descend on Washington for the MillionMedMarch to have their say in the healthcare debate.
Do you think Obama should push for the public option, or abandon it as the price for getting healthcare reform through Congress?
Who was this family that lost their home? What was their name? What was the name of their doctor?
If you want to supply anecdotes, provide details.
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