Posts tagged ‘Health Care Reform’
So Far, So Good!
We post below announcements from Senator Chris Dodd and Majority Leader Harry Reid about the inclusion of a public option in the merged Senate health care reform bill. Why? Because this is the latest news from key Senate leaders and, because this is good news for people in need of health coverage – and for taxpayers. Maybe right will yet prevail over might. We dare to hope.
DODD STATEMENT ON PUBLIC OPTION
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) released the following statement today after Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the health care reform legislation will include a strong public option.
“I fought for a strong public option – in the HELP Committee and in this merger process – because it is the best way to keep costs low and insurance companies honest,” said Dodd. “Majority Leader Reid has made a bold and right choice to endorse the HELP Committee public option, along with a provision allowing states to opt out. At its core, health care reform is about making insurance more stable and affordable for those who have it, and available to those who don’t, while improving quality and lowering costs. I believe that the public option is a key component to successful reform, and I will continue to lead the fight for it on the Senate floor.”
Note: Senator Dodd led the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee earlier this summer when it approved the Affordable Health Choices Act, which included the strong public option that will be included in the final health care bill.
AND, FROM MAJORITY LEADER, SENATOR HARRY REID
“The last two weeks have been a great opportunity to work with the White House, Senators Baucus and Dodd, and members of our Caucus on this critical issue of reforming our health insurance system. We have had productive, meaningful discussions about how to craft the strongest bill that can gain the 60 votes necessary to move forward in the Senate. I feel good about progress we have made within our caucus and with the White House, and we are all optimistic about reform because of the unprecedented momentum that exists.
I am well aware that the issue of the public option has been a source of great discussion in recent weeks. I have always been a strong supporter of the public option. While the public option is not a silver bullet, I believe it is an important way to ensure competition and to level the playing field for patients.
As we’ve gone through this process, I’ve concluded, with the support of the White House and Senators Baucus and Dodd, that the best way forward is to include a public option with an opt-out provision for states. Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt-out.
I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition and that’s why we intend to include it on the bill that will be submitted to the Senate for consideration.
We have spent countless hours over the last few days in consultation with Senators who have shown a genuine desire to see reform succeed, and I believe there is strong consensus to move forward in this direction. Today’s developments bring us another step closer to achieving our goal of passing a bill this year that lowers costs, preserves choice, creates competition and improves quality of care.”
Dear Senator Dodd
We have avoided adding to the myriad requests we know you must be getting now that you are helping to develop a final Senate health care reform bill. But, it’s quickly becoming now or never, so we write about two of our main concerns:
- The Center for Medicare Advocacy is concerned about the Medicare Commission that the White House seems to envision and that the Finance Committee passed. While we understand the value of a payment commission from some points of view, we, and others who represent Medicare beneficiaries, are terribly concerned about provisions that would essentially empower an unelected Commission to cap Medicare funding. There is no justification for such unilateral Medicare cost-containment. (Except regarding private Medicare Advantage. We have been stating, and will continue to explain, that cuts to the outlandish, wasteful Medicare Advantage subsidies are completely justified.) A Commission empowered to cap overall Medicare funding threatens the future of the traditional Medicare program and is dangerous to older and disabled people. This is sadly ironic since such a Commission could essentially create the very kind of privatized, capped Medicare program that Newt Gingrich envisioned when he said that, “while we may not be able to kill Medicare, we can make it wither on the vine”.
- As you know, the Center for Medicare Advocacy is highly supportive of a real public option in health care reform. We are grateful for your active support for this key component of true reform. We know all too well how private Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans have often abused the system, profited the insurance industry, and endangered the financial well-being of traditional Medicare. To replicate this system by having a private – only – health care reform system is simply to repeat history and to once again give away taxpayer dollars to big industry.
Thank you for all you are doing to bring health care access to all and reason to the health care system. Please let us know if we can help.
Thank You, Senator Snowe
Senator Snowe (Rep. Maine) and all Committee Democrats voted in favor of the health care reform bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee today. No other Republicans voted for the bill. While the Finance Committee bill is not the bill we would like in the end, its passage moves us closer to health care reform.
Senator Snowe acted in the tradition of a true lawmaker, putting what is best for the country above partisanship. Thank you, Senator, for your vote – and for your integrity.
Senator Dodd Will “Fight For a Strong Public Option”
Senator Chris Dodd (Dem. Conn) posted this statement on Daily Kos in advance of the meetings he will have with Senator Baucus, Senator Reid, and the White House next week in order to hash out a compromise health care bill to send on to the full Senate. He sent his editorial on to us for CMA’s health policy blog. At the request of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Dodd chaired the Senate HELP Committee’s work leading to passage of a health care reform bill in July.
“A Moment To Be Bold
By SenChrisDodd <http://senchrisdodd.dailykos.com>
Fri Oct 09, 2009
Next week, I’ll sit down with Majority Leader Reid, Finance Committee Chairman Baucus, and the White House to merge together the provisions of the two health care bills that have been passed by Senate committees.
I’ll be there as the representative of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, but I know that I’m also carrying with me the responsibility of speaking up on behalf of millions of passionate activists – without whose efforts we wouldn’t have a President who has made reform a top priority, not to mention enough Democrats in Congress to pass a bill.
I understand that many of you are worried about what that bill will look like. I know first-hand how frustrating it has been to watch good ideas clash with political realities, especially on such an important issue.
The HELP and Finance Committees worked on different pieces of the bigger reform puzzle. My committee passed strong prevention, quality, workforce and long-term services and supports measures. Finance worked to strengthen Medicare and help small businesses afford and purchase health insurance for their workers.
Sometimes, our two committees overlapped. We both agree that insurance companies shouldn’t be allowed to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, discriminate against women or the elderly, implement annual or lifetime caps on the benefits you can receive, or take away your coverage when you need it most.
That’s something we all agree on – and that’s a pretty good place to start from as we merge our two bills.
But we have come too far, and worked too hard, to settle for “pretty good.” And that’s why I plan to take a stand.
First, and let me be very clear about this: I am going to fight for a strong public option. The simple, undeniable fact is that a public option will save money – and it will introduce more choice and competition into an industry that badly needs both. It is the single best way to keep costs low for middle class families – and keep the insurance companies honest. And I am by no means ready to back down on making that argument.
There are some other issues to hash out, as well. I believe that we should require everyone to get health insurance, just as we require everyone to get auto insurance. But I also believe that it is unfair to burden middle class families with a mandate they can’t afford. I think the HELP bill has especially strong provisions to keep costs low and quality high, and I think they’re worth fighting for.
When we sit down with the White House to merge these bills, it will be an historic moment – one more unprecedented step towards finally overcoming the well-financed special interests and achieving the reform that has eluded us for more than 60 years. It will be a moment to celebrate how far we have come – but also a moment to be bold as we take the final steps towards reform.
It will be a negotiation, and I can’t promise that every disagreement will be resolved in our favor.
But I can promise that I will walk into that room prepared to fight for a strong public option, affordability provisions that protect the middle class, and common-sense protections to keep the insurance companies honest and guarantee that every American family can choose a health care plan that’s right for them.
The finish line is within sight. And I, for one, am ready to hit it running.”
Fiscally Conservative? Support A Public Option!
In the Senate Finance Committee, Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln voted against including a public option in health care reform. She explains that her opposition to a public option rests with her knowledge that Arkansas voters are “fiscally responsible”. We hope she will yet realize that anyone whose real concern is fiscal responsibility will support a public plan option.
No matter how much one might want to believe that the private market is always a more cost-effective model than a public program … it just ain’t so. Medicare proves the point.
- When Medicare private plans were paid 95% of what it costs to provide the same coverage in the public program, they left the program in droves. They couldn’t make enough profit. (“Medicare+Choice,” enacted in 1997.)
- Under the “Medicare Advantage” program, passed in 2003, private Medicare plans are paid about 14% more than the same coverage would cost in the traditional public Medicare program. And, not surprisingly, private insurance plans have flocked back into the system. The insurance industry is making a windfall from this system – at the expense of all Medicare beneficiaries, including the vast majority of beneficiaries who still choose “regular Medicare.” Taxpayers overpay too.
- The private Medicare plan program is bleeding the Medicare trust fund, reducing Medicare’s solvency by about 8 years.
If the Congress passes a requirement that all Americans have health insurance, but does not provide for a public option, we will have been taken to the cleaners yet again. Private insurance will gain tens of millions of new customers and we taxpayers will all pay a much higher bill than is necessary. Medicare’s experience proves this.
Come on, Senator Lincoln, be fiscally responsible – support a public option in health care reform!
How Will We Know If Good Enough is Good Enough?
We now have four health care reform bills and a proposal from the Senate Finance Committeee, the last of the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over this topic. None of the bills are perfect and the Senate Finance Committee’s proposal, lacking both a public option and any Republican support, is the most disappointing. Still, as Paul Krugman writes in today’s New York Times, several countries, including Switzerland and the Netherlands, manage to provide health insurance for all largely through the private market.
So, how will we know if we should support what emerges as the final health care reform bill? Here are six key standards to determine whether the final bill is good enough to support – let us know if you have others:
- Will the bill make quality health care coverage available to all, especially to the uninsured, underinsured, and those who will fall into these categories in the future?
- Will the bill provide real competition in the market place, with or without, a true public plan, so that reform will be reasonably affordable?
- Will the bill provide adequate help for people of low and moderate incomes to purchase good quality health coverage ?
- Will the bill preserve and fairly enhance the Medicare program for future generations?
- Will the new coverage be adequately comprenhensive, understandable and easy to use?
- Will the new law provide a fair, accessible appeal system for people to contest denials?
I am often told not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We will not get “the perfect” health care plan. We may not even get “the good”. But – will we get “the good enough”? Too soon to tell.
Watch Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor, On Why We Need a Public Option (And what it is!)
In a new video, Robert Reich speaks about the necessity of a public option in health care reform. Secretary Reich wrote us today summarizing his thoughts:
“A true public option is necessary to pressure private insurers to compete on quality and price, and to pressure drug companies and other medical providers to offer better deals. It’s the only way to expand coverage while continuing to reduce overall costs. Every American should have the freedom to choose a public insurance plan if they wish. ”
Watch Robert Reich now, and spread the word.
Watch and See Why We Need A Public Health Plan
An animated cartoon is worth a thousand words:
Wake Up, America!
In a column in the Washington Post on August 24th, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele purported to be worried about the damage health care reform will do to Medicare.
Really? Talk about raiding Medicare: Can you say “Medicare Advantage”? The last Administration privatized Medicare in 2003 with the Medicare Advantage system that lured private insurance into the program by paying huge subsidies of more than 14% on top of what the traditional, public Medicare program is paid for the same services.
Can you say “Part D”? The last Administration created the incomprehensible Part D prescription drug program that made Medicare drug coverage available ONLY through private plans and actually wrote into law a PROHIBITION against Medicare negotiating prices with drug companies. Talk about a boondoggle for Big Pharma!
The Bush Administration created a windfall for private insurance and pharmaceutical companies – all at the expense of the cost-effective public Medicare program, seniors, and taxpayers.
Come on, America, Wake Up! Don’t buy into using health care reform to create another welfare program for private insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Haven’t we given them enough by giving them Medicare?
CMA Health Policy Blog 