Date: 12/30/2008
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Note to President-elect Barack Obama: Health reform doesn’t have to be all about expanding health insurance. It can be about the little things too, such as shorter waits in the doctor’s office and putting in place incentives such as free checkups that catch little problems before they became big ones.
That was the message Tuesday from two-dozen seniors who gave their views about what ails America’s health care system to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services. They listed a broad range of concerns, from four-hour waits to see a doctor, to the high cost of prescription drugs, to lack of Medicare coverage for certain treatments and medical devices.
Daschle said conversations like Tuesday’s will put the new administration “on the right track” for overhauling the nation’s health care system next year.
Alethea Campbell said she wanted more emphasis on medical research, particularly for Alzheimer’s Disease. “My family is loaded with Alzheimer’s. I feel like I’m going to be a victim of it,” she said. “What is going to happen to me four or five years down the road. Who is going to take care of me?”
Eugene Kinlow wants greater emphasis on helping people live more healthy lifestyles. “A major part of the cost problem is us. We keep driving up the cost of health care, all of us, in our daily behavior and habits,” he said.
And Frederick Gore wants medical providers to be less concerned about how they’re going to be paid when a patient walks into their room with urgent medical conditions. “The other patients could see there was something wrong with me,” he said. “I’m sitting there and can barely breathe and he’s looking at how he’s going to get paid.”
Some 8,500 meetings similar to the one at the Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center have been held around the country since Dec. 15. Daschle attended his second such meeting Tuesday, along with his mother, Betty. Obama’s transition team will gather the information from those meetings and post the material on its Web site, http://change.gov. Daschle said the information would be used to help craft a health proposal.
Daschle said lawmakers will be more likely to take up health reform if there is enough pressure from voters. In a book published earlier this year, he urged the next president to quickly capitalize on the good will that comes with a new administration. He said the meetings will add to the sense of urgency.
“It will lead to members of Congress taking note. It will lead to governors taking note,” Daschle said in an interview. “It’s going to lead to a greater degree of commitment on the part of elected people.”
About 25 people talked to Daschle about the problems they’ve confronted with the health care system. Most participate in Medicare, the government’s health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Although they had coverage for most treatments, they were not short of suggestions for improving the health care system. Some described waiting three or four hours before they could be seen by a doctor. Others talked of how they helped pay health care costs for uninsured children and grandchildren. And some longed for a return of the days when teenagers volunteered to work at the local hospital or at local senior centers.
“It’s conversations like this that put us on the right track,” Daschle told the audience. “It’s discussions like this that give us a better understanding of how it should be done.”
The public meetings orchestrated by Obama’s transition team resemble an effort that took place in 2005 and 2006. Congress created its Citizens Health Care Working Group that heard from 6,650 people at 84 meetings around the country and more than 14,000 in an Internet survey.
The group’s recommendations were not acted on. The recommendations included guaranteeing health coverage for specific checkups and treatments and protecting consumers from high medical expenses.
Daschle said the health care system’s problems have only grown since then, which could ensure action in Congress.
“We wouldn’t have had 8,500 of these discussions in a two-week period over the Christmas holidays a few years ago. This is an indication of the degree of severity and concern that people have all over the country,” Daschle said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Baucus wants to overhaul health care in ’09
Legal Comment: The below story about progress already being made in healthcare reform, in conjunction with the overwhelming consensus of the just completed campaign that some type of meaningful reform is coming, is the best of news for the disability community. Particularly important highlights are the proposal to eliminate the waiting period for Medicare, the elimination of exclusions for preexisting conditions and the availability of coverage for low income individuals.
All those who are permanently disabled by brain are affected by some combination of these three problems. That some type of program addressing these issues is likely to be in place in the next six months is the type of “Change we Can Believe In.” The one point not clarified below that does need to be addressed is a more comprehensive prescription drug program.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://thelegaltimes.net
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
Date: 11/12/2008
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee intends to push Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system during the first six months of next year.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said “now is the time” for Congress to move on health care. On Wednesday, he made public his own plan for addressing what ails the health care system. It includes several features of President-elect Obama’s plan, such as guaranteed insurance coverage regardless of pre-existing illness. He also would set up an insurance exchange, a sort of government-administered shopping center where people could go to buy coverage.
Baucus goes beyond Obama’s plan by requiring everybody to purchase health insurance once affordable options are available. He predicted that such a major difference would get worked out.
The mandate to have health insurance will stop the shifting of costs for care of the uninsured onto those who have health coverage, Baucus said.
“Coverage of all Americans will also make reforms work better, from insurance market reforms to a cost-saving focus on preventive care,” he said. “Those who cannot afford coverage will not be required to purchase it — there will be other options for them.”
Baucus’s 89-page report said the mandate to obtain health coverage would also prevent people from waiting until they get sick to buy insurance.
Baucus’ committee has jurisdiction over health programs financed by a specific tax or trust fund, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will also play a role in any major overhaul of the system. He, too, has said health care changes can’t wait.
But paying for expanding health coverage will be expensive, and many independent analysts question whether Congress can make it happen under current economic conditions. Baucus did not offer a way to pay for his proposal, which included such costly provisions as allowing people ages 55-64 to participate in Medicare and eliminating the requirement that disabled people wait two years from when they become disabled to enroll in Medicare.
“We all must realize that the costs of inaction, both in human and financial terms, will eventually be far greater than any initial outlays,” the report said.
Baucus would also increase the number of people eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that provides health care to the poor. States would be required to cover all adults whose income is at or below the federal poverty level, now $17,600 for a family of three. He also would require that states cover uninsured children at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, $44,000 for a family of three. In each instance, about two dozen states would have to increase current eligibility levels.
Baucus said states would be given additional financial help to cover the higher caseloads, but he didn’t provide specifics. Many states are struggling to pay for those they already cover under Medicaid and the children’s health insurance program, much less adding millions to the rolls.
The question before Obama will be whether to pursue health reform incrementally or to try for comprehensive change in one massive bill next year. It’s unclear which approach will be pursued, but Obama has listed the issue as one of his top domestic priorities.
“President-elect Obama applauds Chairman Baucus’s work to draw attention to the challenges of the health system and looks forward to working closely with the chairman and other congressional leaders, as well as the American public, to make quality, affordable health care a reality for all Americans.” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama’s transition team.
Baucus also embraces the idea that the current tax treatment of health insurance produces inflationary pressures contributing to the high cost of insurance. He said one way to reduce those pressures would be to limit the amount of money that can be directed toward health insurance on a tax-free basis. Once people reached the limit, the money employers spend for health insurance would be treated as taxable income.
Several interest groups applauded Baucus’s efforts, but one conservative think tank, the National Center for Policy Analysis, deemed his plan unrealistic.
“The bottom line is that the Baucus plan will exacerbate current problems of skyrocketing costs and limited access while creating a huge burden for individual taxpayers and businesses,” said Devon Herrick, an economist at the center. “There is no such thing as free health care.”
___
On the Net:
Senate Finance Committee: http://finance.senate.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
All those who are permanently disabled by brain are affected by some combination of these three problems. That some type of program addressing these issues is likely to be in place in the next six months is the type of “Change we Can Believe In.” The one point not clarified below that does need to be addressed is a more comprehensive prescription drug program.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
http://thelegaltimes.net
http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
Date: 11/12/2008
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee intends to push Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system during the first six months of next year.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said “now is the time” for Congress to move on health care. On Wednesday, he made public his own plan for addressing what ails the health care system. It includes several features of President-elect Obama’s plan, such as guaranteed insurance coverage regardless of pre-existing illness. He also would set up an insurance exchange, a sort of government-administered shopping center where people could go to buy coverage.
Baucus goes beyond Obama’s plan by requiring everybody to purchase health insurance once affordable options are available. He predicted that such a major difference would get worked out.
The mandate to have health insurance will stop the shifting of costs for care of the uninsured onto those who have health coverage, Baucus said.
“Coverage of all Americans will also make reforms work better, from insurance market reforms to a cost-saving focus on preventive care,” he said. “Those who cannot afford coverage will not be required to purchase it — there will be other options for them.”
Baucus’s 89-page report said the mandate to obtain health coverage would also prevent people from waiting until they get sick to buy insurance.
Baucus’ committee has jurisdiction over health programs financed by a specific tax or trust fund, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will also play a role in any major overhaul of the system. He, too, has said health care changes can’t wait.
But paying for expanding health coverage will be expensive, and many independent analysts question whether Congress can make it happen under current economic conditions. Baucus did not offer a way to pay for his proposal, which included such costly provisions as allowing people ages 55-64 to participate in Medicare and eliminating the requirement that disabled people wait two years from when they become disabled to enroll in Medicare.
“We all must realize that the costs of inaction, both in human and financial terms, will eventually be far greater than any initial outlays,” the report said.
Baucus would also increase the number of people eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that provides health care to the poor. States would be required to cover all adults whose income is at or below the federal poverty level, now $17,600 for a family of three. He also would require that states cover uninsured children at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, $44,000 for a family of three. In each instance, about two dozen states would have to increase current eligibility levels.
Baucus said states would be given additional financial help to cover the higher caseloads, but he didn’t provide specifics. Many states are struggling to pay for those they already cover under Medicaid and the children’s health insurance program, much less adding millions to the rolls.
The question before Obama will be whether to pursue health reform incrementally or to try for comprehensive change in one massive bill next year. It’s unclear which approach will be pursued, but Obama has listed the issue as one of his top domestic priorities.
“President-elect Obama applauds Chairman Baucus’s work to draw attention to the challenges of the health system and looks forward to working closely with the chairman and other congressional leaders, as well as the American public, to make quality, affordable health care a reality for all Americans.” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama’s transition team.
Baucus also embraces the idea that the current tax treatment of health insurance produces inflationary pressures contributing to the high cost of insurance. He said one way to reduce those pressures would be to limit the amount of money that can be directed toward health insurance on a tax-free basis. Once people reached the limit, the money employers spend for health insurance would be treated as taxable income.
Several interest groups applauded Baucus’s efforts, but one conservative think tank, the National Center for Policy Analysis, deemed his plan unrealistic.
“The bottom line is that the Baucus plan will exacerbate current problems of skyrocketing costs and limited access while creating a huge burden for individual taxpayers and businesses,” said Devon Herrick, an economist at the center. “There is no such thing as free health care.”
___
On the Net:
Senate Finance Committee: http://finance.senate.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
