Could this be a sign of real progress on meaningful healthcare reform, that the Republican’s are now attacking the plan and that the Democrats seem to be willing to go ahead for what is in the best interest of the people, without bi-partisan support? The Democrats have the votes, if they can close ranks. It would be a great sign of Obama’s leadership if he can get a public option plan thru Congress.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://fishtail.tv
http://waiting.com
Date: 7/20/2009 9:29 AM
DAVID ESPO,AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Republican Party is accusing President Barack Obama of conducting “risky experimentation” with his health care proposals, saying they will hurt the economy and force millions to drop their current coverage.
Michael Steele, in remarks prepared for delivery at the National Press Club, also said the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and key congressional committee chairmen are part of a “cabal” that wants to implement government-run health care.
“Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions,” Steele said in excerpts of his speech made available in advance.
Obama has repeatedly said he does not favor a government-run health care system. Legislation taking shape in the House envisions private insurance companies selling coverage in competition with the government.
Even so, numerous Republicans in Congress continue to level the accusation at Obama and congressional Democrats, and Steele did so in sharply critical terms.
“Many Democrats outside of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Waxman cabal know that voters won’t stand for these kinds of foolish prescriptions for our health care. We do too. That’s why Republicans will stop at nothing to remind voters about the risky experimentation going on in Washington,” the party chairman said in advance excerpts. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is Senate majority leader; Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Republican officials said they were supplementing Steele’s speech with a round of television advertising designed to oppose government-run health care. The 30-second spot, titled “Grand Experiment,” criticizes recent government aid to the auto industry and banks as “the biggest spending spree in our history” and warns of “a risky experiment with our health care.”
In his speech, Steele broadened his attack beyond health care to question Obama’s truthfulness.
The president “tells us he doesn’t want to spend more than we have, he doesn’t want the deficit to go up, he doesn’t want to live off borrowed money. But he also told us he didn’t want to run an auto company. President Obama justifies this spending by saying the devil made him do it. He doesn’t want to spend trillions we can’t afford, but he says he just can’t help it,” Steele said in the prepared excerpts.
The Republican chairman is making his speech at a time when Obama is struggling to advance his trademark health care proposal after a period of evident progress. Two of three House committees have approved their portions of the bill, while one of two Senate panels have acted.
But conservative Democrats have raised objections to some elements of the legislation, and efforts in the Senate to reach a bipartisan agreement have yet to bear fruit. Obama’s attempt to impose an early August deadline on both the House and Senate for passage of legislation is in jeopardy.
On Sunday, Obama’s advisers urged critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts. They also signaled they are willing to wait longer than their White House-imposed August deadline for action if it means they can sway wary lawmakers.
The White House spent the day defending Obama’s health care proposals and stressing that Congress has not yet written the final draft of legislation that would dramatically reshape how Americans receive health care. Instead, they said, Republicans — and even some Democrats — should wait until a final bill takes form.
“There are basically five different plans in Congress right now and there are a variety of ways,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, trying to calm nervous lawmakers whose re-elections could hinge on the legislation.
“More will be done,” she said. “The House and the Senate are committed to working with the president to get this done.”
Getting it done by August, though, appeared to be pushed back. Administration officials said they still have a goal for the Senate and the House to pass separate bills before an August recess, leaving reconciliation of their differences for September or later. But they slid away from a once-firm do-it-this-summer demand.
“We think we can make that. We’re working towards that,” White House budget director Peter Orszag said. “And we have to remember, there are some who are advocating the delay simply because they don’t have anything to put on the table. … There are those who are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try to kill this.”
Time would appear to be on the Republicans’ side, however. A Washington Post-ABC News survey released Monday shows approval of Obama’s handling of health care reform slipping below 50 percent for the first time. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
____
Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
Obama shifts into campaign mode on health care
The healthcare industry is spending over a million dollars a day in Washington to lobby Congress on proposals for health insurance reform. It appears that lobbying is working, that the insurance companies have bought themselves another Congress. It really isn’t Obama’s fault and the pressure on him to get something passed is immense. Maybe these 30 second ads can counter some of that pressure. Legacy notwithstanding, what is the point of fine tuning a car without adding coolant when the radiator is about to blow up?
It is time for real reform, for a single payer system or at a minimum a public option. The public knows what it wants, but lobbying of Congress essentially isolates the consumer from its legislators. There are times it feels like we are in a third world dictorship, the way no one listens to what the people really want.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
Date: 7/15/2009 4:03 PM
BEN FELLER,Associated Press Writers
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR,Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Firing up his drive for health care overhaul, President Barack Obama pressed lawmakers Wednesday to step up to their responsibilities and move legislation this summer, even as his campaign organization rolled out television ads targeting reluctant senators.
A Senate panel cast a milestone vote to advance a bill, the first to act on Obama’s goal. But the party-line decision in the health committee signaled a deepening rift in Congress. While Democrats respond to Obama’s call for action with renewed determination, Republicans are using harsher words to voice their misgivings.
The political space for a bipartisan compromise that could win support from most sectors of society appeared to be narrowing by the hour. The Republican National Committee, in a fundraising appeal, warned of “Obamacare,” a play on the failed “Hillarycare” of the 1990s.
The president, in a Rose Garden appearance with nurses, gave a nod to the goal of bipartisanship. But he left no doubt that he wants action above all else — and quickly. House committees prepared to vote as early as Thursday on their legislation.
Wednesday’s Senate health committee vote “should make us hopeful — but it can’t make us complacent,” Obama said. “It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and the Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess.” Obama wants each chamber to act this summer, so lawmakers can reconcile differences in their respective bills after Labor Day and put final legislation on his desk this fall.
Obama’s all-out effort since he returned from his overseas trip last week has “galvanized things,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
But a senior Republican whom Obama courted only a few months ago to become his commerce secretary sounded alarm bells.
“This supposed health care fix is a health care failure and a disaster for the American people,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. “We still have time to turn this process around instead of steamrolling our country into a sub-par government-run plan, but it will require serious action from Democrats and Republicans and a pledge to put politics aside.”
The debate is taking on the flavor of a campaign. In the crosshairs are moderate senators, Democrats and Republicans, whose votes could provide the edge in a closely divided Senate.
Obama’s political organization launched a series of 30-second television ads on health care, which will begin airing Wednesday in Washington and on cable TV nationally. A version will run for two weeks on local stations in eight states — Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio — to prod senators to back the health care effort.
In the ads, private citizens describe problems they’ve had with the medical system and say it’s time for action. The sponsor is Organizing for America, Obama’s campaign organization, which has become part of the national Democratic Party. The group would not reveal the cost.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., one of the lawmakers targeted, said the ads would not affect his decision. He has concerns that the evolving Democratic plans would give government too big a role.
Obama’s goal is to cover the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans while trying to slow the rate of increase in health care costs. He supports a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, but he says he doesn’t want to overturn the system of employer-sponsored health benefits that has served middle-class families for better than half a century. He wants the legislation to be fully paid for and the total cost kept around $1 trillion over 10 years.
The 13-10 vote in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee took the Senate only part of the way. Another panel, the Finance Committee, still has to unveil its approach. The plan is to combine the two bills for a floor vote.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., met Wednesday with committee Democrats to try to settle how to pay for the bill and other issues.
“We’re just not quite there,” Baucus said after the meeting. Obama has pushed Baucus to have a bill ready by week’s end, but Baucus declined to say whether he’d made a timetable commitment to the president.
The health panel’s $600-billion measure would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. The bill calls for the government to provide financial assistance with premiums for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level, or about $88,000 for a family of four, a broad cross-section of the middle class.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said he regretted that no Republicans voted for the bill, but that it was more important to get good legislation than to get GOP votes.
“There is a value in achieving bipartisanship, but I will not sacrifice a good bill for that. That’s not the goal here,” said Dodd, who stood in as chairman for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is being treated for brain cancer.
__
Associated Press reporters Erica Werner and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
It is time for real reform, for a single payer system or at a minimum a public option. The public knows what it wants, but lobbying of Congress essentially isolates the consumer from its legislators. There are times it feels like we are in a third world dictorship, the way no one listens to what the people really want.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://tbilaw.com
http://waiting.com
Date: 7/15/2009 4:03 PM
BEN FELLER,Associated Press Writers
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR,Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Firing up his drive for health care overhaul, President Barack Obama pressed lawmakers Wednesday to step up to their responsibilities and move legislation this summer, even as his campaign organization rolled out television ads targeting reluctant senators.
A Senate panel cast a milestone vote to advance a bill, the first to act on Obama’s goal. But the party-line decision in the health committee signaled a deepening rift in Congress. While Democrats respond to Obama’s call for action with renewed determination, Republicans are using harsher words to voice their misgivings.
The political space for a bipartisan compromise that could win support from most sectors of society appeared to be narrowing by the hour. The Republican National Committee, in a fundraising appeal, warned of “Obamacare,” a play on the failed “Hillarycare” of the 1990s.
The president, in a Rose Garden appearance with nurses, gave a nod to the goal of bipartisanship. But he left no doubt that he wants action above all else — and quickly. House committees prepared to vote as early as Thursday on their legislation.
Wednesday’s Senate health committee vote “should make us hopeful — but it can’t make us complacent,” Obama said. “It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and the Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess.” Obama wants each chamber to act this summer, so lawmakers can reconcile differences in their respective bills after Labor Day and put final legislation on his desk this fall.
Obama’s all-out effort since he returned from his overseas trip last week has “galvanized things,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
But a senior Republican whom Obama courted only a few months ago to become his commerce secretary sounded alarm bells.
“This supposed health care fix is a health care failure and a disaster for the American people,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. “We still have time to turn this process around instead of steamrolling our country into a sub-par government-run plan, but it will require serious action from Democrats and Republicans and a pledge to put politics aside.”
The debate is taking on the flavor of a campaign. In the crosshairs are moderate senators, Democrats and Republicans, whose votes could provide the edge in a closely divided Senate.
Obama’s political organization launched a series of 30-second television ads on health care, which will begin airing Wednesday in Washington and on cable TV nationally. A version will run for two weeks on local stations in eight states — Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio — to prod senators to back the health care effort.
In the ads, private citizens describe problems they’ve had with the medical system and say it’s time for action. The sponsor is Organizing for America, Obama’s campaign organization, which has become part of the national Democratic Party. The group would not reveal the cost.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., one of the lawmakers targeted, said the ads would not affect his decision. He has concerns that the evolving Democratic plans would give government too big a role.
Obama’s goal is to cover the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans while trying to slow the rate of increase in health care costs. He supports a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, but he says he doesn’t want to overturn the system of employer-sponsored health benefits that has served middle-class families for better than half a century. He wants the legislation to be fully paid for and the total cost kept around $1 trillion over 10 years.
The 13-10 vote in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee took the Senate only part of the way. Another panel, the Finance Committee, still has to unveil its approach. The plan is to combine the two bills for a floor vote.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., met Wednesday with committee Democrats to try to settle how to pay for the bill and other issues.
“We’re just not quite there,” Baucus said after the meeting. Obama has pushed Baucus to have a bill ready by week’s end, but Baucus declined to say whether he’d made a timetable commitment to the president.
The health panel’s $600-billion measure would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. The bill calls for the government to provide financial assistance with premiums for individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level, or about $88,000 for a family of four, a broad cross-section of the middle class.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said he regretted that no Republicans voted for the bill, but that it was more important to get good legislation than to get GOP votes.
“There is a value in achieving bipartisanship, but I will not sacrifice a good bill for that. That’s not the goal here,” said Dodd, who stood in as chairman for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is being treated for brain cancer.
__
Associated Press reporters Erica Werner and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Seniors give Daschle health reform ideas
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.
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.