HELP Releases ‘Affordable Health Choices Act’
HELP Releases ‘Affordable Health Choices Act’
Today, the House, Pensions, and Labor Committee (HELP) officially released the “Affordable Health Choices Act,” the committee’s health care reform legislation.
[Read the 600+ page bill HERE or a summary HERE]
In a press release touting the proposal, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) described the bill as “legislation that will strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t”:
If you like the insurance you have today, you can keep it. If you don’t like what you have today, we’ll give you better choices, including a public option for health care. This does not symbolize the end of the game or even the end of the first quarter. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and are looking forward to working with our colleagues on a bipartisan basis to resolve the remaining issues and move forward with a mark-up of this legislation next week
The bill, which does not include financing options, closely reflects the ‘draft of a draft‘ proposal circulated last week and a summary released earlier today. The legislation aims to improve access to coverage by regulating insurers — they would no longer be able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions — expanding Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and building state-sponsored insurance Gateways (or exchanges) to help Americans find affordable coverage. [Read an analysis of the bill HERE]
The most controversial details of health reform — the employer mandate and the structure of a new public option — have yet to be ironed out, however. According to the press release, “Democrats and Republics on the Committee will meet to discuss outstanding legislative options such as the public option and employer mandate” on Wednesday, June 10 and Thursday, June 11.” The ext of the available legislation leaves the public option and employer-mandate sections blank:
A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 11 at 3 p.m. in Dirksen 430. Mark-up will begin Tuesday, June 16 at 2:30 p.m. in Russell 325.
One Response to “HELP Releases ‘Affordable Health Choices Act’”
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Senator Conrad Plans to Kill the public option
Democratic Senator Kent Conrad has created an “alternative” which will kill the public health insurance option. Instead of a public option, the government would give loans to help create many small, independent health insurance “co-ops”. This is not a compromise between Progressives and the GOP minority. This would be a complete sell out on principle.
The “co-ops” would be nothing more than small, regional non-profit private health insurance companies. (There already are “non-profit” insurance companies, and they pay their top management millions a year.) The “co-ops” would lack the accountability and the cost saving benefits of a public option.
The “co-ops” would be too small to benefit from economies of scale. The different “co-ops” would create hundreds of redundant positions, offices, and systems. They would lack the negotiation power of size to lower prices. Since they would not be the large, default public plan, they would be forced to waste millions on advertising. There would also be no guarantee that the “co-ops” would adopt the best practice recommendations from the government. Unlike a national public option, the co-ops would do almost nothing to lower cost for millions of Americans struggling with the high cost of health care premiums.
The “co-ops” plan would do almost nothing to help promote real health care reform. It is not 50% between the Progressive and Republican position on the of the issue of the public plan. It is not even 5% of the Progressive position. It would be a complete and total victory for the Republicans. The “co-op” plan is nothing more than fancy language to kill the public option.
http://jwalkerreport.blogspot.com/2009/06/senator-conrad-is-trying-to-kill-public.html
June 10th, 2009 at 8:54 am