Senate HELP Committee Release health reform Bill, including public option
Christy Hardin Smith has the goods:
CBO’s new score of the bill – which would reduce health costs, allow Americans to keep the coverage they have if they want it, and make health insurance affordable to those who do not have it today – would be $611 billion over 10 years, a significant reduction from earlier, incomplete estimates. The new estimate includes a provision on employer responsibility and a strong, national public option, the Community Health Insurance Option….
Small businesses, NOT TO INCLUDE businesses with fewer than 25 employees who would be exempted (PDF), would have an annual fee of $750 per employee for participation in the public option plan that would be assessed directly through HHS if they aren’t already providing insurance for employees. There would be a cost of a little over $300 per person for individual coverage on an annual basis. Both these numbers come from CBO scoring as well, and are contained within the CBO information link above….
For consumers to buy into the public plan, there is a firewall built-in if you are already part of an employer-based health plan. If your plan costs more than 12 1/2% of your annual salary, then you can contemplate switching to the public option. If not, then you are stuck with your employer-based plan, whether or not you are satisfied with it. It’s a cost containment decision, with the hope that competition from the public plan will, over time, shift the operations of private insurers.
Sen. Brown emphasized that this plan is designed to reward “best practices” for insurers — and that each state will have an advisory council to monitor local competition in an effort to keep insurers more competitive and, hence, he says, more honest….
I was told that the bill contains protections for people who have had to deal with recission issues and/or who have pre-exisiting conditions which make it difficult to find or switch coverage. Insurers will be barred from refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions going forward under this bill — there is a requirement for coverage for all, and a ban on insurance ratings for pre-existing conditions as well.
Not perfect (and slinkerwink at Daily Kos will explain how and why in a must-read diary) but a damn sight better than what i was expecting. call Kay Hagan at 202-224-6342: she as going to oppose a public option, but apparently changed her mind. And if you live in PA, call Bob Casey and say thanks, because he really has been leading on this issue. As most of you know, I am harshly critical of the Senator when he deserves it, but when he does the right thing i like to lavish on the praise. Make Bob feel good, he deserves it. And make sure you remember in November that he stood up for you: 202-224-6324.
but most of all, thank yourselves. Every one of us who called and complained and put pressure on these guys are the real heroes here. We wouldn’t take no for an
Nest step: humiliating Max Baucus on the Finance Committee, mocking Joe Lieberman, and putting the screws to Mary Landrieu.
And because it’s worth reading, I’m gonna quote slink at length:
Austin, Tex.: Is the public option in the HELP draft stronger or weaker than the Tri-Committee House draft and why?
Ezra Klein: No, it’s a lot weaker. The Tri-Committee draft uses Medicare bargaining rate and the Medicare provider network and is open to everyone through a robust national health insurance exchange. The HELP plan can’t partner with Medicare and is in a much weaker health insurance exchange — CBO predicts that only 27 million people will have access to it by 2019.
Let me be clear on this, the Senate HELP committee draft bill regarding the public option is a good one, but it’s a lot weaker than the Tri-Committee House draft bill. The good news is that all 13 members of the HELP Committee will vote this bill out of committee and onto the floor. The bad news is that it’d have to be merged with the bill from the Finance Committee which reportedly has a co-op plan to replace the public option….
Right now, we’re in a better position today due to having two bills, one from the House Tri-Committees, and one from the Senate HELP Committee, with a good public option. If the Senate HELP Committee makes it through the Senate intact with its public option, and is the one supported over Max Baucus’s Finance Bill, then it’ll have to be reconciled with the House Tri-Committee version. So theoretically the public option in that could be made stronger in the conference process.
go read the rest. This is one battle in a long hard slog. let’s win it.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
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July 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
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