Health Care For America Now

NEWS

Moderates uneasy with Medicare plan - Politico

Senate moderates who are the linchpin to passing a health care reform bill raised fresh worries Thursday about a proposed Medicare expansion, complicating Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes of putting together a filibuster-proof majority for the legislation in the coming days.

High Premiums in Senate Democrats’ Health Plan - New York Times

Senate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare, should be prepared to fork over a large chunk of cash.

Internet users lured to voice views on health bill - Associated Press

Internet users looking for gift cards and other free merchandise are being steered to Web pages inviting them to send e-mails to Congress expressing their views on President Barack Obama's push to reshape the country's health system.

Health care loophole would allow coverage limits - Associated Press

A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.

Senate Dems may change health care compromise - Associated Press

Senate Democrats are considering changing a proposed expansion of Medicare to address complaints from doctors and hospitals and defray costs for consumers, officials said Thursday, two days after party leaders hailed it as part of a breakthrough for health care.

Senate Tied in Knots Over Proposal to Allow Imported Drugs - New York Times

Debating an overhaul of the health care system, the Senate found itself tied in knots on Thursday over a bipartisan proposal to allow people to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and certain other countries.

Couple To Divorce For Toddler's Health Care - WSMN Nashville

A happily married couple may have to divorce in order to get their toddler the health benefits he needs. Molly and Jason Sheppard have been married six years, but they're thinking getting a divorce.

Senate, what on earth is up with the Free-Rider provision in the health care bill?

In the spirit of an encouraging friend offering constructive criticism on decisions that could lead to potentially harmful and unintended consequences (like the time in college when my roommate wanted to sink her life-savings into an industrial dump truck on eBay), we think it is about time to sit down, put the kettle on, and have a heart-to-heart.

In a nutshell, the Free-Rider provision states that employers who don’t offer good coverage pay a fine if their workers qualify for subsidies to buy coverage in the insurance exchange.

Read more…

There was a time, in the early 1990s, when health insurance companies devoted more than 95 cents out of every premium dollar to paying doctors and hospitals for taking care of their members. No more.

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NEWS

Health care stocks rise after Dems drop public option - Reuters

Shares of U.S. health insurers rose on Wednesday after efforts to overhaul the health system moved away from creating a government-run insurance plan long viewed as damaging to the industry.

Senators await price tag on health bill - The Hill

Liberal and centrist senators at the center of the healthcare debate bought themselves more time Wednesday, saying they would decide how to vote after they saw the bill’s final price tag.

For Some Ages 55 to 64, Medicare Will Cost Too Much - Wall Street Journal

Millions more Americans could get access to Medicare under the latest health proposal by Senate Democrats. But the program may not be cheap enough to entice some of them to sign up.

Public Option Keeps Toehold in Senate Deal on Health Bill - New York Times

The “broad agreement” that Senator Harry Reid announced Tuesday night on the proposed overhaul of the health care system was less a comprehensive accord among Democrats than an effort by the party’s leaders to keep the process moving ahead, even as Republicans attempt to prolong a seemingly endless floor fight.

White House Pins Hopes on Senate's Deal - Wall Street Journal

President Barack Obama on Wednesday endorsed a Senate Democratic compromise that backed away from a big government-run health plan, calling the idea a "creative framework" that could propel a health bill to passage.

Anti-Reform Groups Have Astroturfed Mafia Wars & FarmVille - Media Matters

The anti-health care reform astroturf specialists have carpeted a new arena.  Not content to just manufacture "protests" on Capitol Hill and around the country, these health insurance industry funded groups have infiltrated the popular Facebook applications Mafia Wars and FarmVille.

A Senator at Odds With His Constituents — And, Some Say, His Faith - Jewish Daily Forward

On a recent Saturday afternoon, after completing his Sabbath morning prayers, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut braved a four-mile, snowy walk to the Capitol building from his Georgetown synagogue.

Little-known federal agency could shoulder big healthcare responsibility - The Hill

A little-known federal agency with a relatively small staff and budget is a surprising new player in the debate to reform the nation’s healthcare system.

At 4:45 pm last night, Health Care for America Now sent out an email asking our supporters to oppose the so-called compromise being negotiated in the Senate. Four hours later, over 30,000 people had signed on. This morning, we're up well over 40,000.

The response has been tremendous. Here's what people are saying opposing this so-called compromise:

• From Patti in California: "My son needs the public option! Please remember that young adults (part-time students & part-time work) need to have health care too!"
• From Cheyenne in Ohio: "Do not let the public option die! Please fight."
• From Michelle in Texas: "Tell Sen. Lieberman NO! It would be nice to know how much money he's received from insurance monopolies to betray his party and the American people on the Public Health Care Option."
• Nancy in New York: "The vast majority of the American People WANT a public option. Give it to us or we will remember this in Nov 2010!"
• Lois in Texas: "How can one guy stop the whole process that millions of Americans want! NO!"

All of this points to a fact those in the Senate considering this "compromise" would do well to remember: The public option is extremely popular in America, and a significant portion of those who say they oppose health reform say so because this plan does not go far enough.

For example, a Quinnipiac poll released today showed that voters disapprove of the health reform proposal under consideration by a 52-38 margin, but voters support giving people the choice of a public option by 56-38.

Nate Silver wrote about the fact that a good amount of disaproval is coming from the left, using a recent Ipsos poll:

Ipsos, however, did something that no other pollster has done. They asked the people who opposed the bill why they opposed it: because they are opposed to health care reform and thought the bill went too far? Or because they support health care reform but thought the bill didn't go far enough?

It turns out that a significant minority of about 25 percent of the people who opposed the plan — or about 12 of the overall sample — did so from the left; they thought the plan didn't go far enough.

Senators need to keep in mind these trends because the grassroots has spoken. If anything, the reform plans on the table don't go far enough. Any further compromise - especially a"compromise" which just replaces the public option with private insurance and leaves those under 55 at the mercy of these profiteering companies - has been thoroughly rejected by the American people.

Add your name to the growing grassroots chorus against this so-called compromise. Tell the Senate that they can't let one Senator - Joe Lieberman - stand in the way of what America overwhelmingly wants.

We delivered a first batch of names to the Senate last night, and we'll be doing more over the next few days. They will hear your voice. Click here to sign and make your voice heard.

NEWS

Democrats Agree To Tentatively Trade Opt-Out For Trigger, Medicare Buy In, And More - TPM

An aide briefed on the negotiations among the gang of 10 offers up the rundown of the most important aspects of the public option compromise being sent to CBO.

Democrats' Ideas To Expand Medicare Raise Hackles Of Doctors, Hospitals, Insurers - Kaiser Health News

Hospitals, doctors and insurers lined up in opposition Tuesday to allowing people under 65 to join Medicare – an idea being debated as Senate negotiators struggle to put together the 60 votes needed to pass sprawling health care legislation.

Aetna Overstated Spending on Patient-Care Category - Wall Street Journal

Aetna Inc. spent less money on patient care for some small businesses than it originally reported in regulatory filings, according to a Senate committee scrutinizing insurers' profits as Congress pushes to overhaul the health-care system.

Labor unions lobby against ‘Cadillac’ tax - The Hill

Unions are ramping up lobbying efforts to remove an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans in the Senate healthcare reform bill.

Drug-import backers worry Obama may scuttle plan - Associated Press

A long-running effort to allow the import of lower-cost prescription drugs faces a new twist — President Barack Obama's administration is raising safety concerns that could effectively scuttle it, even though Obama backed the plan as a senator.

Senate Rejects Strict Abortion Curbs In Health Bill - NPR

The Senate on Tuesday rejected an effort by abortion opponents to tighten restrictions in the health care overhaul bill on taxpayer dollars for the procedure, but it was unlikely to be the last word on the divisive issue.

Right now, ten Senators - five progressives and five conservative Democrats - are locked in a room looking for a deal on the health care bill. One Senator is standing in the way: Joe Lieberman.

Those Senators negotiating should not be held down by Joe Lieberman's outrageous ideas about health care. Those Senators need to fight the insurance companies for what's right.

The proposal on the table would be a win for the insurance companies. They said so themselves last night:

With the Senate shifting sharply away from a "pure public option," an insurance industry insider who has been deeply involved in the health care fight emails to declare victory.

"We WIN," the insider writes. "Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor.”

The so-called compromise on the table, forced by Joe Lieberman, isn't an acceptable substitute for the public health insurance option even if it expands Medicare (even though that's a good idea). It wouldn't control costs, it wouldn't increase competition, and it would leave most of America at the mercy of private insurance. And it would be a boost to big insurance companies, allowing them to operate across the country without having to face competition from a public insurer.

As Senator Brown said a few days ago:

A large number of people in this country including many, many doctors wanted Medicare for all. That didn't happen. Then we wanted a strong public option tied to Medicare rates. Then we wanted a public option building the Medicare network. That didn't happen. Now we are saying public option coming out of the HELP Committee. And now we're saying public option with the state opt-out. Where was the compromise coming from their side?

We must tell the Senate negotiators that America rejects this so-called compromise. Health Care for America Now put together a petition that we're going to deliver tonight to the Senators in the negotiations.

Click here to sign and pass it along so we can speak with one voice.

NEWS

Public option deal takes shape - Politico

A potential deal took shape Monday that could eliminate the public option from the Senate health reform bill, as Democrats weighed big expansions of both Medicare and Medicaid in a bid to break an impasse over the government insurance plan.

Worries grow that health overhaul could price out many - Boston Globe

President Obama has promised that the nation’s health care overhaul will make medical insurance available - and affordable - for everyone. But while bills in Congress would make insurance more accessible for millions of Americans, advocates worry that the Senate bill would impose significant financial burdens on some of the families who will now be required to buy coverage.

Liberal Senators Press for Expansion of Medicare - New York Times

In return for concessions on their proposal for a new government-run health insurance plan, liberal Democratic senators pushed Monday for expansion of Medicare and Medicaid and more stringent federal regulation of the insurance industry.

Vigils planned to support health care reform effort - The Baltimore Sun

A group that's been lobbying for health care reform is hoping to get the public in on the action tonight. The Maryland chapter of Health Care for America plans six vigils around the state around 5:30 p.m.

The unpopular truth is that most medical interventions have both positive and negative effects. That is the reality that has led to the new mammography screening recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. And, politics aside, isn't having a team of medical experts reviewing the data and making evidence-based recommendations that doctors can use when giving us, their patients, advice exactly what we want?

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Just like the other public option "compromises" (co-ops and triggers come to mind), the latest public option "compromise" - offering the non-profit plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) to the uninsured and small business - will neither control costs nor increase competition.

But don't take it from me. Here's Jacob Hacker, architect of the public health insurance option:

Another, even stranger idea is to offer the nonprofit plans available in the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) within the exchange. Since the FEHBP is itself a form of exchange, this amounts to offering a new set of private plans within a new set of private plans. How is that going to provide real pressure on private insurers in a consolidated insurance market in which nonprofit plans already have a large presence (and often act little differently from for-profit plans)?

Timothy Jost, an expert in health law, expands on this point:

But the FEHBP, although it provides reasonably good insurance coverage to our national civil servants at a cost pretty much comparable to the private market, is itself simply an exchange, and the Senate health reform bill already has exchanges. There is no value added in building a public option exchange on top of the exchanges already in the bill, as Jacob Hacker points out in his New Republic The Treatment post this morning.

The real problem with the proposal Politico reports is that it would be built, apparently, on existing nonprofit insurance plan. Nonprofit health plans are not part of the solution; they are part of the problem. The purpose of the public plan was to create an alternative to private insurance to allow Americans more choice and thus to bring down costs by reducing concentration in health insurance markets. But nonprofit plans are already the dominant insurers in much of the United States. Of the nations 138 health plans with more than 100,000 medical enrollees, 84 of them, or 64%, are nonprofit. Forty-eight percent of all medical enrollees in the United States are in nonprofit health plans. Nonprofit plans have 54% of the commercial risk market and 42% of the self-insured plan administrative services only market.

There is no expanded competition in this idea because no new players are being added to the marketplace.

Jon Walker adds the final point - FEHBP's premium prices are no better than average, and have been increasing at similar rates to private insurance. The idea would do nothing to control costs:

This is not a public insurance entity competing with the existing private insurance companies. This will do nothing to inject competition into concentrated markets. This will not ensure the government provides people with at least one decent insurance plan structured to promote the public good. In the long run, this will not change how the insurance market operates or help rein in our out-of-control health care costs. (The FEHBP has been a failure on the cost controlling front.)

Those pushing these types of compromises are clearly missing the point. This isn't a compromise because it doesn't provide a way to accomplish the two main things a public option is supposed to accomplish: There is no new competition and no cost controls.

The idea is definitely not a replacement for giving us the choice of a public health insurance option so we no longer have to be at the mercy of private insurance.