Lo and behold: the Senate has finally unveiled its health care reform legislation, and will officially announce the plan at a press conference this afternoon. Numbers and opinions are swirling around every media outlet in the country today and it can be mind-boggling to figure out what this means for you — the consumer. Here is my attempt to break down the Senate bill and highlight the provisions that may actually help to reform our system and those that are withered down to simply words on paper at this point.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act released by the Senate late last night is estimated to cost $849 billion over ten years, but with carefully placed taxes like those on high-income earners and on insurance policies that have high costs (also known as “Cadillac plans”), as well as generating savings from Medicare and Medicaid, the bill proposes to pay for these costs and will end up reducing the government’s deficit by $127 billion over the first decade. Most provisions in the bill will take effect by 2014 — what happens before then? Find out here.
The Good:
31 million of the uninsured will now gain health insurance.
New health insurance exchanges will be created to choose from a range of insurance plans.
There will be a public plan offered in the exchanges.
Insurers can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, health status or gender.
Those making up to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) can get coverage through Medicaid(expected to insure 15 million more people).
Young adults will be able stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.
People making between 133% and 400% of the FPL will be able to receive assistance from the government to purchase insurance.
The assistance is important because buying health insurance will now be a requirement for most everyone (except for those with very low-income).
Employers with under 50 employees can buy insurance in the exchange as well (including self-employed people) and receive tax benefits for doing so.
There will be caps on out-of-pocket expenses, like co-pays for doctor visits and deductibles.
Preventive care will now be covered by insurance plans.
Investments to bring more people into the health care workforce will be made through loan repayment programs and scholarships.
The Bad, The Ugly
24 million people will still remain uninsured, one-third of them are unauthorized immigrants.
Unauthorized immigrants will be banned from purchasing insurance through the exchanges, even if they can pay the full costs themselves (in the House bill they would be allowed to buy in the exchange but without federal assistance).
The health insurance exchanges will be on a state-by-state basis which is weaker than the national exchange offered in the House bill (think bigger pool of competition).
The public plan is not much more than words on paper at this point. It will have higher premiums than the private plans (due to the fact that it will be negotiating its own rates to providers instead of using set rates tied to Medicare) and states can refuse to offer the public plan to its residents if they want to.
Only 3-4 million people are expected to use the public plan, which defeats the purpose of it being effective with a large pool of consumers.
Young adults up to age 30, as well as anyone who may not be able to afford insurance (if their premiums exceed 8% of income), will be eligible for a Catastrophic plan, which means millions of people could get sucked into a plan with almost no comprehensive coverage and really high costs.
While 25 million people are expected to purchase coverage through the new exchanges, our health insurance system is still largely based on employer-provided insurance plans. Yet under this bill, employers will not be required to offer coverage to their employees.
But if an employer with 50 or more workers does not offer coverage they will be fined $750 for every worker that requires federal assistance to purchase insurance in the exchange. This is called the “free rider” provision and leaves the window wide open for companies to discriminate against hiring low-income workers and will encourage them to hire illegal immigrants.
There will be $50 million put towards abstinence-only sex education (way to throw money at ineffective solutions).
The Big Compromise
Abortion: The issue of whether a legal medical procedure should be covered by insurance or not shouldn’t even be a question, but this is America –the land of pro-choice vs. anti-choice– so it is. That said, the Senate bill has slightly less restrictive provisions for coverage of abortion than the House bill does with its Stupak-Pitts amendment.
Under the Senate bill, insurance plans can choose whether to cover abortions or not, but in each state there has to be at least one plan that covers it and one that doesn’t.
Unlike in the House bill, people receiving federal assistance to buy insurance can buy a plan that covers abortion, but the insurer can only use the money contributed by the consumer to pay for abortion services, putting the federal funds toward other services only. (This whole separation of funds for a certain medical procedure just irks me. To paraphrase Kierra Johnson of Choice USA, “I can’t separate my uterus from the rest of my body, right?”. It’s like going to the doctor and saying ‘you can go ahead and bill me separately for the part of the check up where you assessed the health of my uterus’.)
Finally, the public plan could provide abortion coverage but would have to segregate federal dollars, just like the private plans.
That’s it in a long nutshell; the Senate bill that will now be debated and amended over the month of December, and then merged with the House bill to produce what will hopefully be a still recognizabe piece of legislation aimed at reforming our health insurance system. Click here for a helpful side-by-side comparison of the Senate and House bills.
The battle to make college more affordable has come down to a critical few weeks in the Senate. The banks and student loan companies already have spent millions of dollars on lobbying, PR firms, and advertisements in their attempt to stop reform and hang on to $87 billion in subsidies that could be going to help students.
Now Campus Progress is taking action. We’ve raised money to put this :30 second spot on cable TV and on Hulu in key states across the country:
We don’t have the kind of money student loan companies have, so we’re going to need your help spreading the ad on Facebook, Twitter, and email if we’re going to get the word out. Click here to help us spread the word.
Media outlets are reporting that 14 individuals at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) were arrested today at a regents committee meeting debating student fee increases.
The meeting was closed to visitors after repeated outbursts by students and union members.
Protesters chanted outside the building as the university Board of Regents committee voted to boost fees over two years. The full board is scheduled to vote Thursday.
Despite the public outcry, the regents OK’d a 32 percent increase to fees at all university campuses.
The vote comes amid an escalating budget shortfall in the state, totaling $21 billion.
The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!
Today’s Updates – 11/18/09:
Here’s to progress: Senate Majority Leader Reid will unveil the long-awaited Senate health insurance reform bill tomorrow. We expect to see the cost estimate on the bill today from the Congressional Budget Office — rumor has it that the cost is lower than the House bill (Not surprising since the Senate bill has weaker provisions for reform).
On Friday, the Senate is expected to have a procedural vote that will determine whether debate on the bill can begin (yes, the Senate is a tricky place ). The vote to begin debate should pass — only three moderate Democrats have not committed to allowing the debate: Senators Landrieu of Louisiana, Lincoln of Arkansas and Nelson of Nebraska. However Reid and other Democrats are working hard to get their committment. Once debate begins, it is expected to last through the month of December (allowing time for amendments) with a goal of passing a health care bill out of the Senate by the Congressional holiday recess. Want to speed the process along? Do you live/are registered to vote in Arkansas, Nebraska or Louisiana? If not you can still join in on the action with our friends at SEIU and contact these key Senators and urge them to allow the debate on health care!
Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week.
The bill’s release would clear the way for a vote on Friday or Saturday by the full chamber on whether to proceed to debate on the measure — the first key procedural hurdle for the Senate plan.
The Nevada Democrat would not confirm that he had received commitments from all 60 members of his caucus to overcome GOP procedural objections and bring the bill to the Senate floor, saying only, “I feel cautiously optimistic that we can do that. I think we’re together as a caucus.”
The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!
Today’s Updates – 11/16/09:
Now that the House has passed their health care bill, we await the Senate bill and look ahead to the long and tricky procedural debate that is in store for health care reform legislation. Today we have heard from Senator Harkin (D-Iowa), who now heads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, with some updated information regarding the time line for when we can expect final health care legislation to pass Congress once and for all and hit Obama’s desk. While Harkin expects the Senate will vote this week to even begin the debate, the debate is not expected to take place until after Thanksgiving. The conference debate, where both House and Senate bills will be merged, is not expected until mid-January. Not that familiar with Senate procedures — especially regarding getting this health care reform bill out of Congress? Check out this slightly outdated, yet still very helpful piece from Congress Matters:
Once passed by both the House and the Senate, the bill would go to conference, where just about anything can happen to it. Technically, there are rules about what can happen, but they’re frequently ignored, and if both houses vote to adopt a conference report that doesn’t comply with the rules, oh well. Too bad. It’s passed anyway. Which means, for instance, that even though it’s normally against the rules for things that didn’t show up in either version of the bill to be inserted into the conference report, that sometimes does happen. Likewise, something that’s in both versions can come out, if that’s what they decide to do, and can get together the votes to make it work.
In the meantime, Campus Progress, along with many other youth and pro-choice organizations, are working to make sure that the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which was included in the House health care bill, does not end up in the final legislation. Want to learn more about this amendment that will restrict abortion coverage? Come to our informational event this Wednesday if you’re in D.C. or read more about the amendment here!
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, predicted during an interview on the liberal “Bill Press Radio Show” that the Senate will have the 60 votes needed to call up the healthcare bill this week. But Harkin said senators will not begin amending the legislation until after the Thanksgiving break.
As for the rest of the schedule, Harkin told the liberal radio station that he expects a vote on the bill shortly before Christmas. House-Senate conferees would begin work on a final bill in early January, he said, with the goal of getting it to the president by mid-January.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) signaled today that “Senate Democrats expect the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to release its score of the health bill by tomorrow, a figure eagerly anticipated by Democrats and Republicans before the health debate begins,” The Hill reports.
This Wednesday at 11am, the UC Regents will convene at UCLA to vote on fee hikes. This vote will determine whether or not UC students, which account for nearly 220,000 students in California, will face a 15% increase in tuition this year.
While decisions about college affordability have impacted the lives of students across the country, students in California are hit particularly hard with the current deficit looming over the state. The vote to take place on Wednesday to raise student fees is a result of the state budget crisis, which has left the UC with a shortfall of $982.2 million in the last two years. As the state continues to cut funding from the UC system, the UC Regents have proposed raising fees year after year to subsidize those cuts. For the 2009-2010 year, they have proposed an overall 30% increase, which would put tuition over $10,000 for the first time.
There is a state-wide call to action to defend public education in California. As of now, an estimated 600 students from the UC system plan on arriving at UCLA Wednesday morning to join in solidarity and to tell the UC Regents that this proposal is unacceptable.
The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!
Today’s Updates – 11/9/09:
Saturday night around 11:30 pm, earlier in the weekend than expected, the House of Representatives passed their very first piece of legislation to reform the health insurance system in America by a 220-215 vote. Just one Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, LA, voted for the legislation — which was a bit unexpected from the GOP. (And note that this means 39 Democrats did not vote for the legislation, which does not make the looming fight in the Senate look very easy!) The bill was passed pretty much in the same state that it entered the debate, with just one major amendment rearing its ugly head and unfortunately being accepted into the legislation. That amendment being the Stupak amendment, proposed by Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), which effectively bans insurance plans offered in the new Health Insurance Exchange from covering abortion services. Also under the amendment, women who purchase comprehensive private insurance packages — that include abortion services — would have to pay for the entire cost of the package (even if they qualify for subsidies from the government to purchase that insurance). This is a big defeat for progressives and it personally breaks my heart to see that we have such a long way to go in this country when it comes to reproductive rights.
The new House health care bill, H.R. 3962, will insure 96% of the population, end denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, end higher rates based on gender, insure young adults under parent coverage until age 27, and open up a national Health Insurance Exchange where individuals can choose from insurance plans offered by private insurers and a plan offered by the government — the public option.
The backbone of our health insurance system will still mainly consist of employer-provided plans, as it has for years, but now those not receiving insurance from their employers will have more options. Also, large employers will be required to continue providing coverage to their employees, and small businesses will receive subsidies to help provide insurance to their employees. Those not receiving coverage from their employer will be able to purchase insurance in the Exchange, and most individuals, other than extremely low-income earners, will now be required to have insurance and some will receive federal subsidies in order to help purchase that insurance.
How much will this reform cost and how will we pay for it? The House bill comes in around $894 billion over ten years and will be paid for by taxing very high-income earners and finding savings in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
It was a very exciting Saturday night here in D.C. and in millions of homes across the country, as many celebrated the completion of the first step in getting health care legislation that much closer to the President’s desk. Even in the Capitol, as the votes reached the 218 needed to pass the legislation, the chamber broke into applause. Now it’s time to strive for hearing that same applause from the Senate floor as they gear up to pass their own version of health care reform, then the next step will be to combine the two bills and have a final vote to bring health care reform legislation into law.
The U.S. House of Representatives answered “the call of history” put to it by President Obama Saturday and voted 220-215 in favor of the most sweeping expansion of health-care coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965.
If you thought that just because abortion is a constitutional right and part of basic reproductive health care it would be available in the reformed health insurance market known as the Exchange, think again. The Stupak Amendment, passed Saturday night by the House of Representatives after a compromise deal fell apart, potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women’s access to abortion.
The White House, growing concerned that the Congressional timetable for passing a health care overhaul could slip into next year, is stepping up pressure on the Senate for quick action, with President Obama appearing Sunday in the Rose Garden to call on senators to “take up the baton and bring this effort to the finish line.”
The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!
Today’s Updates – 11/6/09:
The House of Representatives is scheduled to begin debate on their health care bill, The Affordable Health Care for America Act – H.R. 3962, this weekend. The final House legislation was released a couple weeks ago and is now ready to be voted on by our Representatives. However, as has been the case throughout this entire health care reform process, there may be some delays that would push the vote back to Monday or Tuesday — “some delays” meaning: more discussions about abortion and immigration to stall the way-bigger-than-those-two-issues health care bill.
This bill, which — among many other things — will contain costs, end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or gender, extend coverage for young adults under their parents’ plan, and provide a public insurance plan that will compete with private plans, has not included language about keeping illegal immigrants from buying insurance in the new insurance marketplace, and this one omission is bothering many Representatives. However the bill does state that illegal immigrants will not be eligible to receive federal subsidies to purchase insurance. So even though the bill requires illegal immigrants to buy insurance or be fined with a penalty tax, it is not going to help them purchase it. Awesome — makes perfect sense.
Another reform deal-breaker for many Reps is abortion, and although the House bill clearly states that federal funds given out under reform will not be used to cover abortion, this language isn’t good enough for some and they are fighting to include amendments that strengthen the prohibition for abortion funds. Why abortion cannot be covered like any other medical procedure we have a right to is beyond me, but my opinion, and that of millions of others, is apparently neither here nor there in this debate.
Another topic of discussion that is sure to be included in tomorrow’s debate is the GOP’s alternative health care bill. Or, what I like to call, a plan only insurance companies could love, or the bill that will leave 52 million people uninsured and actually charge more for people with pre-existing conditions. Way to go guys. Luckily, the Republican bill has no chance of passing, but they had to produce something since all they were doing all these months was saying “no” to the other bills on the table.
So this is it. After the GOP bill gets laughed off of the stage and immigrants and abortion likely barred from being covered, the House will vote to pass their first piece of health care reform legislation. But while they decide their vote they have to hear from you. Especially after hearing from anti-reform crowds led by our favorite Rep. Bachmann yesterday.
A man at the Bachmann protest yesterday holds this sign –which doesn’t even make any sense.
It’s your turn to make your voice heard: Contact your Rep NOW and urge them to pass the House Health Care bill, H.R. 3962!
This week, climate activists from Washington University organized a flash mob at a coal funded “America’s Energy Future” forum. Check out the video of their extremely successful action:
At the forum there was no representation from clean energy industries and most of the panelists came from coal corporations that recently joined the board of the St. Louis Missouri university. This is what the student activists had to say:
Students wish to highlight the close relationship between the university administration and the coal industry. Students have already expressed unease that the University is “too cozy” with coal… The University has dedicated $60 million in financial resources to the creation of a Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. The name of this consortium has sparked controversy among many students and faculty, who have argued that the industry term “clean coal” has no place in scientific research.
The students also highlighted a new report released by the National Academy of Sciences that calculated the hidden costs of coal consumptions to be over $60 billion dollars per year in health, environmental, and social costs and a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance demonstrating that Missouri could meet its energy needs entirely through renewable energy.
But it doesn’t end there! Newsweek and the American Petroleum Institute recently partnered to launch their own forums on clean energy, despite API’s continued efforts to undermine climate legislation and deceive the general public. Petroleum companies have much to gain from the ‘clean coal’ insanity due to their expertise in drilling and their extensive pipeline infrastructure. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn’t as Carbon Capture and Sequestration is an untested technology with no proven record and that is expected to be extremely expensive to implement even if possible.
Newsweek’s journalistic integrity is at stake when they partner with organizations who’s whole purpose is to push disinformation and halt honest conversations about the energy future of the United States. I have crashed a Newsweek energy event already and I was the only young person in the audience. We will be present and numerous at these forums, possibly borrowing some tactics by the young climate activists at Washington University.
Funding our Future is a campaign to pass a progressive federal budget for 2010 and ensure that our nation.s key economic choices invest in our education, spark reform of our health care system, and address climate change through cap and trade and clean energy investments. Click here for more info.
The push for health care reform is moving fast and furiously, so I thought it’d be helpful to have semi-daily “Health on the Hill” updates that should help you keep track of the reform debate and get to the meat of the issue. Enjoy!
This Wednesday at 11am, the 
A man at the Bachmann protest yesterday holds this sign –which doesn’t even make any sense.