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Healthcare Bill To Be Voted On Soon

Posted on: Friday, 30 October 2009, 06:10 CDT

On Thursday, U.S. House of Representative Democrats unveiled a healthcare overhaul that would transform the insurance market, create a government run insurance plan, and levy new taxes on the rich.

Budget analysis said that weeks of closed-door negotiations to merge three House healthcare plans produced a 1,990-page bill that would cost a net $894 billion over 10 years, which is below President Barack Obama's target of $904 billion.

"Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

There was unanimous opposition from Republicans because of the bill, along with grumbling from some Democrats.  Party liberals had been looking for a stronger public insurance option and party moderates want assurances that federal funds will not be used to pay for abortions under the measure.

The legislation could be debated in the House as quickly as next week.  The Senate is assembling its own version, and the House and Senate bills eventually are combined before being sent to Obama for his signature.

Obama said he was pleased the bill featured a public insurance option and was fiscally responsible.

"The House bill clearly meets two of the fundamental criteria I have set out: it is fully paid for and will reduce the deficit in the long term," he said in a statement.

Obama and Democrats have been battling republicans at every juncture in the healthcare debate due to the size, cost and scope of the House legislation.

"Americans' health care is too important and too complex to risk on one gigantic bill that has been written behind closed doors," said Representative Dave Camp, the senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

House Republican leader John Boehner urged Democrats to slow down the process and allow a full floor debate. "This huge bill is designed to be so complex that nobody would ever know for sure what's in it," he said.

The Congressional Budget Office said that the House bill would expand coverage to 36 million uninsured people living in the U.S.  It also said it would give subsidies to help the uninsured purchase insurance through newly created exchanges.

Individuals would be required to buy insurance and all but the smallest employers would have to offer health converge to workers.  Also, the bill would bar insurers from refusing to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions and eliminate the industry's exemption from federal antitrust laws.

The bill includes a 5.4 percent surtax on individuals making over $500,000 and couples that earn over $1 million, which is expected to bring about $460 billion over 10 years to help pay for the uninsured Americans.

Money would also be saved by expanding eligibility for the government's Medicaid health insurance program for the poor to people with incomes of up to 150 percent of the official poverty level.  It is cheaper for the government to cover people through Medicaid than providing subsidies to purchase insurance.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the subsidies for health insurance coverage would cost $1.055 trillion over 10 years, to be offset in part by $167 billion in penalties paid by individuals and employers who fail to obtain insurance.

New government-run insurance programs have been a flashpoint in debates.  Obama and liberals say it would drive competition between private insurers, but critics say it would lead to government takeover.

The public option would use reimbursement rates negotiated with doctors and hospitals in the House bill.  House liberals led by Pelosi could not get enough votes to have a stronger version aimed to rates for Medicare, which is the government's health insurance program.

The Senate's healthcare bill also includes a public option based on negotiated reimbursement rates, but would allow states to decline to participate.

The House bill does not include the Senate's proposal to tax high-cost "Cadillac" insurance plans, which have been opposed by House Democrats and labor unions that think it would hurt too many middle-income workers.

America's Health Insurance Plans, which is the lobbying group for the insurance industry, has criticized the proposed government-run insurance program, saying it would cause people to lose their existing coverage.

"A new government-run plan would bankrupt hospitals, dismantle employer coverage ... and ultimately increase the federal deficit," Karen Ignagni, the group's president, said in a statement.

Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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