With the House already out of session and the Senate wrapping up for the August recess, advancements in health care reform have fallen well short of President Obama's desired deadline. The president called for the Senate to approve a bill before the break, but he will instead have to settle for progress made by two key committees, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
The Senate Health Committee has approved a bill, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would cost about $1 billion over the next 10 years. The Finance Committee has not yet agreed on legislation, but Committee Chairman Max Baucus says his group's goal is to achieve more bipartisan support.
The House has made more progress than the Senate, with all three key committees approving a health overhaul bill. The bill will come to a vote in September, after the recess. In the meantime, Republicans will likely use the August recess to slow Democratic momentum by hosting town hall meetings and public events opposing the legislation.
Though the various bills produced by House and Senate committees differ in several ways, they accomplish a similar set of objectives. All four drafted bills would cost $900 billion to $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And as President Obama has emphasized, the bills would insure most of the approximately 54 million Americans who currently live without health insurance.
Each of the current bills would provide scaled assistance to households at up to four times the federal poverty level (about $88,000 for a family of four), while imposing penalties on those who can afford insurance but elect not to obtain coverage. Similarly, the bills would penalize most large corporations (and some smaller companies) that do not contribute to their employees' health care. Many small businesses would be exempt from these penalties.
Any bill ultimately signed into law would also seek to make health coverage easier to obtain and more affordable. A heavy dose of regulation would prohibit private insurers to refuse coverage for patients based on past medical history or pre-existing medical conditions. Bills now on the table also aim to make health care more affordable to the elderly -- and ease the federal Medicare burden -- by limiting the amount that insurers could charge based on age.
In one of its more controversial measures, the bill would also expand the size of the Medicaid program. State-level leaders have criticized this decision as an unfunded mandate, because states hold a share of the financial burden for Medicaid. Concessions made to fiscally conservative "blue dog" Democrats would obligate the government to renegotiate the reimbursement value of health-care procedures, rather than rely on the standardized rates used by the Medicare program. Many Democrats agree that there should be some form of public insurance to compete with the private sector, but opposition from both parties will likely sink this proposal even before the bills come to a vote. (For Republicans and conservative Democrats alike, the public option feels too much like a single-payer public health care plan, like those in the United Kingdom and Canada.)
In addition to insurance reform, the bill will also focus on altering established methods of the American health care system. Several provisions exist to fund and encourage spending on much talked-about "prevention" programs. Other spending will go toward the training of health-care professionals, and improving the quality of treatment for seniors and those living close to the poverty line.
The next several weeks will be critical for President Obama as he seeks to defend health care reform from attacks by congressional Republicans. Claims that the new bill will require the rationing of health care and involve government interference into private life will have to be refuted in order for the bill to receive widespread public support.
-- Christopher Handel, Clear365 News
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