Fix Health Care Policy

When President Barack Obama made his most recent big health care speech in September, he promised the American people his plan would cost only $900 billion. It took almost three months, but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) finally produced a bill that CBO was willing to score at $848 billion. Problem is, the bill is filled with so many gimmicks that nobody believes that $848 billion score is the true cost of the bill. And yesterday on the Senate floor, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) actually admitted it. Watch:

(more…)

Tags: Max Baucus, Obama Health Care Plan, trillion dollar deficits

A Lewin Group study commissioned by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, finds that although the Baucus health care bill (the legislation that recently passed the Senate Finance Committee) is often touted as the most fiscally responsible of all of Congress’s reform plans, it “relies on certain cost containment approaches that have not worked in the past” and therefore “does not bend the total health care cost curve downward.”

Rather than fundamentally realigning incentives in the health sector to lower the overall cost of care, the Baucus bill imposes top down cuts in payments to medical providers which will only serve to shift costs around the current system. Here are some of the other key findings from the Lewin study on the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 (S.1796):

• Adds to the Deficit. The bill would add to the federal deficit in the first ten years and beyond if it included a permanent “doc fix” to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to physicians under the Sustainable Growth Rate instead of only a one year temporary fix. Every year, Congress defers these reductions in pay to doctors but the bill creates false savings by pretending that Congress would suddenly let these cuts occur. More than $404 billion in savings over the first ten years are attributable to these savings– and reductions in uncompensated care funds for hospitals that treat the uninsured (DSH payments)– that are unlikely to fully materialize. (more…)

Tags: Lewin Group, Max Baucus, Obama Health Care Plan, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, trillion dollar deficits

Despite President Obama’s pledge that congressional discussions on health reform legislation would be “televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or insurance companies,” The Washington Post reports that just three senators are determining the current health debate behind closed doors.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sits at the head of a wooden table at his office as he and Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) work to merge two competing versions of health-care legislation into one bill,” the Post reports, noting White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also will be in on the talks, which started on Wednesday and could be completed this week.

The lawmakers will determine whether controversial items in the health legislation, such as a government-run health plan or individual mandates to buy insurance, will be included in a final bill. “This bill is being written in the dark of night,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) in the article, adding that “the president ought to keep his promise to the American people and open this process up.”

Tags: Christopher Dodd, closed doors, Harry Reid, health reform, Max Baucus, transparency

Leaders in the House and Senate have a secret plan to pass President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care plan without a conference and without any participation by the American people … but that plan that has been pushed to Plan B. The primary plan is to use a secretive conference committee procedure to pass Obamacare by the end of the year.

Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee passed the outline of a bill, The Vapor Bill, out of committee on a party line vote with the lone crossover Republican support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) on a 14-9 vote. AP is reporting that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) wants to commence debate the last week of October on his version of health care reform. (more…)

Tags: Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Obama Health Care Plan, Olympia Snowe, Vapor Bill

The Congressional Budget Office issued a report giving the Baucus health care bill the stamp of deficit-reduction approval, but this was earned only through steep increases in indirect taxes, such as the coverage mandate. The coverage mandate included in Senator Baucus’ health care plan has significant and disturbing implications for middle-class Americans. Individuals earning up to $45,520 and families earning up to $92,640 would need to cut corners to make ends meet, all in response to the indirect tax implicit in a health care mandate.

For individuals making $34,140 or three times the Federal Poverty Level, the Baucus health care proposal could mandate up to $4,097 in annual premiums, a sum which could have been spent on over nine months of food, almost four months of housing or well over a year of utilities. For a family of four making $69,480 or 300% of poverty, a mandated annual premium of $8,338 would be worth the equivalent of over ten months of food, four months of housing or almost two years of utilities. Is this change to the health care system actual “reform”, or something else? (more…)

Tags: health insurance, health reform, individual mandates, Max Baucus, middle class, new taxes, poverty