Healthcare Reform
The struggle over U.S. healthcare reform has consumed Congress for most of the year. It has dominated media coverage and fueled informal debates in all parts of the country. A resolution to the heated back-and-forth should arrive by Thanksgiving in the form of meaningful healthcare legislation, according to Vice President Joe Biden. Then again, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has pledged to cancel the Democrats’ planned festivities, preventing what he and other opponents have described as a “government takeover” of the healthcare system.
Amid the emotional tug-of-war and evolving bills, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has laid out the stakes. In a June letter to the Senate Budget Committee, CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf begins: “In the absence of significant changes in policy, rising costs for healthcare will cause federal spending to grow much faster than the economy, putting the federal budget on an unsustainable path.”
Most experts, analysts, and politicians agree that something must be done. It’s all a matter of what and how much it will cost. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let’s talk turkey about the healthcare reform proposals that may or may not survive the holiday, and the key players who will determine whether this year’s reform effort stays alive—or gets stuffed.
Main Points of Disagreement
Whether healthcare reform should include a public option for a national insurance plan, smaller nonprofit co-ops, or nothing of the sort has dominated the debate over the competing proposals in Congress. But it’s hardly the only major disagreement.
Beyond the sticky matter of how to pay for everything, businesses instinctively have opposed any requirement that employers offer health insurance to their employees. Then again, that opposition seems to be softening as more details of the plan are released.
In principle, widespread agreement exists on the notion that individuals should have guaranteed issue and renewability of their healthcare insurance, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Far less clear, however, is the matter of how much those individuals will have to pay for their policies.
Main Points of Agreement
Not everyone is on board, but any healthcare reform bill that emerges from Congress is likely to contain three main elements, according to Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
1. Expansion of Medicaid
Details are still in flux, and some lawmakers have grumbled about the potential cost to states, but Ku says broad agreement exists for an expansion of Medicaid that would cover individuals and families who earn up to 133 percent or so of the federal poverty line. Estimates suggest that an additional 9 million uninsured, low-income adults could be covered. “That’s a huge swath right there that we can take out of the uninsured category,” he says.
2. Health Insurance Exchanges
Think of exchanges as the Travelocity or Orbitz for health-insurance plans, complete with coupons for the needy. Sliding-scale tax credits or vouchers could be used by low- to moderate-income people to buy insurance in publicly available, government-regulated marketplaces where such parameters as premiums and coverage could be compared. “The concept is that by setting up standards and having a place where it’s all together, it would create a competition,” Ku says.
In essence, more competition could lead to cost reductions.
3. An Individual Mandate
Hardship exemptions are likely, but people who can afford it will be expected to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Republican rumblings suggest that agreement on this point may not be as widespread as initially thought.
Main Players
President Obama has made healthcare reform the centerpiece of his first-year agenda. If he is to succeed, organizations like AARP will be key in winning over skeptical seniors. But the real power lies with a handful of Congressional leaders who have the ability to make or break any legislation. A brief rundown:
