Government Takeover of Health Care

Support for Health Care Plan Falls to New Low

November 23, 2009

Rasmussen Reports - Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.

Half the survey was conducted before the Senate voted late Saturday to begin debate on its version of the legislation. Support for the plan was slightly lower in the half of the survey conducted after the Senate vote...

Obama Faces Tough Senate Battle on Health Care Bill

November 22, 2009

AFP – President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, remaking US health care, cleared a major Senate hurdle but strong opposition Sunday to key parts of the proposals augured a tough battle ahead.

After a knife-edge vote on Saturday night, battle lines were already being drawn on Sunday with the leading Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warning Democrats of a long road ahead.

"Just to look at recent legislative activities on the Senate side, we spent four weeks last Congress on a farm bill, seven weeks creating the Department of Homeland Security a few years ago, eight weeks on an energy bill.

"The Senate doesn't do things quickly," he said.

America's Thanksgiving holidays are set to be marked by bitter debate over the nitty-gritty of the bill, from its costs in terms of tax increases and fees to the merits or not of the so-called "public option" on health care insurance.

Divisive issues like abortion funding could also come to the fore as Democrats and Republicans face off on what would amount to the biggest shake-up of US health care in four decades.

Unsurprisingly, reactions to Saturday's decision to allow the bill to proceed to the floor of the Senate for debate were, like the vote itself, strictly along party lines.

Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Obama's home state of Illinois hailed "an amazing victory" for the president, but Republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas called it a "terrible bill" and a "disaster for our country."

Formal debate in the Senate was expected to begin November 30, after next week's Thanksgiving break, and to last at least three weeks as senators battle over possible changes to the legislation.

Republicans hope to kill the bill or delay the battle into next year with the expectation that the 2010 midterm elections may make it harder for moderate Democrats to support it.

Senators voted 60-39 Saturday to formally start debate on legislation aimed at extending coverage to some 31 million Americans who currently lack it.

Obama's Democratic allies mustered the bare minimum 60 votes needed to take up the bill in the Senate, rallying wavering colleagues and independents to defeat 39 of the chamber's 40 Republicans, one of whom was absent.

The Senate bill includes a government-backed insurance program to compete with private firms, the controversial so-called "public option," and restrictions on dropping care for pre-existing ailments.

It is estimated to cost 848 billion dollars through 2019 but cut the sky-high US budget deficit by 130 billion dollars over the same period.

The leading Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid, faced three possible defectors, any one of whom could have deprived him the 60 votes necessary to prevent Republican parliamentary delaying tactics.

Those senators -- Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- have signaled a willingness to join Republicans if their proposed changes to core provisions of the bill are defeated.

Landrieu and Lincoln are strongly opposed to the government-backed "public option," but Nelson indicated on Sunday that he could be open to persuasion on the issue.

"We could negotiate a public option of some sort that I might look at, but I don't want a big government, Washington-run operation," he told ABC's "This Week" program.

Nelson has said he wants tougher restrictions on federal money subsidizing abortions, mirroring language the House of Representatives added to its version of the bill when it approved it in a 220-215 squeaker November 7.

Dems Have 60 Pledges Ahead of Key Senate Health Care Vote

November 22, 2009

AP - Invoking the name of the late Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Democrats sealed a 60-vote majority needed to advance health care legislation Saturday ahead of an evening showdown with opposition Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.

Two final holdouts, Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, announced in speeches a few hours apart on the Senate floor that they would join in clearing the way for a bruising, full-scale health care debate after Thanksgiving.

At a 10-year cost approaching $1 trillion, the measure is designed to extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.

"It is clear to me that doing nothing is not an option," said Landrieu, who won $100 million in the legislation to help her state pay the costs of health care for the poor.

Lincoln, who faces a tough re-election next year, said the evening vote will "mark the beginning of consideration of this bill by the U.S. Senate, not the end."

Both stressed they were not committing in advance to vote for the bill that ultimately emerges from next month's debate. Even so, their announcements marked a major victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the White House in a year-end drive to enact the most sweeping changes to the nation's health care system in a half-century or more...

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide subsidies to those who couldn't afford it. Large companies could incur costs if they did not provide coverage to their workforce. The insurance industry would come under significant new regulation under the bill, which would first ease and then ban the practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

Congressional budget analysts put the legislation's cost at $979 billion over a decade and said it would reduce deficits over the same period while extending coverage to 94 percent of the eligible population.

The House approved its version of the bill earlier this month on a near party line vote of 220-215, and Reid has said he wants the Senate to follow suit by year's end. Timing on any final compromise was unclear.

In hours of debate before the Saturday evening vote, a few Republicans piled copies of the 2,074-page bill on their desks while others criticized it as a government takeover of health care and worse.

"Move over, Bernie Madoff. Tip your hat to a trillion-dollar scam," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., likening the bill's supporters to the imprisoned investor who fleeced millions.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said Reid had delayed implementation of many of the bill's key provisions and made it look less costly as a result. He put the true price tag at $2.5 trillion over a decade once implemented.

"Senators who support this bill have a lot of explaining to do," said the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "Americans know that a vote to proceed on this bill is a vote for higher premiums, higher taxes and massive cuts to Medicare. That's a pretty hard thing to justify supporting."

...Reid worked for weeks drafting the legislation, a blend of bills approved earlier by two committees with new provisions designed to straddle the ideological divide among Senate Democrats.

Among the most controversial is a requirement for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry, unless individual states opt out.

Landrieu, Lincoln and other Democrats have expressed unease about it, and attempts to modify the so-called public option are certain once debate begins in earnest. One possibility would require the federal government stay out of the insurance business unless there was a shortage of competition or affordable coverage offered by private companies.

At its core, the legislation would create insurance exchanges beginning in 2014 where individuals, most of them lower income and uninsured, would shop for coverage. The bill sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits to help those earning up to 400 percent of poverty, $88,200 for a family of four.

To finance the expanded coverage, Reid proposed higher taxes as well as cuts totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in projected Medicare payments. Hardest hit would be the private insurance Medicare plans, although providers such as home health agencies would also receive significantly less in future years than now estimated.

The bill raises payroll taxes on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. Reid eased the impact of an earlier proposal to tax high-value insurance plans, which has emerged as one of the principal methods for restraining the growth in health costs.

The bill includes tax increases on insurance companies, medical device makers, patients electing to undergo cosmetic surgery and drugmakers.

Republicans Blast 'Bait and Switch' Health Bill

November 20, 2009

AP - Digging in for a long struggle, Republican senators and governors assailed the Democrats' newly minted health care legislation Thursday as a collection of tax increases, Medicare cuts, and heavy new burdens for deficit-ridden states.

Despite the criticism, there were growing indications Democrats would prevail on an initial Senate showdown set for Saturday night, and Majority Leader Harry Reid crisply rebutted the Republican charges.

The bill "will save lives, save money and save Medicare," he said.

The legislation is designed to answer President Barack Obama's call to expand coverage, end industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and restrain the growth of health care spending.

Republicans saw little to like.

"It makes no sense at all and affronts common sense," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, one of several Republicans to criticize the measure. He added that a plan to expand Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, was a "bait and switch" with states as the victims.

GOP governors, meeting in Texas, agreed.

"We all know a sucker play when we see one," said Mitch Daniels of Indiana. The bill would expand the Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor, and leave the states with part of the additional cost beginning after three years.

In the Capitol, Reid answered Republican delaying tactics with an initial test vote set for Saturday evening. A 60-vote majority is required to advance the bill toward full debate, expected to begin after Thanksgiving.

Counting two independents, Democrats control 60 Senate seats. Three moderate Democrats have been cagey about their intentions, although none of them has announced a plan to defect. Officials disclosed during the day that Reid had included in the bill a political sweetener for one of the three, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, in the form of $100 million to help her state cover health care costs for the poor.

While the struggle was forming, there were limits. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., backed off his threat to force the 2,074-page bill to be read aloud in the Senate chamber, a move that would have eaten into the Senate's Thanksgiving-week vacation.

Given the political stakes, there was disagreement even about the bill's cost.

Democrats put the price tag of the 2,074-page measure at $979 billion, higher than the $849 billion figure they had cited Wednesday as the cost of expanding coverage to 31 million who now lack insurance. Republicans calculated it at more like $1.5 trillion over a decade, and said even that was understated because Reid decided to delay implementation of some of the bill's main features until 2014.

Officially, the Congressional Budget Office said the measure would reduce deficits by $130 billion over the next decade with probable small reductions in the 10 years that follow - forecasts that cheered rank-and-file Democrats. Among the cost-cutting provisions would be creation of an Independent Medicare Advisory Board which could be required to recommend steps limiting the growth of the program that provides health care to millions of seniors. The recommendations would go into effect automatically unless Congress blocked them.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf has said previously that type of arrangement would be one of the most potent weapons Congress would have to restrain the growth of Medicare, a fast-expanding program supported in part by a trust fund that is dwindling.

But CBO also cautioned the bill includes "a number of procedures that might be difficult to maintain over a long period of time."

The Democrats' cost estimates of slightly below $1 trillion was considerably smaller than a House-passed bill's price tag of between $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion.

In part to reduce costs, the legislation would delay until Jan. 1, 2014, creation of so-called insurance exchanges in which individuals and small businesses could shop for affordable coverage. The House would set up its version of the exchange one year earlier.

Both bills would allow consumers to choose between private insurance policies and coverage sold by the government.

The two bills also include billions of dollars in subsidies to help lower-income Americans afford the cost of coverage. Under the Senate measure, CBO figures show about 19 million people would receive subsidies averaging $5,500 in 2019, at the end of the decade. By comparison, the House bill is projected to provide subsidies to 18 million, an average of $6,800. Republicans said little if anything about subsidies during the day, instead focusing much of their criticism the bill's tax increases and its curbs in Medicare spending.

Democrats included a new tax on high-value insurance policies, an attempt not only to raise money but also to dampen the appetite for costly coverage. In addition, Reid included a payroll tax increase of .5 percentage point on income greater for $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. Medical device manufacturers, insurance companies, drug makers and recipients of elective cosmetic surgery would also face new or higher taxes.

About half of the bill Reid unveiled Wednesday would be financed by curbs in projected Medicare spending. While providers such as home health care agencies would absorb some of that, the biggest blow would fall on private Medicare plans. Studies show the government pays about 14 percent more to cover patients enrolled in those plans than in the traditional Medicare program.

Congress Draws Battle Lines on Senate Health Care Bill

November 19, 2009

CBN News - Battle lines have been drawn over the Senate's new 2,074-page health care bill which critics say will cost far more than its $849 billion price tag.

Still, senior Democrats introduced their health care plan as nothing short of history in the making.

"Tonight begins the last leg of this journey we have been on for some time," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

Reid's bill would extend coverage to 30 million more Americans at a price tag of nearly $850 billion over the first 10 years.

The bill would also require most Americans to have health insurance and would set up an insurance exchange to lower the cost of buying coverage.

In addition, it would create an optional public plan, but states could choose to opt out.

Contrary to the House bill, abortions would be included in the public plan and insurance companies that get federal funds could offer abortion coverage.

The bill would be paid for by imposing taxes on premium insurance plans, taxing workers making more than $250,000 a year and an increase in Medicare payroll taxes.

The legislation proposes cuts to Medicare - a decision Reid says will make it stronger.

"Anytime you have a program with fraud, waste and abuse in it and you cut that, you protect the program," he said.

However, even before the bill made its debut, Republicans said no dice.

"Americans want cost control, and they want affordable and available health care," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said. "They don't want increases in taxes. They don't want the government taking over the health care system in American, and that's what's going to be delivered."

But it's not just Republicans that stand in the way. Moderate Democrats could keep the bill from moving forward by withholding their vote and preventing the 60 votes needed to even bring the bill up for debate.

Despite the uncertainty, supporters like Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, predicted success.

"We're gonna get it over the finish line," he vowed. "Because failure is not an option."