Health Care Reform | 07/16/2009 9:00 am
As Many Women Struggle to Afford Health Care, Reform Bills Face Opposition in Congress
Centrist Democrats, GOP, says health-care reform bills costing around $1 trillion are too costly for small businesses and impose undue burdens on too many people.
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With 52 percent of working-age women having problems accessing affordable health care, we’re more likely than men to feel the crunch of increasing health-care costs and insufficient benefits. Plus, 69 percent of underinsured women also can’t get care that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, according to a recent study.
Therefore, women should be sure to pay attention to what’s in the health-care reform bill sailing through Congress, and contact their congressman or senator if they’re not happy with it. With a price tag of at least $1 trillion over the next ten years, there are big questions to be answered, such as: Who’s going to pay for it?
The Senate Health Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would cost $600 billion and provide subsidies to make it easier for many people to get health insurance. Individuals and families making up to about $88,000 a year for a family of four would qualify. House Democrats are debating their bill, which would cover 97 percent of U.S. citizens by 2015. That bill would cost $1.5 trillion, and would penalize individuals and employers who don’t buy insurance. But the bill is facing a lot of opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats, who say it’s chock-full of taxes, would unfairly burden small businesses and rural health-care providers, and — despite what President Obama says — would threaten the coverage currently held by millions of Americans. Business groups also oppose it.
"There’s not a single vote in there," Rep. Mark Kirk, R-IL, said of a House GOP meeting Wednesday.
Another point not missed on many is who’s going to pay for the plan. The GOP says one route — a proposed tax increase on individuals making more than $280,000 and couples making more than $350,000 — would stifle job growth by small-business owners. The New York Post’s headline story today, "Dem Health RX a Poi$on Pill in NY," describes how the House bill could create a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for New York’s top earners, and could cost small businesses some jobs.
And it turns out many Americans are unsure of the bills, too.
A new McClatchy-Ipsos poll found people torn over several key questions that are likely to dominate debate in Congress, including: how a federal government insurance plan would affect their own health care and their pocketbooks; whether the government should stress cost controls or expanded insurance coverage; and whom they trust most to expand coverage.
Another problem to take into account during the health-care debate is that many Americans who can’t afford insurance turn to hospital emergency rooms for help. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released new data yesterday that shows that the uninsured accounted for nearly one-fifth of the 120 million hospital-based emergency department visits in 2006.
"Our health-care system has forced too many uninsured Americans to depend on the emergency room for the care they need," she said. "We cannot wait for reform that gives all Americans the high-quality, affordable care they need and helps prevent illnesses from turning into emergencies."
One group happy with the House bill, at least, is the National Women’s Law Center, which said:
It addresses many of the obstacles women face in our current health-care system, such as making health care more affordable and ensuring that women have access to the comprehensive health benefits they need. The legislation would also eliminate discriminatory insurance industry practices that are especially harmful to women, including gender rating. The legislation not only makes commendable progress towards assuring women’s ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care — it makes sure that it is paid for in a fair and fiscally responsible way.
Read more about: Blue Dog Democrats, congress, democrats, Health-Care Reform, House, News, President Obama, republicans, senate, U.S., women
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UH OH:
Read the whole thing.
Since many woman on this site don’t are juggling families, friends, jobs, etc — you know, life — perhaps you could copy/paste Page 16 and spare them having to try to "research" it themselves. Of, perhaps provide a link for easy access.
I’m sure everyone on this site would be appreciative.
I’ve got a job and a life and yet it took me exactly two seconds to find the Bill on the internet.
http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf
Great, Andrea………..C Hardy found it hours ago for us. Once we looked at it, we saw that what deber posted was a complete fabrication. How sad it is that we cannot trust one another to post the truth…….posting bias is one thing, but completely fabricating the content is just not something I can respect.
MK P
If "we" looked at it [whoever that is] then "we" has a problem with reading and comprehension. Deber’s calling attention to the pages and their content was not fabrication. Tell me then, what exactly did you understand pages 16 and 17 to mean?
Andrea………even deber herself has admitted that Page 16 did not say what she initially indicated………if you read her original post, the first post on this thread — you’ll get an idea of the issue……….
I’m off to shop now…….gotta keep that economy going……………
MK P,
What Deber wrote was:
What I wrote earlier in response to her statement about page 16> was:
1 - if your company’s private insurance wasn’t grandfathered in [meaning that if it wasn’t in force the day BEFORE the effective date of the government plan], then your company is going to have to jump through a lot of hoops and meet certain criteria [see page 17].
2 - If your employer hires new employees after the effective date, they cannot be covered under the old grandfathered plan. [Oooooh, the unions are going to scream about that one.]
3 - Your company has a grace period of 5 years to prove it’s in compliance with the Universal care system.
I have no clue if my interpretations are correct or not. They talk about a 5 year grace period but that’s where I start getting lost. Grace period for what?
I always find these Bills so bloody ambiguous. In other words, if you haven’t got the insurance plan you want with your employer now, you’d better make the change as soon as you can.
And what happens to company employees who want to switch from say Insurance A [PPO plan] to Insurance B [HMO plan] or visa versa? Are they up a tree?
I can only wonder what this will do to companies with private self-insured plans.
Deber,
I’ve got some contacts in the military - though many are retired now - so I’ve heard about Tricare. I’ve got an autoimmune disease that requires the best providers and so I’ve been able to work it out so that I have a PPO plan that serves my needs. Like you, I cannot tolerate and do not have the time for long waits in the waiting room nor do I need/want a PCP to give me a referral. About 20 years ago for a year I had one of those plans where the PCP had to refer you to a specialist and by the time I got in so much damage was done……I’m sure you’ve heard this story many times over.
I once wrote about the physicians in my area - that many are no longer taking Medicare and some are no longer taking insurance at all - cash only. And then there are the ones who have taken early retirements - maybe they’re the smartest of them all.
The way I figure it I’ve worked a long time and always made it a point [except for that one year] to have the best insurance. To me that was a form of compensation and I won’t let go of it.
Nothing done in haste ever works. This old saying seems appropriate to ObamaCare: “We never have time to do it right the first time, but boy we’ve got plenty of time to do it over and over and over again.”
And that’s exactly what will happen.
Take the time to get it right for deserving Americans. It may not happen this year, but Obama, just get it right. This country pays exorbitant taxes to get things done across the board. Make us feel like we are actually making a difference to include those who don’t have a dime to pay. Make us feel good to give and make us feel good to receive.
Now, back to the business at hand!
Blue Dogs think the bill fails to do enough to reduce healthcare costs, jeopardizes jobs with a fee on employers that don’t provide health insurance, and would base a government-run healthcare plan on a Medicare payment system that already penalizes their rural districts.
One Blue Dog, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), told a home-state paper that he will vote against the plan in the Ways and Means Committee markup unless that Medicare payment system is changed.
Blue Dogs had aired their complaints last week in a letter to Pelosi that caused her to delay the rollout of the bill until Tuesday. But when the bill was introduced, they felt Pelosi and the committee chairmen who wrote the legislation hadn’t taken their concerns into account.
That led to a tense session between Pelosi and Blue Dogs at the group’s regular Tuesday meeting hours after the rollout.
“The meeting did not go well. She just kept saying it was a good bill,” said one Blue Dog.
“There is a growing perception among many of us that our leadership meets with us but doesn’t listen to us,” said another Blue Dog.
http://michellemalkin.com/
Amen to these democrats who want to get this bill right for all Americans!!! We need more democrats in the White House to stand up to their party and do what is right for their voters!
Nancy Pelosi in a thorn in President Obama’s side.
Only a matter of time…the Pelosi thing…
Here is another list Deber:
Montana - Baucus and Tester
North Dakota - Dorgan and Conrad
South Dakota - Johnson
Nebraska - Nelson
Arkansas - Pryor and Lincoln
Louisiana - Landrieu
North Carolina - Hagan
Indiana - Bayh
Connecticut - Lieberman
Maine - Snow and Collins
Call them and ask them to bring us a better bill…..
Deber,
One of my petty annoyances is that the posts are constrained by hierarchal indentation which leads to narrowing of columns that are miserable to read through. For that reason, please check the end of this topic to find my reply to yours 8.54 comment.
Thanks.Really large sigh, Andrea……….the Bill is 1018 pages — do you really think you can get a true sense of the Bill by reading TWO PAGES? I did notice that there is actually a Table of Contents……looks like you might be able to find your answers if you read further……………
Sec. 112. Guaranteed issue and renewal for insured plans.
Sec. 113. Insurance rating rules.
Sec. 114. Nondiscrimination in benefits; parity in mental health and substance
abuse disorder benefits.
Sec. 115. Ensuring adequacy of provider networks.
Sec. 116. Ensuring value and lower premiums.
Subtitle C—Standards Guaranteeing Access to Essential Benefits
Sec. 121. Coverage of essential benefits package.
Sec. 122. Essential benefits package defined.
Sec. 123. Health Benefits Advisory Committee.
Sec. 124. Process for adoption of recommendations; adoption of benefit stand
Ahh….so now you are going to assume "snarky" — you seem to have posted a number of opinions here based on the analysis of TWO pages of a 1018 page document…….quite honestly, I’ve probably read more of it than you have……..there’s actually a Table of Contents Andrea………..you know how to use those don’t you? Below is a little bit just to get you going………
DIVISION A—AFFORDABLE
2 HEALTH CARE CHOICES
3 SEC. 100. PURPOSE; TABLE OF CONTENTS OF DIVISION;
4 GENERAL DEFINITIONS.
5 (a) PURPOSE.—
6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The purpose of this division
7 is to provide affordable, quality health care for all
8 Americans and reduce the growth in health care
9 spending.
10 (2) BUILDING ON CURRENT SYSTEM.—This di11
vision achieves this purpose by building on what
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5
1 works in today’s health care system, while repairing
2 the aspects that are broken.
3 (3) INSURANCE REFORMS.—This division—
4 (A) enacts strong insurance market re5
forms;
6 (B) creates a new Health Insurance Ex7
change, with a public health insurance option
8 alongside private plans;
9 (C) includes sliding scale affordability
10 credits; and
11 (D) initiates shared responsibility among
12 workers, employers, and the government;
13 so that all Americans have coverage of essential
14 health benefits.
15 (4) HEALTH DELIVERY REFORM.—This division
16 institutes health delivery system reforms both to in17
crease quality and to reduce growth in health spend18
ing so that health care becomes more affordable for
19 businesses, families, and government.
20 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS OF DIVISION.—The table
21 of contents of this division is as follows:
Sec. 100. Purpose; table of contents of division; general definitions.
TITLE I—PROTECTIONS AND STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED
HEALTH BENEFITS PLANS
Subtitle A—General Standards
Sec. 101. Requirements reforming health insurance marketplace.
Sec. 102. Protecting the choice to keep current coverage.
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6
Subtitle B—Standards Guaranteeing Access to Affordable Coverage
Sec. 111. Prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions.
Sec. 112. Guaranteed issue and renewal for insured plans.
Sec. 113. Insurance rating rules.
Sec. 114. Nondiscrimination in benefits; parity in mental health and substance
abuse disorder benefits.
Sec. 115. Ensuring adequacy of provider networks.
Sec. 116. Ensuring value and lower premiums.
Subtitle C—Standards Guaranteeing Access to Essential Benefits
Sec. 121. Coverage of essential benefits package.
Sec. 122. Essential benefits package defined.
Sec. 123. Health Benefits Advisory Committee.
Sec. 124. Process for adoption of recommendations; adoption of benefit standards.
Subtitle D—Additional Consumer Protections
Sec. 131. Requiring fair marketing practices by health insurers.
Sec. 132. Requiring fair grievance and appeals mechanisms.
Sec. 133. Requiring information transparency and plan disclosure.
Sec. 134. Application to qualified health benefits plans not offered through the
Health Insurance Exchange.
Sec. 135. Timely payment of claims.
Sec. 136. Standardized rules for coordination and subrogation of benefits.
Sec. 137. Application of administrative simplification.
Subtitle E—Governance
Sec. 141. Health Choices Administration; Health Choices Commissioner.
Sec. 142. Duties and authority of Commissioner.
Sec. 143. Consultation and coordination.
Sec. 144. Health Insurance Ombudsman.
Subtitle F—Relation to Other Requirements; Miscellaneous
Sec. 151. Relation to other requirements.
Sec. 152. Prohibiting discrimination in health care.
Sec. 153. Whistleblower protection.
Sec. 154. Construction regarding collective bargaining.
Sec. 155. Severability.
Subtitle G—Early Investments
Sec. 161. Ensuring value and lower premiums.
Sec. 162. Ending health insurance rescission abuse.
Sec. 163. Administrative simplification.
Sec. 164. Reinsurance program for retirees.