- Jun 6, 2007
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PART ONE
The U.S. Senate in the upcoming amendment process/debate on the Health Care Reform bill needs to wherever possible reduce the costs of this bill on the Federal Government and hold down the insurance premium rises that will certainly result from the bills insurance mandates. There are many crucial reasons why but it is enough said that the majority of the American people want the Congress (Senate) to do this!
I)
One extremely surprising, actually overwhelmingly shocking, aspect of the Senate bill is that it doesnt mandate that individuals buy only exchange offered health insurance plans which the House bill does (Sec.1312(d)(1)). The reason that this is so surprising is that this will allow individuals to buy health insurance without essential benefit coverage (as defined by Sec. 1302) [which the bill mandates only for exchange offered plans] and insurance companies to sell these inadequate plans; it will continue the same problem the nation has today with people being underinsured, having to declare bankruptcy because of inadequate insurance and living in fear that if they or one of their family members get sick their insurance wont cover needed treatments or will wipe them out financially. There is nothing in this bill to stop individual Americans from going to private insurance companies and asking for a low cost health insurance plan, saying price is my principle concern, and the private insurance company responding by selling them the same flawed underinsurance plans that they often sell today.
This is really a shocking situation because outside of achieving universal health insurance coverage the other principle goal of this bill is to stop the insurance company abuses, to stop the underinsurance problem which will not be achieved with the bills permitting of the sale of health insurance without essential benefits. Another absurd development from this course will be that the nation will see most of the people that are getting enormous (and needed) federal subsidies to buy health insurance purchase exchange offered health insurance with the essential benefits and many Americans who dont qualify for the federal subsidies because they make too much money but who are by no means rich due to financial concerns purchase non-exchange offered plans that dont provide essential benefit coverage and are inadequate. This outcome will result in these non-subsidized Americans being angry that they pay more taxes than these subsidized Americans and they and their family have to live with inadequate health insurance the Congress should brace themselves for a backlash from these non-subsidized Americans over this.
One can only conjecture that the reason why the Senate is allowing individual Americans to buy non-exchange offered insurance plans is because the essential benefit mandates on exchange offered plans will make exchange offered plans dramatically more expensive than some of the economical health insurance plans offered today and if the Senate requires that only these expensive plans can be purchased the public outrage will be enormous as family budget are strained by this expense and the Democrat party which is driving this Senate bill will lose significant popular support over the situation. What the Senate should do to solve this expensive plan problem is just phase in some of the bills costly mandates over ten to twelve years. Besides sparing many Americans a significant insurance expense this will give Congress the impetus to do another Health Care Reform bill that does more cost cutting within the health care system which the American people know can be done and which would then enable Congress to accelerate the implementation of these desirable and worthy mandates. Congress is planning to phase in the expensive mandates in the cap and trade bill, it is basic responsible government practice to phase in cost increases on the public by government authority it has been done on anti-pollution mandates and increased fuel efficiency mandates on motor vehicles in the past, it has been done in the past on toll increases on tolled roads. It may obstruct members of Congress from grandstanding about the merits of the bill come election time but phasing in some of the bills mandates is the fiscally prudent course for Congress to take!
II)
This Senate bill prescribes that fifty separate health insurance exchanges be established across America where the American consumer can shop for health insurance, one for each state. Are the senators that wrote this bill out of their minds are they striving for the dumbest government act of the century award with this initiative?
The work these exchanges will be doing will be very technical, they have to make sure the insurance companies and the plans they offer comply with a vast web of regulations. Each of these exchanges are going to need a good size staff of insurance specialists to enforce these technical regulations they are going to need a good size legal staff because insurance companies surely will be looking to enforce their legal rights so the exchanges will need legal staffs to respond accordingly. An exchange will need a good size staff of computer professionals, IT staff, to operate the exchanges computer system. An exchange will need a large customer service staff to deal with the public for the bill requires the exchange to perform many tasks for the general public. In short, each of these exchanges is going to need a large staff and a corresponding facility which will be very costly.
SEE PART TWO
The U.S. Senate in the upcoming amendment process/debate on the Health Care Reform bill needs to wherever possible reduce the costs of this bill on the Federal Government and hold down the insurance premium rises that will certainly result from the bills insurance mandates. There are many crucial reasons why but it is enough said that the majority of the American people want the Congress (Senate) to do this!
I)
One extremely surprising, actually overwhelmingly shocking, aspect of the Senate bill is that it doesnt mandate that individuals buy only exchange offered health insurance plans which the House bill does (Sec.1312(d)(1)). The reason that this is so surprising is that this will allow individuals to buy health insurance without essential benefit coverage (as defined by Sec. 1302) [which the bill mandates only for exchange offered plans] and insurance companies to sell these inadequate plans; it will continue the same problem the nation has today with people being underinsured, having to declare bankruptcy because of inadequate insurance and living in fear that if they or one of their family members get sick their insurance wont cover needed treatments or will wipe them out financially. There is nothing in this bill to stop individual Americans from going to private insurance companies and asking for a low cost health insurance plan, saying price is my principle concern, and the private insurance company responding by selling them the same flawed underinsurance plans that they often sell today.
This is really a shocking situation because outside of achieving universal health insurance coverage the other principle goal of this bill is to stop the insurance company abuses, to stop the underinsurance problem which will not be achieved with the bills permitting of the sale of health insurance without essential benefits. Another absurd development from this course will be that the nation will see most of the people that are getting enormous (and needed) federal subsidies to buy health insurance purchase exchange offered health insurance with the essential benefits and many Americans who dont qualify for the federal subsidies because they make too much money but who are by no means rich due to financial concerns purchase non-exchange offered plans that dont provide essential benefit coverage and are inadequate. This outcome will result in these non-subsidized Americans being angry that they pay more taxes than these subsidized Americans and they and their family have to live with inadequate health insurance the Congress should brace themselves for a backlash from these non-subsidized Americans over this.
One can only conjecture that the reason why the Senate is allowing individual Americans to buy non-exchange offered insurance plans is because the essential benefit mandates on exchange offered plans will make exchange offered plans dramatically more expensive than some of the economical health insurance plans offered today and if the Senate requires that only these expensive plans can be purchased the public outrage will be enormous as family budget are strained by this expense and the Democrat party which is driving this Senate bill will lose significant popular support over the situation. What the Senate should do to solve this expensive plan problem is just phase in some of the bills costly mandates over ten to twelve years. Besides sparing many Americans a significant insurance expense this will give Congress the impetus to do another Health Care Reform bill that does more cost cutting within the health care system which the American people know can be done and which would then enable Congress to accelerate the implementation of these desirable and worthy mandates. Congress is planning to phase in the expensive mandates in the cap and trade bill, it is basic responsible government practice to phase in cost increases on the public by government authority it has been done on anti-pollution mandates and increased fuel efficiency mandates on motor vehicles in the past, it has been done in the past on toll increases on tolled roads. It may obstruct members of Congress from grandstanding about the merits of the bill come election time but phasing in some of the bills mandates is the fiscally prudent course for Congress to take!
II)
This Senate bill prescribes that fifty separate health insurance exchanges be established across America where the American consumer can shop for health insurance, one for each state. Are the senators that wrote this bill out of their minds are they striving for the dumbest government act of the century award with this initiative?
The work these exchanges will be doing will be very technical, they have to make sure the insurance companies and the plans they offer comply with a vast web of regulations. Each of these exchanges are going to need a good size staff of insurance specialists to enforce these technical regulations they are going to need a good size legal staff because insurance companies surely will be looking to enforce their legal rights so the exchanges will need legal staffs to respond accordingly. An exchange will need a good size staff of computer professionals, IT staff, to operate the exchanges computer system. An exchange will need a large customer service staff to deal with the public for the bill requires the exchange to perform many tasks for the general public. In short, each of these exchanges is going to need a large staff and a corresponding facility which will be very costly.
SEE PART TWO
