Senate Finance Committee Health Care Bill A Good Beginning

[JimofPennsylvan]

Senator Max Baucus deserves a commendation for crafting a “$856 billion” Health Care Bill which has a cost which is moving in the direction of being at a responsible level. An enormous amount of political pressure was placed on Baucus on this bill and he didn’t capitulate he made a virtuous effort. The bill is far from a being a good piece of legislation, it needs many good amendments. What America needs to see such amendments is a political opposition that is ready to act responsibly and virtuous and do the hard work needed to produce these changes. What I fear is that Congressional Republicans aren’t prepared to rise to the occasion for America they are going to spend their effort trying to block this bill not improving it and America will be hurt dramatically as a result. If Republicans in Congress are to demonstrate they are serious about coming to the table on this issue and working for a good bill rank and file Republicans members that want this credibility are going to have to come out and say this health care bill will have to have a price tag of at least $500 billion over ten years. If a Republican is to have credibility here he or she will have to recognize that in order to solve the health care insurance problems America is now experiencing whether it be the unaffordability or underinsurance part of the problem etc., the U.S. government will have to expand Medicaid to include people just above the poverty level who realistically can’t afford health insurance and provide financial help (whether it be vouchers or premium credits) to lower and middle class American families so they can afford such insurance. And such a Republican will have to acknowledge that such government assistance will cost at least around $500 billion because otherwise that Republican member of Congress is not serious about solving the problem and won’t be able to gain the support of fiscally responsible Democrats to shun their leadership and vote for good amendments. Unfortunately there looks like there is little hope for Republicans having this credibility, glowing evidence of Republicans poor character was recently demonstrated in the last ten days with Senator Grassley’s behavior. At the behest of Republican leadership he went to Senator Baucus and said why don’t you do away with the bill’s requirement that all Americans carry health insurance and instead just create reinsurance pools to compensate insurance companies for enrollees which have serious health problems. It is absolutely unbelievable at this stage in the process Republicans would be behaving like this. Americans serious on health care reform are so past this issue it is not even funny, it is a given that the bill will require basically all Americans to carry health insurance, it is a given that it is a necessary element to making health insurance affordable it will provide larger pools of enrollees for health insurance companies so they can spread the medical claims risk to this larger number and thus lower premiums. There is so much common sense changes needed to this bill and there is no group of legislators in Washington that exists to do the work.

Many authoritative voices have recognized that the mandates on health insurance in this bill are good but are going to increase premiums dramatically. Where are the efforts to phase in some of these mandates to cushion this price increase. Common sense calls out for not having out of pocket limits for health insurance plans be $5000/year for individuals and $10,000/year for families this will obviously be very expensive for insurance companies rather the limit amounts should be doubled initially and phased in to these lower levels over eight years. The mandates on free preventive care are too ambitious this also should be phased in over eight years. Nobody in Congress seems to be speaking out for those Americans that make over 400% of the poverty level who won’t be getting any financial help from the government, these people aren’t rich they struggle to take care of their families too, this bill the way it looks is going to wallop them with a big insurance premium bill. There is probably a lot of fat in the Finance Committee bill just like the other Congressional committee bills that doesn’t look like it will be removed. There is all these tuition loan forgiveness programs that are not prudent expenditures of U.S. taxpayers’ monies at this time in our country’s history. They have tuition loan forgiveness programs that are supposed to bring doctors to geographic areas where they are needed but their stupid programs they bring a doctor to an area for two years and the doctor gets the two years of loan forgiveness than the doctor splits when no more loan forgiveness is to be obtained. They have loan forgiveness programs to bring nurses to needed geographic areas but is their less costlier ways to achieve these goals, the Federal government gives a lot of money to states and gives a lot of money to colleges and university isn’t their ways to use this leverage so that in these areas that need nurses colleges and universities in these areas have nursing programs and are giving great financial packages to nursing students from these needy areas, etc.; do loan forgiveness programs have to be the governments prevailing response to this problem. And with these loan forgiveness programs one can sort of see the logic behind using these programs to bring doctors and nurses to a certain geographic area but the way the provisions are written in these bills a lot more types of health care workers besides doctors and nurses will be qualifying for these programs; moreover, they have loan forgiveness programs people that aren’t even for health care providers “What’s up with that? We are facing a ten trillion dollar deficit over ten years!”. It really seems unfair to all the Americans not in the health care field that are struggling with school loans when one looks at all these tuition loan forgiveness programs in these bills.

One troubling thing with the Finance committee bill compared to the House’s bills. The House bill provides assistance to middle class families to pay for health insurance with premium credits which are given to these families’ health insurance companies to lower their insurance premium bill. The finance committee does this financial assistance to families through a tax credit. The Finance committee plan does not seem optimally wise because with their plan families will see a dramatically larger monthly health insurance premium bill which will likely result in some families not being able to come up with the money to pay that monthly bill. It will also likely appear to be a daunting bill to some families causing them to not even pursue acquiring health insurance. Congress should go with an “affordability premium credit” or if you wish to call it a “voucher” program.

 

[Xenophon]

A good begining if the goal is to destroy the US economy.

As healthcare reform its the same lame assed bill that only 42% of Americans support.

 

[Maple]

Senator Max Baucus deserves a commendation for crafting a “$856 billion” Health Care Bill which has a cost which is moving in the direction of being at a responsible level. An enormous amount of political pressure was placed on Baucus on this bill and he didn’t capitulate he made a virtuous effort. The bill is far from a being a good piece of legislation, it needs many good amendments. What America needs to see such amendments is a political opposition that is ready to act responsibly and virtuous and do the hard work needed to produce these changes. What I fear is that Congressional Republicans aren’t prepared to rise to the occasion for America they are going to spend their effort trying to block this bill not improving it and America will be hurt dramatically as a result. If Republicans in Congress are to demonstrate they are serious about coming to the table on this issue and working for a good bill rank and file Republicans members that want this credibility are going to have to come out and say this health care bill will have to have a price tag of at least $500 billion over ten years. If a Republican is to have credibility here he or she will have to recognize that in order to solve the health care insurance problems America is now experiencing whether it be the unaffordability or underinsurance part of the problem etc., the U.S. government will have to expand Medicaid to include people just above the poverty level who realistically can’t afford health insurance and provide financial help (whether it be vouchers or premium credits) to lower and middle class American families so they can afford such insurance. And such a Republican will have to acknowledge that such government assistance will cost at least around $500 billion because otherwise that Republican member of Congress is not serious about solving the problem and won’t be able to gain the support of fiscally responsible Democrats to shun their leadership and vote for good amendments. Unfortunately there looks like there is little hope for Republicans having this credibility, glowing evidence of Republicans poor character was recently demonstrated in the last ten days with Senator Grassley’s behavior. At the behest of Republican leadership he went to Senator Baucus and said why don’t you do away with the bill’s requirement that all Americans carry health insurance and instead just create reinsurance pools to compensate insurance companies for enrollees which have serious health problems. It is absolutely unbelievable at this stage in the process Republicans would be behaving like this. Americans serious on health care reform are so past this issue it is not even funny, it is a given that the bill will require basically all Americans to carry health insurance, it is a given that it is a necessary element to making health insurance affordable it will provide larger pools of enrollees for health insurance companies so they can spread the medical claims risk to this larger number and thus lower premiums. There is so much common sense changes needed to this bill and there is no group of legislators in Washington that exists to do the work.

Many authoritative voices have recognized that the mandates on health insurance in this bill are good but are going to increase premiums dramatically. Where are the efforts to phase in some of these mandates to cushion this price increase. Common sense calls out for not having out of pocket limits for health insurance plans be $5000/year for individuals and $10,000/year for families this will obviously be very expensive for insurance companies rather the limit amounts should be doubled initially and phased in to these lower levels over eight years. The mandates on free preventive care are too ambitious this also should be phased in over eight years. Nobody in Congress seems to be speaking out for those Americans that make over 400% of the poverty level who won’t be getting any financial help from the government, these people aren’t rich they struggle to take care of their families too, this bill the way it looks is going to wallop them with a big insurance premium bill. There is probably a lot of fat in the Finance Committee bill just like the other Congressional committee bills that doesn’t look like it will be removed. There is all these tuition loan forgiveness programs that are not prudent expenditures of U.S. taxpayers’ monies at this time in our country’s history. They have tuition loan forgiveness programs that are supposed to bring doctors to geographic areas where they are needed but their stupid programs they bring a doctor to an area for two years and the doctor gets the two years of loan forgiveness than the doctor splits when no more loan forgiveness is to be obtained. They have loan forgiveness programs to bring nurses to needed geographic areas but is their less costlier ways to achieve these goals, the Federal government gives a lot of money to states and gives a lot of money to colleges and university isn’t their ways to use this leverage so that in these areas that need nurses colleges and universities in these areas have nursing programs and are giving great financial packages to nursing students from these needy areas, etc.; do loan forgiveness programs have to be the governments prevailing response to this problem. And with these loan forgiveness programs one can sort of see the logic behind using these programs to bring doctors and nurses to a certain geographic area but the way the provisions are written in these bills a lot more types of health care workers besides doctors and nurses will be qualifying for these programs; moreover, they have loan forgiveness programs people that aren’t even for health care providers “What’s up with that? We are facing a ten trillion dollar deficit over ten years!”. It really seems unfair to all the Americans not in the health care field that are struggling with school loans when one looks at all these tuition loan forgiveness programs in these bills.

One troubling thing with the Finance committee bill compared to the House’s bills. The House bill provides assistance to middle class families to pay for health insurance with premium credits which are given to these families’ health insurance companies to lower their insurance premium bill. The finance committee does this financial assistance to families through a tax credit. The Finance committee plan does not seem optimally wise because with their plan families will see a dramatically larger monthly health insurance premium bill which will likely result in some families not being able to come up with the money to pay that monthly bill. It will also likely appear to be a daunting bill to some families causing them to not even pursue acquiring health insurance. Congress should go with an “affordability premium credit” or if you wish to call it a “voucher” program.

Does this POS have any Tort reform, because without tort reform there will be NO reduction in costs. Where are the cost savings going to come from?

 

[rayboyusmc]

This is piece of crap that just makes the Medical Insurers richer. Bauccus is bought and paid for by them, and he sold his soul back to them.

We will get a public option despite all the lies and rumors being spread by some on the right.

 

[Maple]

"Many authoritative voices have recognized that the mandates on health insurance in this bill are good but are going to increase premiums dramatically. Where are the efforts to phase in some of these mandates to cushion this price increase."

Isn't this the entire point of health insurance reform- to make coverage more affordable, well right here it states that it will increase premiums. These idiots make absolutely no sense at all, they are increasing the cost of health insurance not decreasing it, which is counter to what they say their goals are. No wonder the Republicans are not going for it.

This is just another POS legislation.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Tort reform is not quite as big as some say.

Malpractice accounts for about 1% of the total cost of health care.

Why do we pay twice as much per person as any other industrialized country and yet rank 37th in actual quality? Doesn't that say something is wrong with our system.

No one on these threads has yet justified why the CEO of United got 3/4 of a billion dollars of stock options in 5 years.

We have a system gone crazy that is driven primarily by profit and not by creating a more healthy nation.

 

[dimondia]

I have read the majority of the healthcare reform bill and there are several issues that Americans in general should be cautious of. One, the government will perfom a study that identifies areas where lower income individuals live. In these identified areas the government will have the authority to come into your home, without due cause, and decide whether or not your parenting skills are up to their standards. If not, they can require you to attend parenting classes that they have developed (their morals, their standards, their concepts of perfect parenting). Another area of concern is the fact that the government will have the authority to come into your doctors office, examine all his records (which includes your own) and determine if he/she is performing to the government's standards. It is my opinion that this will end up making the skilled, well educated physicians balk at wanting to be a party to this kind of scrutiny...thus leaving you with the "government" puppetry of physicians. If this isn't "controlling the kind of medical care you receive, I don't know what is. As for the statement that they won't limit care or dicate what kind of care you will receive....read the bill for yourself.