Health Care Reform Bill without a “Public Option” – Making Coverage Affordable – Part One

Washington (Mar 15) - For many Americans who are fortunate enough to be employed, the current legislation underway will not have any direct effect. 

The Health Care Reform Bill in the House, to many, lacks the key component to rendering this bill to be an affordable “option” – the “Public Option” that was a cornerstone of the original bill.  As of today, the unfortunate position of this “Public Option” is, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “dead”.

Some feel that the Health Care Reform Bill, without a public option, has become as obscure and secretive as the current Tax Extenders Bill which was sent back to the House and placed on the back burner. The pros to the bill include eliminating the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or to drop an insured person’s coverage due to a devastating illness that would prevent the once family bread winner from working, and providing coverage to both themselves, and their families. These changes are commendable.

However, the other key topics of this 2,000 page bill have been as fluid as any bill that has been placed before the bodies of Congress in the last two years.

Eight years prior to this, bills hitting the House and forwarded to the Senate appeared to breeze right through. These bills proposed nothing more than spending monies on wars and giving tax breaks to the rich. Now, every bill that enters this Congress which is intended to provide aid for either the unemployed and/or employed American workforce faces nothing short of stiff opposition. 

Is this really a Health Care Reform Bill, or simply a Heath Insurance Reform Bill? With so many changes to the plan since it was last laid out before the House, the bill was intended to “nationalize,” so to speak, the Medicaid program by establishing “thresholds” that covered a nationwide poverty level, determined a nationwide standard for disability, and finally determined when state funding would cut in.

The bill currently available for review online, states that the insurance companies must provide an annual “Clear Accounting for Costs”, which is designed to “Ensure that Consumers Receive Value for Their Premiums”. The National Insurance Exchange provision of this bill will provide a means for individuals to go and “shop” for a health plan.

As this entire process stands today, Speaker Pelosi has stated publicly that “the bill is locked down; we’re just waiting for the Congressional Budget Office.”

The Speaker also added that, once the bill emerges from the Congressional Budget Office, they can definitively state what is in the bill. The Speaker proclaims that this is, “the most important bill most of us will ever pass,” and is of the same historic consequence as “Social Security and Medicare.”

There is still much confusion surrounding this legislation. The House plans on voting on the reconciliation bill sent from the Senate, therefore circumventing the vote on the original bill returned from the Senate. This means that the bill will be de facto law, with votes still remaining on individual amendments to the bill to be added at a later time.

Source: democrats.senate.gov, C-SPAN, Press releases

Posted by rgrone on March 15, 2010. Filed under economic recovery,economy,Health and Living,News,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.