Problems in Senate Health Plan

Senate Finance Committee members have been notified that the committee’s health reform bill was filed today. S. 1796 weighs in at 1,502 pages, according to a Senate Republican leadership source. The bill will not exist in this form for long.

Senate Majority Leader Reid and Sens. Max Baucus and Chris Dodd along with senior White House aides are merging the Finance and Health Committee legislation into one bill that will be considered on the floor of the Senate.

The behind-closed-doors dealings have drawn criticism from Republicans, particularly because President Obama had promised a transparent process and pledged to negotiate the health care bill on C-SPAN.

The Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill was posted online last night. Here is how it starts: “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.”

There are sections in the bill, like Sec. 2245 under the title “Special rules relating to coverage of abortion services” that will be carefully reviewed by experts.

The White House and lawmakers are trying to blend five House and Senate committee versions of health care reform legislation into a bill that will pass both houses. Near unanimous Republican opposition is expected.

The bill approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee drew the only Republican vote yet cast with Democrats on the health care overhaul. Even then, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, did not commit to supporting the final version of the legislation.

House Democrats are insisting on the government-run plan, or public option. In the Senate, Republicans and some Democrats oppose the measure, meaning inclusion of the public option would fail to gain the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Some in the Senate strongly support inclusion of the public option.

Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Santa Monica, CA, said yesterday that leading health reform proposal in the Senate contains numerous industry-demanded “time bombs” that will harm consumers in years to come.

The measure, from the Senate Finance Committee, was heavily lobbied by insurance and pharmaceutical companies and large employers.

Consumer Watchdog said the proposal’s top 5 health time bombs are:  Elimination of a public health insurance option;  Evasion of state patient-rights laws;  Weak “employer mandate;”  Omission of price regulation of insurance;  Lack of recourse to hold insurers accountable. 

“If this bill becomes law, consumers will find themselves still at the absolute mercy of private insurance companies,” said Judy Dugan, research director of Consumer Watchdog.

“Premiums and co-pays will be uncontrolled, even as patient rights are eliminated. Congress must stand up to the corporate lobbies and add better consumer protections, or pay the price in voter anger at being stuck with a bait-and-switch reform.”

According to the Heritage Foundation, the Senate Finance Committee proposes to substantially raise taxes on middle- and low-income taxpayers through a misguided excise tax on insurance plans in order to pay for a portion of its massive health care bill. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this steep tax hike would cost taxpayers more than $200 billion over 10 years, about a quarter of the bill’s $829 billion cost.

A better tax policy solution, according to the conservative think-tank, would be to cap the exclusion for employer-provided health care benefits for individuals and use the revenue to provide offsetting tax reductions.

This solution would also restructure incentives facing health insurance consumers and ultimately reduce health care costs without growing government further.

The White House is waiting for Congress to settle on a final health care bill, even though President Barack Obama has a clear preference in favor of at least one specific – the much-debated public option, advisers said.

The Americano / Agencies

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