Posts Tagged ‘health reform’
In the News
February 24, 2010VIDEO: Want Health Care Summit Success? Start Over.
Tomorrow, President Barack Obama will host a summit to discuss health care reform, but as Heritage’s Nina Owcharenko notes in this video, if the President is serious and sincere about making the summit a success, he should simply start over.
Owcharenko, who is Heritage’s Deputy Director of the Center for Health Policy Studies, says that the fundamental direction of the President’s plan is flawed.
Tags: bipartisan measures, Health Care Summit, health reform, Nina Owcharenko, ObamaCare, start over
Key Documents
January 14, 2010Republican Governors: Health Care Bills Omit Reform
Twenty Republican governors and governors-elect sent a letter to Congressional leaders today urging them to refocus and pass “meaningful health care reform, not hastily prepared partisan legislation which omits reform and saddles American taxpayers for generations to come.”
“Governors of both parties have said for months how bad this bill is for the states and our nation,” said RGA Chairman Haley Barbour. “Now is the time for leaders in Congress to finally listen and restart this process so they can get health care reform right.”
The governors criticized the lack of transparency in the legislative process and called the current health care bills “a lost opportunity to improve the lives of Americans, create a sustainable system of health care and help stabilize both our state and national economies.” (more…)
Tags: health reform, Republican Governors, RGA
In the News
November 23, 2009ObamaCare’s One-Size-Fits-All Style Not Good Fit for Women
First Lady Michelle Obama’s video on health care reform raises important issues about female patients who are falling through the cracks of the U.S. health care system. It’s not a perfect system, but Nina Owcharenko explains that ObamaCare would take women and the rest of the country in the wrong direction. Having to depend on politicians or faceless bureaucrats to make decisions about their care doesn’t empower women or improve their health care situations. Plus, the Obama health reform agenda isn’t what women want. A majority of female respondents told the Independent Women’s Forum in a recent survey that they don’t think government-run health care is best for them or their families. Watch:
Tags: choice, competition, faceless bureaucrats, government-run, health reform, Michelle Obama, ObamaCare, women
Latest Research
November 10, 2009Helms: Medicaid Is the Forgotten Stepchild in Health Debate
A lot of the media attention on the health care debate has been focused on the creation of a government-run health insurance plan and abortion funding, but there’s another hug issue that isn’t getting as much press: the vast expansion proposed for Medicaid.
Robert Helms with the American Enterprise Institute highlights in a new analysis that reform efforts for Medicaid, the public health program for the poor, simply look to expand the program. “While the details of the House and Senate bills differ, they all expand Medicaid to include adults and children in families with incomes up to either 133 percent or 150 percent of the federal poverty line,” Helms writes. “These provisions expand the scope and expense of Medicaid but do nothing to address the fundamental problems with the present program.”
Instead of creating incentives that exacerbate the costs, Helms argues that reforming the current system’s federal matching and distribution of federal subsidies could increase quality and better access to care for those on Medicaid.
“Reforming the Medicaid program will not be easy. We cannot know exactly what the future will bring, but it seems clear that the present rate of growth of federal Medicaid expenditures cannot continue for many more years. Despite this fact, the proposals Congress is considering will expand Medicaid in ways that will make the present incentive problems worse. This may be good for short-term political gain, but it is not in the best interest of the nation, and it is especially not in the best interests of the millions of poor and disabled people not presently being served. These populations are being forgotten in the versions of health reform Congress is considering now.”
Tags: federal matching, health reform, Medicaid, States
Key Documents
November 6, 2009Republican Alternative to House Health Care Bill [HR 3962]
Full text of the Amendment
Summary of Republican Alternative
11/4 CBO Score of Amendment
Key Documents
October 29, 2009Baucus Health Proposal
UPDATED 10/19: Click here for updated legislative language of the Baucus Bill.
NEW 10/19: Click here for the Senate Finance Committee Report.
September 16, 2009 CBO Analysis of Baucus proposal.
September 22, 2009 CBO Analysis of Baucus proposal.
September 22, 2009 Letter to Senator Grassley (R-IA)
September 24, 2009 Scoring Implications of Modifications to the Chairman’s Mark.
October 11, 2009 America’s Health Insurance Plans report on the potential impact the Baucus proposal could have on the cost of private health coverage (conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP).
October 22, 2009: Letter from 13 Dems regarding Medicaid concerns.
Tags: Amendments, CBO, health reform, Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee
In the News
October 29, 2009Business Groups Already Opposing House Health Bill
Business groups wasted no time in expressing their opposition to the new House health care bill that was released this morning.
A coalition of nine business trade groups sent a letter today to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), detailing their opposition to the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962).
Specifically, the group admonished Congress for attempting to create a new government-run health insurance plan, mandate employers to provide health insurance and a federally require minimum benefits package for all insurance plans. The group, which includes the Business Roundtable, American Benefits Council, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation and Corporate Health Care Coalition, also said changes to ERISA could drive up administrative costs for companies that provide health coverage.
“The legislation falls short of the bipartisan goal of controlling costs and jeopardizes employer-sponsored coverage, which now serves more than 160 million Americans,” the letter said.
Tags: health reform, HR 3962, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi
In the News
October 28, 2009Public Support for ObamaCare Collapses under the Facts
When it comes to ObamaCare, poll after poll shows the public can be fairly supportive—until they realize how much they stand to personally lose. Americans have told pollsters for months about fears that their health coverage will disappear. They’re also reporting unprecedented concern that health reform will only add to the nation’s out-of-control federal deficits. And no matter how much the Administration says other people will pay for health reform (i.e., the rich), the American people know better.
Republican pollster Bill McInturff agrees. He told us at a health care press chat that Heritage regularly hosts: “In the broader context, there is heightened concern about general government and the page of government spending. And health care spending isn’t some huge abstract from those issues – it’s directly connected.” (more…)
Tags: health reform, Individual Mandate, public opinion, public option
Key Documents
October 22, 2009Republican Governors Association Letters on Health Reform Crippling States
The Republican Governors Association this week released excerpts of letters that 19 Republican governors have sent expressing their concern about the health reform proposals that are being considered in Congress.
Those proposals include expanding Medicaid – the federal health program for the poor that is administered and partly financed by the states — as a way to increase health coverage. Medicaid expenses already are bankrupting some states and eating up a large share of state budgets. Further expansions could force cuts to state budgets or tax increases, the association said.
“The American people deserve to know the true costs associated with the so-called health-care reform proposals,” said RGA Vice Chairman and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. “That’s why so many governors are speaking out. Governors understand that states can’t afford unfunded mandates passed along by the federal government and their impact on the economy.”
See the excerpts from the other governors here.
Tags: governors, health reform, Medicaid, state budgets
In the News
October 19, 2009Small Group of Lawmakers Determining Health Overhaul
Despite President Obama’s pledge that congressional discussions on health reform legislation would be “televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or insurance companies,” The Washington Post reports that just three senators are determining the current health debate behind closed doors.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sits at the head of a wooden table at his office as he and Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) work to merge two competing versions of health-care legislation into one bill,” the Post reports, noting White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also will be in on the talks, which started on Wednesday and could be completed this week.
The lawmakers will determine whether controversial items in the health legislation, such as a government-run health plan or individual mandates to buy insurance, will be included in a final bill. “This bill is being written in the dark of night,” said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) in the article, adding that “the president ought to keep his promise to the American people and open this process up.”
Tags: Christopher Dodd, closed doors, Harry Reid, health reform, Max Baucus, transparency
Fix Health Care Policy » Latest Research
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- The Health Care Summit: A Chance to Start Over and Get It Right
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