FixHealthCarePolicy

Health Care Hoops Video: A Flagrant Foul Committed By the Public Option

How would private insurers fare when a government-run public option was playing against them? The non-partisan Center for Medicine in the Public Interest demonstrates that it wouldn’t be pretty. Watch:

Tags: free mark health reform, government-run health care, health care reform, Obama Health Care Plan, pelosi health bill, public option

Health Care Reform: The House Republican Alternative

House Minority Leader John Boehner and his House Republican colleagues have just unveiled a 230 page “Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute” to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s massive 2032 page health care bill (H.R. 3962). Voting on the substitute and the main bill in the U.S. House of Representatives could begin as early as Saturday, November 7, 2009.

In contrast to H.R. 3962, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the Substitute would reduce average health insurance premiums ( by 7 to 10 percent in the small group market and 5 to 8 percent in the individual market) and would reduce the federal deficit by $68 billion over ten years. (more…)

Tags: H.R. 3962, health care reform, market reform, pelosi health bill, republican alternative

Pelosi’s Procedural Plan to Pass Health Care

Today at 2pm the House Rules Committee will meet to consider the rule for H.R. 3962 , the Affordable Health Care for America Act. As of this morning 104 amendments had been filed with the Rules Committee for consideration. Republican’s have filed 87 amendments and Democrats have filed 17. The debate in the Rules Committee and a final vote could continue well into this evening.

The rule being debated today will not only cover HR 3962 but will also apply to HR 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, also known as the Doc Fix. This is a procedural gimmick that allows the costly Doc Fix bill to be combined with H.R. 3962 after the bill passes the House. This allows Congressional Leaders to avoid a stand alone vote on Doc Fix in the Senate. A few weeks ago, a $247 billion dollar Doc Fix bill failed in the Senate with 13 Democrats opposing ending debate on the bill. (more…)

Tags: H.R. 3962, house rules committee, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan, pelosi health bill, tea party, tea party health care, the Affordable Health Care for America Act

In the Green Room: Helen Evans on How Government-Run Health Care Works

In 1948 the United Kingdom sent a leaflet to every home in the country stating that the newly created National Health Service would provide everyone with “all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – can use it or any part of it.” Today’s NHS, however, has created a far different reality.

“We are seeing a healthcare system that is rationing people’s care by waiting lists, that is relying on people dying on waiting lists so that they don’t have to have their care funded,” said Helen Evans, President of Nurses for Reform, a pan-European network of nurses dedicated to consumer-led reform of British, European and other healthcare systems around the world. “We have a government who are allegedly trying to work down our waiting lists and they think it is good that somebody will be seen within 18 weeks of referral to a specialist.” (more…)

Tags: consumer-oriented reform of European health care systems, free market health care reform, Helen Evans, in the Green Room, Nurses for Reform, Obama Health Care Plan, pelosi health bill, President of Nurses for Reform

What to Look For in the Latest House Health Care Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just unveiled a hulking 1,990 page House health care bill (H.R. 3962). The latest product, which dwarfs the 1,342 page Clinton Health Plan of 1993, is the latest evolution of the House process, which started with H.R. 3200. The House Speaker made a number of general comments, saying that the legislation would lower costs for American families, enhance the solvency of the Medicare program, and add 36 million Americans to the health insurance rolls.

On the crucial question of financing, the Speaker made a point of saying that the bill is fiscally responsible and comes in under the $900 billion target set by President Obama, and would not expand the deficit. Of course, the Congressional Budget Office has not yet issued a formal “score”- or estimate- of the final product. So, it is hard to determine how, or if, the legislation would bend the health care cost curve downward, as President Obama has promised as a key ingredient in health care reform. (more…)

Tags: Baucus bill, health care reform, HR 3200, Medicare Advantage, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan, pelosi health bill, public option