Category: Health Care

Health Care For All

Ahead of a crucial health-care reform vote in the U.S. House of Representatives expected on Sunday, President Obama says members of Congress face a choice between supporting the interests of insurance companies or taking a historic step to meet the needs of Americans. Democratic leaders are voicing confidence they can achieve the 216 votes required to pass the legislation, while Republicans are vowing to do everything they can to kill it.

With President Obama reported to have told wavering Democratic lawmakers that vote could well determine the success of his presidency, he traveled a few kilometers from the White House to suburban Virginia to make a high visibility public appeal.

The president described the health care debate as being in its final stages after a century of struggle, saying it’s about the character of the United States rather than merely the cost of health care for Americans. “So the only question left is this: Are we going to let the special interests win once again? Or are we going to make this vote a victory for the American people?,” he said.

The legislation the House will vote on is estimated to cost $940 billion over ten years. But because of savings in some areas, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it could reduce the size of the federal deficit by $138 billion, something the president is hoping will attracting support from wavering Democrats.

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Obama Makes Final Public Appeal on Health Care

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is trying to persuade a weary public and wavering Democrats to get behind his frantic, late-stage push on health care, while Republicans dig in and demand starting from scratch after a year’s worth of work.

“Now, despite all the progress and improvements we’ve made, Republicans in Congress insist that the only acceptable course on health care is to start over. But you know what? The insurance companies aren’t starting over,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday.

“I just met with some of them on Thursday, and they couldn’t give me a straight answer as to why they keep arbitrarily and massively raising premiums — by as much as 60 percent in states like Illinois. If we do not act, they will continue to do this.”

Republicans were not swayed.

“It’s not too late: We can, and we must, stop this government takeover of health care,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a retired physician and a first-term congressman from Alabama who switched parties in December and delivered the GOP message.

The competing addresses underscored the urgency behind Obama’s last-ditch push for immediate health care reform. Without a victory — and quickly — Democrats move into a fast-approaching election season without a major, tangible accomplishment that affects voters’ pocketbooks. And with a chasm remaining between the two parties, Democrats considered passing the overhaul with votes just from their party.

That process would let the 59 Senate Democrats declare victory with a simple majority instead of a 60-vote count. It also would allow Obama’s team to get back to talking about the economy, which has shed more than 8 million jobs since the recession began.

Obama is pleading with Democrats to overcome divisions to seize a historic moment to remake the health care system during this election year. The White House wants to pass a health care overhaul and then campaign on it. Voters will pick candidates to serve 36 Senate seats; the entire House is up for re-election.

White House officials hope the immediate changes in the health overhaul would be enough to satisfy voters’ expectations — and Democratic lawmakers who were hardly unified in support of the plan.

If Democrats pass the plan, voters would find greater consumer protections and a ban on discriminating against customers with previous ailments. Small businesses would receive a tax credit this year, insurance companies would no longer be able to drop patients’ coverage if they become sick, and plans would be required to offer free preventive care to customers.

Griffith said leaders of the Democratic Party he left last year were missing the point.

“For them, health care reform has become less about the best reforms and more about what best fits their ‘Washington knows best’ mentality — less about helping patients and more about scoring political points,” he said. “This is no idle observation. I’ve witnessed it firsthand.
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Obama turns up heat for health care overhaul plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama took charge of the health care debate on the 399th day of his presidency Monday by proposing a 10-year, $950 billion plan opposed by Republicans and not yet endorsed by Democrats.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called it “a starting point” for bipartisan debate at a health care summit Obama will lead on Thursday. But within minutes, Republicans in Congress denounced the plan, which is designed to reduce health care costs and expand coverage to 31 million people.

“The well has been poisoned,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. “Mixing two bad bills together doesn’t make a good bill.”

SEEKING COMPROMISE: Obama’s health care bill revision
THE OVAL: Plan combines Senate and House bills

It’s uncertain whether Democrats can pass the plan in an election year, even if they impose procedures to prevent Republicans from blocking Senate action. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other leaders sounded positive, but left unclear is whether enough moderate Democrats facing tough re-election races would support it.

“This is sort of the last, best hope for enacting the bill,” said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s now about to be a very exciting spectator sport. It is neither a slam dunk, nor is it hopeless.”

Obama’s plan is a compromise between Democratic bills that narrowly passed the House in November and the Senate on Dec. 24. Merging the two was delayed a month after Republican Scott Brown’s upset election to the Senate from Massachusetts, which cost Democrats the supermajority needed to pass the bill’s earlier version.

“This is the president putting forward what was the emerging consensus when they still had 60 votes,” said Diane Rowland of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Obama’s proposal would expand Medicaid for the poor and offer tax credits to middle-income people who would have to buy insurance. It tries to contain costs by taxing expensive health policies and slowing the growth of Medicare. It would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Some of the changes would increase subsidies to make insurance more affordable, delay the tax on high-cost plans until 2018 and give the government power to block rate increases.

Barring support from Republicans, the White House hopes to use a legislative tactic that would require only 51 votes for passage in the Senate, where Democrats still control 59 votes.

“The president expects and believes the American people deserve an up-or-down vote on health reform,” said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer. “Our proposal is designed to give ourselves maximum flexibility.”

Even if Obama can win 51 votes in the Senate, House passage is uncertain. He dropped moderate Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak’s provision barring the use of federal subsidies to pay for abortions. He also included more taxes and fees to pay for higher spending.

Democratic Whip James Clyburn said with Obama’s changes, “we’ve got a much better atmosphere in the House to get it more than 218 votes.”

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WASHINGTON – In a victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed landmark health care legislation Saturday night to expand coverage to tens of millions who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.

The 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.

A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi likened the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.

“It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it,” said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.

In the run-up to a final vote, conservatives from the two political parties joined forces to impose tough new restrictions on abortion coverage in insurance policies to be sold to many individuals and small groups. They prevailed on a roll call of 240-194.

Ironically, that only solidified support for the legislation, clearing the way for conservative Democrats to vote for it.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.

Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. In a further slap, the industry would lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price gouging, bid rigging and market allocation.

A cheer went up from the Democratic side of the House when the bill gained 218 votes, a majority. Moments later, Democrats counted down the final seconds of the voting period in unison, and and let loose an even louder roar when Pelosi grabbed the gavel and declared, “the bill is passed.’

From the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement saying, “We realize the strong will for reform that exists, and we are energized that we stand closer than ever to reforming our broken health insurance system.”

The bill drew the votes of 219 Democrats and Rep. Joseph Cao, a first-term Republican who holds an overwhelmingly Democratic seat in New Orleans. Opposed were 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats.

Nearly unanimous in their opposition, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

United in opposition, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.

“We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, `this is making me sick,’” jabbed Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., adding that Democrats were intent on passing “a jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding” bill.

But with little doubt about the outcome, the rhetoric lacked the fire of last summer’s town hall meetings, when some critics accused Democrats of plotting “death panels” to hasten the demise of senior citizens.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out on Saturday against the “deceptive and dishonest” efforts of health insurance companies, who he said are trying to kill healthcare reform, no matter the cost to the country.

Sharpening his attack on insurers, Obama also signaled support for a congressional review of the insurance industry’s long-standing exemption from federal anti-trust laws. Some Democrats want the privilege repealed.

The Democratic president’s push to revamp the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry, his top domestic policy priority, received a big boost this week when the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of a reform measure with the support of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.

Many experts expect some version of a healthcare bill will pass this year, but there are still major disagreements on details, including whether the measure will include a government-run insurance program, the “public option.”

“For the first time ever, all five committees in Congress responsible for health reform have passed a version of legislation,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “As I speak to you today, we are closer to reforming the health care system than we have ever been in history.”

However, he acknowledged the overhaul still must clear significant hurdles before becoming law. “And there are still those who would try to kill reform at any cost,” he said.

For decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us,” Obama said.

“And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our anti-trust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing,” he said.

BATTLE INTENSIFIED THIS WEEK

The battle over reform between angry Democrats and health insurers intensified when the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) issued a report on Monday, on the eve of the finance committee’s vote, saying Senate healthcare legislation would lead to increases in annual insurance premiums of as much as $4,000 by 2019.

Democrats denied the findings, citing a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that said the Finance Committee bill would make health coverage affordable to millions of Americans who do not have it and slow the growth of healthcare costs.

Defending insurers’ position, AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach said, “We are not trying to stop reform as some have suggested. We want reform that will work and can be sustained, and we are offering solutions to address the concerns.”

He said threats to repeal the industry’s anti-trust exemption — the McCarran-Ferguson Act, which kept regulation in the states’ hands — was “retaliation for us speaking out.”

Obama maintained, however, that the insurance industry “is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest — to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo.”

“They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people,” he said.

Democratic leaders in Congress began work this week on merging the various committees’ proposals on healthcare while keeping party liberals and moderates — and Snowe — happy.

Senate Republicans demanded Democrats allow more time to debate the details of the sweeping plan. Obama has set the end of the year as his goal for passing a measure that would begin to slow increases in healthcare costs, regulate the insurance market and expand health coverage without increasing the federal budget deficit.

Health insurers’ shares dropped this week after news of the finance committee’s vote.

Obama vowed an overhaul will go through.

“Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, ‘Take one of these, and call us in a decade.’ Well, not this time,” Obama said. (Editing by Todd Eastham)
Obama: health insurers ‘deceptive and dishonest’