The President’s Health Care Proposal – and renewed hope for the public option

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Posted AzBlueMeanie:

There has been substantial activity in advance of the bipartisan health care summit scheduled for this Thursday.

As has been reported over the past week, Senate Democrats have renewed their effort to pass health care reform through reconciliation – a budget process routinely used by the Bush-Cheney regime to pass its regressive agenda through a Republican Congress – and to revive the public option. Public option revival gains steam – TheHill.com:

The public option, the left’s favorite part of healthcare reform, is mounting an unexpected comeback. The recess week ended up providing liberal activists and their allies on Capitol Hill with a surprise opportunity to breath life into the proposal to create a government-run health insurance plan – a proposal that had been declared all-but-dead two months ago.

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With Democrats gearing up to take a final shot at passing healthcare reform via budget reconciliation rules that require only 51 votes for Senate passage, liberals see an opportunity.

Over the course of three days, 18 Democratic senators signed on to Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-Colo.) Wednesday letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), requesting a floor vote on the public option should the upper chamber consider a healthcare reconciliation bill. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the vice chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is the only member of the leadership to sign on so far.

Even Reid appears to be on board. A statement issued by his office on Friday indicates that Reid will bring the public option to the Senate floor.

“Sen. Reid has always and continues to support the public option as a way to drive down costs and create competition. That is why he included the measure in his original healthcare proposal,” Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau said in the statement. “If a decision is made to use reconciliation to advance healthcare, Sen. Reid will work with the White House, the House, and members of his caucus in an effort to craft a public option that can overcome procedural obstacles and secure enough votes.”

Reconciliation seems set to move ahead, based on Reid's comments during an interview on Nevada television Friday. Reid, President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel settled on the strategy during the previous week, the majority leader indicated.

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House Democrats favor using reconciliation as the vehicle to hash out the differences between their more liberal bill – which includes a public option – and the Senate’s more centrist measure.

Reid got another letter from House Democrats, penned by Rep. Jared Polis (Colo.), that had attracted 120 signatures by Saturday. “If you're not going to do a 60-vote strategy but instead a 50-plus-one strategy, the public option could very well be a part of this package,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on MSNBC Thursday.

The Obama administration appears to be ready to give it a go. “If it's part of the decision of the Senate leadership to move forward, absolutely,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on MSNBC Thursday.

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Whether Senate Democrats have the 51 votes they need remains a question to which Reid and the White House won’t give an answer. But the mere fact that Reid is open to resuscitating the public option improves the provisions’ prospects.

Reconciliation not only would allow Democrats to work around Republicans but it lets them disregard the protests of centrist members of the their own caucus.

Proposal-bottom

This morning, the President released his health care proposal. The President’s Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care. | The White House:

The President's Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care

Over the past year the House and the Senate have been working on an effort to provide health insurance reform that lowers costs, guarantees choices, and enhances quality health care for all Americans. Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress. The President has long said he is open to any good ideas for reforming our health care system, and he looks forward to discussing ideas for further improvements from Republicans and Democrats at an open, bipartisan meeting on Thursday.

The proposal will make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy:

  • It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
  • It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.
  • It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.
  • It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
  • It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

Key Provisions in the President's Proposal:

The President’s Proposal builds off of the legislation that passed the Senate and improves on it by bridging key differences between the House and the Senate as well as by incorporating Republican provisions that strengthen the proposal.

One key improvement, for example, is eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid. For America’s seniors, the proposal completely closes the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” coverage gap. It strengthens the Senate bill’s provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families, while also strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid to save taxpayer dollars. The threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans will be raised from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and will start in 2018 for all such plans. And another important idea included is improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to review and rein in unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans.

Summaries of Key Elements of the President's Proposal:

Here's the deal: pass as much of this plan as is possible in the Senate using the reconciliation process if necessary. Once this reform act is on the books, it is possible to enact amendments and revisions later to make improvements to the program. Let's just "get 'er done."

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