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HEALTH POLITICS: Late In The Game, Republicans Offer New Bill, Old Ideas

November 3, 2009 - 2:27pm

An early draft of the House Republicans' health care bill is available at BNA. The Republican bill is much more limited in scope than the current House health reform bill, and is focused primarily on cost -- which represents only one aspect of the problems plaguing our current health care system.The bill repackages a lot of the conservative ideas that have been floating around for years -- and which didn't even get enacted when the Republicans were in control of Congress and the White House.

The bill will not end insurance company discrimination against high risk individuals nor will it provide subsidies to help the uninsured purchase coverage, according to Politico:

Boehner hasn't released the full details of the bill but has said that it would make it easier to buy insurance across state lines, impose strict limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and allow individuals and small businesses to pool their resources to buy insurance as a group. That is designed to boost their purchasing power to help lower individual premiums.

The legislation would also direct federal funds to states that establish pools to defray the costs of covering the most high-risk individuals, encouraging the 16 states that don't to establish them.

Nadeam Elshami, a spokeswoman for Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, told Politico:

[Republicans] are not even attempting to cover most Americans -- the cornerstone of how we lower costs for all and have the leverage to reform the insurance industry...Ten months into this debate on how to make quality health care affordable for all Americans, House Republicans have ‘eight or nine ideas.'  House Republicans are now rushing to try to convert those ‘ideas' into legislation, but without offering real reforms for Americans.

The current draft available online does not represent the most recent updates to the Republicans proposed legislation, House Minority Leader John Boehner told BNA.

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gop_health_draft.pdf396.4 KB

Comments

The hidden cost of health care programs

My note to the New America Foundation: Each day we see analyses of various health care plans' dollar costs and benefits. Seemingly forgotten are the far more important costs and benefits of the health care itself.

From Becky Lewis of the New America Foundation: "I don't believe that we are advocating for cheap health care or for cutting the quality or quantity of services available. We are simply commenting that there are ways to pass legislation -- health care reform included -- that incorporate efficiency in order to keep costs down. We are simply suggesting that all options have to be looked at in order for health care reform not to simply add to the deficit. For instance, perhaps limiting the employer exclusion could help to finance covering millions more people, which I think you agree would be a positive change."

My response: Increasing taxes on business (aka "limiting the employer exclusion") simply will discourage employers from providing health insurance, or they will have to reduce payroll. Business has no magic source of money.
I always am surprised when people ignore the consequences of taking money from business and/or from individuals. The *only* entity with the unlimited ability to pay is the federal government, and ironically, it's their budget we seem to be trying to protect.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

Same old argument

It seems to be the same old argument. Democrats want to take more money from us to pay for the health care changes while Republicans want more competition to reduce costs. Increased costs will cripple small business... not a good approach. How about tort reform, elimination of pre-existing conditions, and portability?