A Healthcare Compromise?
The headlines are once again awash in stories about the haggling over healthcare. The public face of the stories pits Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid ready to die in battle to take the hill of "public option". An unusually united Republican party, along with a large chunk of the so-called "blue dog" (fiscally conservative) Democrats are balking at the idea. Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, concedes that the votes are not there to pass a healthcare reform bill including the public option. He should know. His committee has been trying to piece together something that the Republicans could sign onto. That attempt failed. Now he is trying to cobble together something that the fractured Democrat caucus can get behind, and is having no more success. It is a seeming impasse with rumors of the Senate majority just ramming a bill through, as was done in the House of Representatives. The Senate, designed by the Founders to be more deliberative and less reactionary, is generally loathe to do that.
News is now starting to surface of a possible "compromise" being tossed about behind closed doors. In short, the move is away from what is commonly called the "public option", and towards an insurance pool. This pool will be negotiated by the government acting as agent for a specific group having difficulty with the current health insurance structure - small business. The purpose of this negotiation is to transform small businesses and individuals not eligible for employer provided health insurance into a single subscriber pool, thus lowering risk to the insurers. The lowered risk then provides the ability of the insurers to offer that pool a discounted rate. The thinking is that most employers in a small business model would offer health insurance if it was affordable to them. There is a proposed incentive of a tax credit for participation in this program. This idea borrows heavily from the Republican approach to this issue. No names have been connected to this proposal, though the office of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) confirms that the proposal is under discussion. Kerry had proposed a similar idea in the 2004 Presidential campaign – creating a “premium” insurance pool to lower costs for small business who choose to offer health insurance.
Adding some flesh to the skeleton, the proposal is to have the Federal government, bring the insurance companies together and negotiate rates and benefits, and then create an insurance marketplace, consisting of participating insurers. The purpose of the marketplace is to have a variety of plans at a variety of costs made available nationally. On the other side of the equation are those to be serviced - small business and individuals not eligible for employer provided coverage. They will be treated as a single subscriber pool, which minimizes risk and costs to the insurance companies. These two components, acting in concert, provide the basis for the discounted rates to be offered. In structure, it is very similar to the plan offered to Federal employees. In scale, it is a much larger.
For common sense and middle ground, this is an idea worthy of consideration. It specifically addresses a major component of the actual problem (the uninsured), without overreaching into an overhaul of the entire system. Public sentiment is clear that while most acknowledge that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, the overwhelming majority of people who have a health insurance plan in place would prefer to keep it, rather than participate in a mandated government option. This is a bare bones outline, and the devil is always in the details. We expect to be able to report more details as they surface. This proposal is limited in scope, but reflects a practicality that has been lacking in this debate so far. Perhaps an effective strategy to resolving the entire issue is to look at these individual components - small business concerns, the uninsured not qualifying for existing government programs, pre-existing conditions, etc - and to address the specific issue in a similar fashion individually. This could provide the basis of an actual bipartisan solution to at least part of the problem.
Categories: Social Policy, Healthcare, Partisan Politics
Tags: healthcare reform
Don't get to exited. This move was TOTALLY predictable and planned by Reid. The GOVERNMENT option was to put in by Reid just so that horses rear would have something to take out...to "compromise" over. It will be placed back in when the bill goes to comittee, and all that will need to pass it then, is simple majorities in both the house and senate.
Also, on a side note...The Senate is no more deliberative than the scum in the house... has not been since Senators began to be directly elected vs appointed by state legislators, as a result of the asinne 17th ammendment to the constitution.(Al Franken...need I say more?)
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I'd have to agree - They want to push this public option regardless of what the American people want. I'm keeping the pressure up on my congressman (a Republican) and flooding my senators (botn dems)with emails and faxs hoping to choke their communications. This has to be stopped!
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You conservatives can ever be satisfied. Public option is dead - there's no sneaking it in. If they try that then the Dems lose their moderates and they can't close debate. The far left will go along because it's better than nothing.
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Well, that's not exactly true - something can always be snuck in with an amendment. It all depends on how badly Obama wants a health care bill to sign. He can beat his own party into submission if he chooses to. He can't do that to the Republicans. He needs the moderate Dems more than he needs the libs. This might even get more than 1 Republican vote so he can even claim a bipartisan bill. It would be nice for Obama to learn to play nice with the Republicans before all of the uber-lefties get drummed out of office next year. Then we can start on getting this country back on the right track.
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I have family in UK, and I know that system well. My hope is that the public option remains dead in the single payer sense. It would wreck a system that functions well for most people. Setting up a national pool is a great idea if no one claims an infringement on states rights. Of course if they do, the feds can invoke the interstate commerce clause like they always do. I'm a little worried about the costs for lowering medicare to 55 though. Seems a lot to take on...
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As I understand it.medicare benefits will only be offered to 55+ year olds if they do not have insurance through work, privately, or on some other government health program. It's not a big number of people - only 1% of that age group. It doesn't seem like an outrageous idea.
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Well the 55 - 64 age group makes up about 8.5% of the population, so at 330 million people in the US, that would be almost 25 million people in the pool. At the 1% number qualifying for Medicare (wherever that number came from) we're talking adding 250,000 people onto Medicare. With 44 million currently enrolled (those are AARP numbers)it really doesn't seem like it bumps up the numbers too much. BUT, I'd like to know where the 1% number came from? There's been a lot of numbers pulled out of thin air lately. While we're at it, if someone could provide me with an example of any government program that met it's projections I'd be interested in finding out what it was. I can't think of one.
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I though Medicare was supposed to lose $300 billion in funding. How do you do that and add a bunch of people to the program? Ok, this is starting to not make sense...
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Not to worry on the Medicare issue - they are dumping it. Looks like the math didn't actually work out, and they still can't get 60 votes. Looks like the whoole thing might unravel again.
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We caan only hope - but nothing is dead til this monstrosity of a healthcare package goes away entirely. There are many ways to fix the problem without messing with my coverage. Maybe someone might open an ear to a Republican? Just not Collins...
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To look at the news today, it looks like this is a done deal, just minus the public option thing. It chills my blood to see Harry Reid smiling like he just boinked one of Tiger's mistresses. I don't trust him, and I don't think that this health reform is either healthy for us, or any sort of reform. Just more control.
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I just can't believe they are ramming this through when there's not a single poll out saying that America wants this mess. Most run in the 60s against and in the 30s for. Reid and Pelosi are sending us the message that they don't care, and I hope we send them a message next election day. Time they find out what unemployment feels ilke.
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Some Meicare at 55 is out, but the insurance pool is still in? It looks like the Republicans must be doing some chippping away at this. Other than public option most people agree on the other issues. We have to get proper healthcare to the uninsured so that they don't flood the memrgency rooms. We need to cover pre-existing conditions or find away to make insurance portable so that there are no pre-existing conditions. We need to make it affordable. As long as Uncle Sam is not the provider of choice, there's not much to argue over. It would be better to for this to see the light of day and be explained though. I might not agree with the Republicans just doing everything thaey can to block reform, but I don't like the Democrats pushing it through before anyone can understand it. We all payed the price for that with the stimulus and bamk bailouts. There should be a public review before any of this becomes law,
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Looks like Nelson got bought off and Reid has his 60 - at least if Byrd doesn't kick the bucket in the meantime. Does anyone know what was agreed to? I have no idea what is in the bill anymore...
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If Nelson is on board, then Reid had to give him the abortion restrictions that he wanted. If that's the case, won't the super left walk on this?
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Nah - the ultra-left will go along and tweak it later when they no longer need the 60 votes for passage.
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