Saving Health Care--Saving AmericaBy BRIAN KLEPPER, DAVID C. KIBBE, ROBERT LASZEWSKI and ALAIN ENTHOVENSo far, Congress' response to the health care crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways. First, by willingly accepting enormous sums from health care special interests, our representatives have obligated themselves to their benefactors' interests rather than to those of the American
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The Health Care Bills, the Fine Print, and a Troubling List of Budget Gimmicks
Julie Appleby has an important article today at Kaiser Health News.She has identified an important and before unreported issue in the Senate Finance health care bill.In order to keep the cost of the plan down, the Senate Finance bill literally locks in the erosion of insurance subsidies for middle class families.From her report:"The first year the legislation would take effect, people getting
“The Public Option Is Back in Play”—That Depends Upon Your Definition of the Word “Is”
It appears that Harry Reid is going to include a robust Medicare-like public option in his Senate draft. Speaker Pelosi is also doing her best to put as robust a public option in her House version as she can get the votes for.One press report after another has proclaimed the return of the public option.I’d like to see some of these reporters to do a vote count.No doubt the hype over the public
Doing the Right Thing--The Doc Fix Vote and the CMS Report
Predicting the outcome of yesterday's Senate vote on the $245 billion deficit adding doc fix was easy.Democratic Senate Majority Leader Reid was going to sail this thing through the Senate with almost all Democrats and even a bunch of Republicans onside.Senators are afraid of the docs—after all they have voted for years to waive any cuts. Democrats needed to get this $245 billion cost out of the
The Senate Finance Insurance Reform Rules Have to Be Fixed in Spite of the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight
Last week the health insurance trade association (AHIP) released a report it sponsored, and was authored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), that claimed the Senate Finance bill would be problematic for the insurance markets only leading to much higher costs.As I posted last week, my own analysis of the Finance bill gives me big concerns about what it would do to health insurance costs and the
Apparently The "Games" Have Begun--Democrats Move to Fix Physician Fee Problem Off-Budget
Apparently, Democrats are getting ready to pay-off the physicians for their support of the health bills by quickly fixing the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) fee cut problem off-budget and ahead of the pending health care bills.This in today's Kaiser Health News on a Congress Daily Report:Physician lobbyists met with several key lawmakers and administration officials Wednesday to push for
What’s Next? Follow the Money
With the passage of the Senate Finance bill the health care effort now moves to a critical stage with the Senate Majority Leader and the House Speaker now clearly in charge.The more important effort will be Reid’s. Pelosi’s final product will be more predictable (very liberal) but Reid’s will have to be more practical. Every inch Reid moves away from the more moderate Baucus bill will cause
