Clock Ticking for Dems on Health Care

Several Key Questions Remain before House and Senate Vote on Overhaul Bill

(AP)  Time growing short, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate still face key decisions if they are to achieve President Barack Obama's goal of passing legislation to remake the nation's health care system by year's end.

In the House, that means setting conditions under which the federal government would sell coverage in competition with private industry. The remaining disagreements among rank and file Democrats revolve largely around the fees to be paid doctors and hospitals under the plan, and whether they should be dictated by federal officials or established in negotiations.

And in the Senate, it means deciding whether legislation will give the government a role in the marketplace at all, and if so, what rights individual states would have in deciding whether to participate.

Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are expected to make their decisions this week in hopes the long-delayed bills can come to a vote in early November.

Numerous other questions remain unanswered before that can happen, particularly in the Senate, where Reid, two committee chairman and senior White House officials are trying to craft legislation that can achieve Mr. Obama's objectives and command the 60 votes needed to overcome any Republican filibuster.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care Reform

Officials familiar with the talks say businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied. But large companies would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own.

For businesses with more than 50 employees, the fee could be as high as $750 multiplied by the total size of the work force if only a few workers needed federal aid, these officials said. That is a more stringent penalty than in a bill that recently cleared the Senate Finance Committee, which said companies should face penalties on a per-employee basis.

These officials also said individuals would generally be required to purchase affordable insurance if it were available, and face penalties if they defied the requirement.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss the private negotiations involving key Senate Democrats and the White House. They also stressed that no final decisions have been made on the details of the measure.

In general, the bills taking shape in both houses are intended to expand coverage to millions who lack it, ban insurance industry practices such as denial of coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and slow the growth in medical spending nationally.

They would create a new federally regulated marketplace, termed an exchange, where individuals and families could purchase insurance sold by private industry. Federal subsidies would be available to help those at lower incomes afford the cost.

Subsidies would also be available to smaller businesses as an incentive for them to provide insurance.

Mr. Obama has set a spending limit of roughly $900 billion over a decade for the legislation, but has already agreed not to count more than $200 billion to raise fees for doctors treating Medicare over the next 10 years.

He also appears willing to bow to the wishes of House Democrats, whose bill is expected to total roughly $1 trillion. Democrats argue some of that spending shouldn't be counted against Mr. Obama's total because it doesn't deal directly with the cost of providing coverage.

It covers items such as improved benefits for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as money spent on disease prevention programs.

[Wend3]

The clock is only ticking because Obama said it is. Why does a massive health care reform need to be rushed through not allowing time for the American people, much less other politicians, to read and fully understand what is being proposed? $900 Billion that will affect my and your children and grandchildren and it is getting pushed to be voted on within weeks?

I have experienced government healthcare first hand when my (then) husband was in the military. I spent 5 hours in the emergency room waiting room while in severe amount of pain, never once being checked on. Is this the kind of coverage we are going to push forward for?

My experience has never been that current health coverage includes evaluating an individual's health needs and deciding if it will continue to cover you or not the next year. Premiums go up every year for many reasons, not because the health insurance industry as a whole is making record profits. There are many non-profit health care companies that have to raise premiums every year. Accessibility is a huge cost. Local clinics not only have the regular expenses of running a business (employees, building costs), many also include machines for x-rays, ultrasounds, mammograms, etc which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wake up America! If you are concerned about the health care industry having access to your health records, you should be more concerned about the government having access to your health records. Every other government run health care system in the world covers much, much less that what we Americans are used to having covered.

[Void_Master]

And still they push for an individual mandate. They might well pass it, but it will get ripped out by the courts.

[jt92202]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091026/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fact_check_health_insurance

Those nasty Health Insurance Companies making too much profit. See story above by the AP.

[velma179]

This article by AP's by Calvin Woodward has already been addressed.

Please take a moment to read through the posts here ... and then you can perhaps make a comment from your OWN perspective.

[jt92202]

by velma179 October 26, 2009 2:36 PM EDT

I have a great perspective of how insurance works! I am a licensed insurance agent of Washington State and have been in the industry for 14+ years.

Why don't you take a moment and find out how insurance companies work in comparison it other companies. Profit margins cannot be used on an yearly basis. Some years a insurance company can be profitable but other years they can be unprofitable. In the years that they are profitable they have to take part of those profits and move them aside to pay for years they are not profitable. The insurance industry does not work the same as Microsoft, GM, Banks or who ever, they have rules and regulations they have to follow. All businesses are working for profit and the insurance industry is not any different. Most industries lobby and pay money out to politicians and take it out of the bottom dollar before they show profit, why is it wrong for the insurance industry but not wrong for any other business?

Your post to me was very rude, I am not sure why people on these comment boards think because they are behind the computer screens where they can't be seen can't be a bit nicer when they post. 93 comments that you seemed to think I had to read before I post, you didn't even have to say anything!! But I guess you feel better by being rude!

[reveal4]

If you tally all the doctors who want a public health insurance option or socialised medicine, ie, single payer, the number is about 85% of doctors who want reform. Single payer is not, has not, and will not be considered as part of healthcare reform. Single payer is the government, through taxation, paying for all medical bills for all Americans. This concept of socialised medicined is not being considered and is not any part of healthcare reform.

[reveal4]

Medicare senioras are the primary group opposed to healthcare reform. These folks shout..."No Socialised Medicine." These folks are also socialistically subsidized. The Medicare senior crowd pays in, on average, $65000 to Medicare and receive $175000 in Medicare benefits..Medicare seniors receive, on average, a 270% return on their Medicare investment paid for by the American taxpayer. The folks who are the primary beneficiaries of socialised medicine in America are also the folks who are screaming..."no socialised medicine."

[reveal4]

Health insurance companies are exempt from anti trust legislation....What, how did that happen. Insurance companies are exempt from laws which prevent monopolization and price fixing for private industry. So what happened due to this exemption? ...price fixing and monopolization within state markets. Health insurance companies also get special tax breaks and subsidies paid for by the American taxpayer. Health insurance companies also use your premium payments to pay off politicians and lobbyists...and even the "Tea Party" crowd.

[element51]

louiville2_5......So Louie, what would you have us do with our elder population? Would you propose that we just kill them at a certain age? Many of these folks would literally be out on the street were it not for Social Security. And most of them are not exactly living in the lap of luxury. It is amazing to me that you reich wingers don't seem to be able to think past the end of you own nose. You rant and scream about these "entitlement programs" but offer no new approaches to the problem. You are good with anything that you do not percieve as a threat to your "tax dollars." Whether you like it or not society has a duty to look after the weakest among us and that certainly includes the elderly. Could you actually stand by and watch an old person starve to death? That's why I will always stand against you. I could not watch someone starve to death. And to Joey_NY_15....Fox News in nothing but a joke and a mouthpiece for the republican party. They are driven by lies and half truths and have about as much credibility as pro wrestling. Actually pro wrestling has more since they don't claim to be real. They are the first to admit that they are "entertainment." They aren't lying to the public or trying to mis-lead the public.

[reveal4]

The clock is ticking...Every 12 minutes an American dies due to a lack of medical care. The insurance companies paid out 95% of their dollars for claims just 10 years ago. Now they pay out 80% of their dollar intake for medical claims. And...they've doubled your rates in the past ten years. A health insurance company in California is being investigated now because they turn down 4 of every 10 medical bills for their customers...They deny payment for 4 of every 10 medical care claims. Their customers get stuck and have to pay for 4 of 10 of their own medical bills that the health insurance company says "no" to...Just say "no" is the new mantra of health insurance companies. No wonder the Republican party is sympatico with them.

[reveal4]

Again, conservatives take over the blog and divert the discussion away from health reform. Health reform is the topic of this blog. Such as...insurance companies routinely drop coverage for sick folks if they can find any unreported medical treatment or condition in the person's insurance application. Anything unremembered and unreported on your medical history can leave you out in the street without insurance, to sell and hock everything you own to pay medical bills...And when you run out of money, go bankrupt..maybe you can get some free pill samples at the doctor's office. Otherwise, you are left to become another casualty of insurance amorality and greed.

[ubrew12]

Omigosh! The clock is TICKING! Now is the time for all good Democrats to lie down and compromise with their for-profit healthcare contributors.

Democrats: assume the position!