Senator Takes Initiative on Health Care
By Robert Pear
The New york Times
November 11, 2008
Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.
… would eventually require everyone to have health insurance coverage, with federal subsidies for those who could not otherwise afford it.
… broadly compatible with Mr. Obama’s campaign promises. But Mr. Baucus’s 35,000-word plan would go further than Mr. Obama’s in one respect, eventually requiring all people — not just children — to have coverage.
… create a nationwide marketplace, a “health insurance exchange,” where people could compare and buy insurance policies. The options would include private insurance policies and a new public plan similar to Medicare.
Insurers could no longer deny coverage to people who had been sick. Congress would also limit insurers’ ability to charge higher premiums because of a person’s age or prior illness.
People would have a duty to obtain coverage when affordable options were available to all through employers or through the insurance exchange. This obligation “would be enforced, possibly through the tax system,” the plan says.
People age 55 to 64 should be able to buy Medicare coverage if they do not have access to a public insurance program or a group health plan.
Medicaid would be available to everyone below the poverty level…
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program would be expanded to cover all uninsured youngsters in families with incomes at or below 250 percent of the poverty level …
He would offer tax credits to small businesses to help them defray the costs of providing health benefits to employees.
To make insurance more affordable for those who buy coverage on their own, Mr. Baucus would offer tax credits to individuals and families with incomes at or below four times the poverty level…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/washington/12health.html
And…
Call to Action, Health Reform 2009
Senator Max Baucus, Chairman, Senate Finance Committee
November 12, 2008
Individual Responsibility
Once affordable, high-quality, and meaningful health insurance options are available to all Americans, it will be each individual’s responsibility to have coverage. This step is necessary to make the entire health care system function properly.
Premium Subsidies
In order to make health coverage affordable for all Americans, refundable tax credits would be available to individuals and families with incomes at or below four times the Federal poverty level. These tax subsidies would be available to individuals and families who purchased coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange. The Independent Health Coverage Council would define what an “affordable” premium is, taking into account the reasonable percent of income to be spent on health care coverage. The premium subsidy would make up the difference between the amount suggested by the Council and the premium amount charged by the plan. The amount of the subsidy could be based on a benchmark that would be equal to a locally adjusted, average premium in the Exchange. This construct would encourage individuals to be prudent purchasers of health care policies.
Conclusion
Each of the key challenges facing our health care system — lack of access to care, the cost of care, and the need for better-quality care — must be addressed in concert. Covering millions of uninsured through a broken health system will be fiscally unsustainable. Attempting to address the inefficiencies plaguing our system and the perverse incentives in the delivery system without covering the uninsured will fail to alleviate the burden of uncompensated care and cost shifting. The time for incremental improvements has passed; health care reform must be comprehensive in scope.
This Call to Action provides a starting point for the upcoming health care reform debate. It is a vision and not a legislative proposal. It is comprehensive but not an exhaustive exploration of every health care issue that can or should be considered.
The next crucial step is a constructive dialog on policy priorities among policymakers, stakeholders, health policy thought leaders and the public. Consensus will be difficult to achieve, but common ground from which to build can and must be found.
Call to Action, Health Reform 2009 (98 pages):
http://finance.senate.gov/healthreform2009/finalwhitepaper.pdf
And…
2009 Health Reform Plan
Sen. Max Baucus
C-SPAN
November 12, 2008
News Conference
Sen. Baucus: “Some people suggest the United States should have a single payer system. I disagree. I don’t think a single payer system makes sense in this country.”
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=282373-1
As the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and as a person passionately dedicated to comprehensive health care reform, we need to listen to what Sen. Max Baucus has to say. “Call to Action, Health Reform 2009” is his white paper describing serious problems with our health care system, and includes a collection of legislative proposals to address those problems. It is an important report because it does represent what seems to be the prevailing views in Washington, D.C. on the direction for reform.
There are many valuable recommendations in this report. Some of them should be enacted soon as possible as urgent measures to hold us over while we are pressing forward with comprehensive reform. Others can be enacted independently of the comprehensive legislative package. But some represent flawed policy concepts and should never be enacted.
Only one of the major flaws will be touched on here: the mandate for individuals to purchase their own health plans should they not be covered under their employers’ plans.
Under this proposal, a family of four will have to fully fund their own coverage if their income is over $84,800 (four times the poverty level). According to the 2008 Milliman Medical Index, a family of four is already paying an average of $15,600 for health care. That means that this family would be paying over 18 percent of their income for health care. Since this is average, many families would be paying a much higher percentage.
Many in the policy community believe that health care expenditures over 10 percent of income expose individuals or families to the potential of financial hardship. To keep expenditures at 10 percent, a family of four with average medical expenses would require an income over $156,000. Those with above average expenses would require even greater incomes.
Financing health care with private health plans no longer makes sense. We need a single universal risk pool that is funded equitably using progressive tax policies. Sen. Baucus says that he doesn’t think that a single payer system makes sense in this country, but it’s the only system that does.