Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform, The U.S. Supreme Court is a busy place this time of year. So when the justices announced that, starting March 26, they would hear six hours of arguments on the health care reform law—the most time it has dedicated to any one case in decades—the gravitas of the issue became clear to all.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is perhaps the most profound change to health care since Medicaid was instituted in 1965. “This case deserves the hype it’s getting,” says Gregory Magarian, a law professor at Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law.

The case is not just a political lightning rod—and whatever decisions emerge from the Court in the early summer will likely do little to diffuse the partisan tensions around the issue. What’s really at stake in the case is individuals’ access to health care.

Signed into law March 23, 2010, PPACA is expected to expand access to health care to an additional 32 million uninsured people in the U.S.—unless all or part of it is struck down by the Supreme Court.

“If this law’s thrown out, I think we’re resigned to the status quo, which is a lot of people without access to health care for a long time,” says Larry Levitt, an expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy analysis organization. “I don’t think there’s any question about what lack of access to health care means: people get treated later, and some people die earlier as a result.”

Obama Health Care Plan | USsPost.com

Obama Health Care Plan | USsPost.com:Washington – President Obama unveiled Monday his own plan for comprehensive health insurance reform, based largely on legislation the Senate passed in December. In a bow to Republicans, the plan includes new GOP-backed provisions designed to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse.

Despite hints leading up to Monday’s unveiling that Mr. Obama’s plan would include a “public option” – a government-run insurance plan designed to compete with private insurers – it does not. But his plan does set up an insurance marketplace, or “exchange,” in which consumers can shop for coverage. The plan would also create new federal authority to rein in rate hikes deemed exorbitant, a hot issue following double-digit increases announced earlier this month by Anthem Blue Cross of California.

Like both the House and Senate versions, the plan includes a mandate that individuals purchase insurance, and bans insurers from excluding consumers with preexisting conditions.

The plan, posted on the White House web site, represents Obama’s opening bid in advance of a bipartisan healthcare summit on Thursday. In a conference call Monday morning, a senior administration official suggested Obama is prepared for Congress to use a legislative procedure called “reconciliation,” which requires only a majority of votes to gain passage – and not the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

“The president believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health care,” said Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director. “This package is designed to provide us the flexibility to achieve that if the Republican Party decides to filibuster health reform.”

The White House plan would also:

• Eliminate the special provision in the Senate version that would have aided Nebraska on expanded Medicaid payments, and instead boost federal funding for expanded Medicaid in all states.
• Close the so-called “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage, which leaves seniors paying significant out of pocket expense.
• Increase the threshold for the excise tax on high-end insurance plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500. The tax would begin in 2018 and apply to all healthcare plans.

The White House maintains its plan would reduce the budget deficit by $100 billion over the next 10 years, and about $1 trillion over the following decade. It also says its plan will help more than 31 million Americans afford health insurance who do not have it today, and make insurance more affordable to those who do have it. The plan includes a provision that allows low-income people who cannot afford health insurance to receive a waiver from the mandate.

On the sensitive issue of abortion, Obama’s plan keeps the Senate language, which is less restrictive than the House version. Obama has maintained from the start that the reform should not permit federal funding of abortions, though anti-abortion forces argue the Senate version would do that. The White House could lose crucial Democratic votes in the House if the Senate language stays.

Republicans were expected to react negatively to Obama’s overall proposal after calling on the administration to start from scratch. The Obama plan does not do that.