Debate: US Health Care Reform

[Virtual Chatot]

Why are people so eager to pass such a terrible bill? The majority of it isn't even about providing care for people, it all goes to medical research programs which should be paid for by the Health Care companies themselves!

 

[Netto Azure]

Why are people so eager to pass such a terrible bill? The majority of it isn't even about providing care for people, it all goes to medical research programs which should be paid for by the Health Care companies themselves!

Because it will certainly weaken the President and handicap him for the next compromised agenda.

Plus if this goes down we'll have to wait another 16 or so years to hear another mutter of healthcare reform. Plus we'll still have the pre-existing conditions crap and private coverage recission (arbitary cancellation of policy)

But that's how life goes~

Just a heads up. :3

US President Obama urges action on healthcare

Obama wants final say over healthcare reform​

US President Barack Obama has made one of the most critical speeches of his presidency, as he faced Congress over his plans for healthcare reform.

Mr Obama said that failure to introduce reform had led the country to breaking point and it was now time to act.
He said he planned to improve health insurance for those who have it and to create an insurance exchange to extend cover to those who do not.
Members of Congress are preparing to fight over details of the reforms.

Mr Obama told Congress that the US was the only rich country that allowed millions of its people to endure the hardship of going without healthcare.
"Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy," he said.
"These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans."
But Mr Obama said the current system did not serve those Americans who do have health insurance well either.
"Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today.
"More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you'll lose your health insurance too."
He said the US spent one-and-half times more on health insurance than any other country but Americans were no healthier than other people.

Insurance exchange


Mr Obama set out details of his plan to reform the system.
He said that nothing in his proposal would require Americans who already have health insurance to change their coverage or doctor.
But he said he would make the insurance work better for individuals by prohibiting insurers from dropping coverage for sick patients or by capping it.
He would also require insurers to cover the cost of routine check-ups and preventative care.
For the millions of uninsured Americans, he said he would create an insurance exchange - a market place where individuals and small business will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.

Public insurance option


Mr Obama said a public insurance option could help keep the private health insurance companies honest and competitive.
But he said it would not be subsidised by the government, so would not form unfair competition for them.
He added that the public option was only a means to an end, and he remained open to other ideas if they had the same effect.
Healthcare reform has been the central issue of his change agenda but has divided both the US public and the country's political establishment.
President Obama said that Congress agreed on about 80% of the reforms that are needed.
But he said months of partisan bickering had only hardened the disdain many Americans have towards their own government.
He is facing almost unanimous opposition from Republicans, who are uneasy about the idea of government-run healthcare and who have accused Mr Obama of attempting to introduce a "socialist" policy.
There are, in theory, enough Democrats in Congress to approve the changes.
But in practice, the party is deeply divided between those that want a publicly-run insurance scheme and those alarmed by the borrowing necessary to fund it.

Big grin from the president and a long period of clapping when he adopts the Republicans' idea for reforming medical malpractice laws
Mark Mardell
BBC North America editor

Dang, I was like shocked and LOL'ed a bit when the Republicans Boo'ed and said "THAT'S A LIE!" on the whole Undocumented Immigrants not being covered issue. XD
​

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Who wants what?
A look at the various players in the debate on healthcare reform
​

Passing a healthcare reform bill is proving tricky for US President Barack Obama, as different groups mobilise to remove the parts of the plan that they dislike.

The various players in the healthcare debate - from the White House to the insurance companies - all want different things from the reform process.

THE WHITE HOUSE

President Obama is due to lay out more detailed proposals in an address to both chambers of Congress on Wednesday but he has established three overriding principles for healthcare reform.

See how healthcare spending is divided up

Any reform bill, the White House says, will need to reduce the overall costs of the system, extend healthcare to every American and ensure that healthcare is affordable for all.

Alongside these broad principles, Mr Obama has also set out a number of specific reforms to the industry that he wants to see implemented.

He wants to:

* Prevent insurers rejecting customers with pre-existing conditions

* Cap the amount of out-of-pocket fees that insurers can charge their members
* Stop insurers dropping coverage for members who become seriously ill, or refusing to renew coverage for seriously-ill customers
* Force insurers to cover preventive care in full
* Ban annual or lifetime caps on the amount members can claim
* Stop insurers charging more on the basis of gender.

At the beginning of the legislative process, Mr Obama deliberately chose to leave the specifics of reform for Congress to work out, but - with reform stalling in the Senate - he has decided to adopt a "more prescriptive" approach, according to aides.

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

Many American liberals would like Mr Obama's healthcare reform proposals to go much further, but are prepared to support his plans as long as they are not watered down too much in Congress.

They favour the increased regulation of the insurance industry that Mr Obama has proposed and support efforts to extend coverage to all Americans by offering generous subsidies to the less well-off.

For many liberals, both in Congress and in trade unions like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the most cherished feature of healthcare reform is the "public option" - the government-run insurance plan that will be available to Americans who do not have access to employer-provided coverage.

But Republicans and some moderate Democrats are threatening to remove the "public option" from the Senate's version of the bill, setting up a clash with liberal Democrats.

CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS

Moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives belong to a grouping called the Blue Dog Caucus.

During the healthcare reform bill's passage through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Blue Dogs threatened to block the bill unless its price-tag was cut by $100bn.

They also demanded that more small businesses be exempted from the requirement to provide healthcare for their employees and insisted that any public scheme would be barred from paying the same (low) rates to doctors and drug companies as the government-run Medicare programme.

Democratic leaders agreed to the Blue Dogs' requests, and the deal appeared to smooth the way for a healthcare reform bill - including a public option - to pass in the House.

In the Senate, however, conservative Democrats like Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska have expressed opposition to the public option.

Mr Conrad has suggested that a network of healthcare co-ops could be established instead of a publicly-run scheme.

REPUBLICANS

Republicans in the House and the Senate have been staunchly opposed to the Democrats' healthcare proposals. If Mr Obama's reform bid fails, the Republicans will benefit politically, so they may be calculating that outright opposition is their best strategic option.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican candidate John McCain outlined a healthcare reform plan: end the tax-free status of employee health benefits, and give all Americans tax credits for the purchase of health insurance.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley
Moderate Republican Chuck Grassley may support a compromise bill

This would remove the incentives for Americans to keep their employer-provided health coverage, so more Americans would shop around for private insurance. The power of the free market would then force costs down, Mr McCain argued.

Some Republicans have described similar proposals when asked to outline their plans for healthcare reform, but the party's strategy appears to be geared more towards defeating the Democrats' policies than coming up with alternatives.

Many of the feature of reform that Republicans have been attacking - like the so-called "death-panels" or coverage for illegal immigrants - are not actually being proposed in any of the plans put forward by Democrats.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

Although they have been vilified by many liberals as the enemy of reform, health insurers have - in public - actually been fairly supportive of the Democrats' efforts.

In part, this is because the reforms could benefit insurers.

In particular, the "individual mandate" (the rule forcing all Americans to take out health insurance or face a fine) will create a lot of new customers for insurance companies, and many of the newly-enrolled members will be young, healthy people who have previously opted not to get insurance.

The insurance companies - represented by the industry body AHIP - are less sanguine about the prospect of a government-run public insurance option. They fear that a strong public option will drive them out of business.

DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS

US doctors (represented by the American Medical Association or AMA), and hospitals (represented by various organisations, including the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals) broadly back the Democrats' reform proposals.

Their biggest fear is that the government will create a powerful publicly-run insurance scheme that will - like the government programme for the elderly, Medicare - use its bargaining power to cut the amount of money it pays to doctors.

The three biggest hospital groups in the US have offered to reduce their costs by $155bn over 10 years in an attempt to make health reform more affordable.

The reductions will be achieved by cutting the amount of subsidies that hospitals receive from the government to cover uninsured people in emergency rooms. As more and more people get insurance, the hospitals reason, the need for the subsidies will be reduced.

But the hospitals have warned that they will only make the full $155bn reduction if the government meets its target of extending coverage.

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

Manufacturers of drugs and medical equipment are not very supportive of the Democrats' reform plans.

The industry - represented by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) - is concerned that the Democrats' proposed publicly option could use its negotiating power to start bargaining down drug prices.

It is also opposed to the reformers' proposal to establish a government body to conduct research into the relative effectiveness of different treatments.

Drug companies argue that this could eventually lead to a situation in which government bureaucrats dictate to doctors which drugs they are allowed to prescribe.

Supporters of the proposal insist that "comparative effectiveness research" is simply a useful tool to help doctors avoid prescribing expensive drugs that work no better than cheaper treatments.

 

[Netto Azure]

In Lawmaker's Outburst, a Rare Breach of Protocol

Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina received criticism for yelling, "You lie!" at the president.​

WASHINGTON — It was a rare breach of the protocol that governs ritualistic events in the Capitol.

In an angry and very audible outburst, Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, interrupted President Obama's speech Wednesday night with a shout of "You lie!"
His eruption — in response to Mr. Obama's statement that Democratic health proposals would not cover illegal immigrants — stunned members of both parties in the House chamber.
Democrats said it showed lack of respect for the office of the presidency and was reminiscent of Republican disruptions at recent public forums on health care.
"It is outrageous," said Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York, who said it reminded him of the "antics that are being used to disrupt and fog what is going on."
After the speech, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff who sat a few rows in front of Mr. Wilson, said he immediately approached senior Republican lawmakers to encourage them to identify the heckler and urge him to issue an apology quickly.
"No president has ever been treated like that. Ever," Mr. Emanuel said.
Other Democrats said they did not want to dwell on the outburst or allow it to overshadow what they saw as an effective address by the president. But they also said it bolstered their contention that some Republicans were not interested in constructive dialogue, and they noted that Democratic plans specifically barred coverage for illegal immigrants.
Republicans also said the heckling was out of line. "I think we ought to treat the president with respect," said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, "and anything other than that is not appropriate."
Mr. Wilson seemed rattled in the wake of his comment, and quickly left the chamber at the end of the speech.
His office later issued an apology, saying: "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the president's statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility."
Mr. Wilson also phoned the White House and reached Mr. Emanuel, who accepted an apology on behalf of the president.
Critical body language and murmurs of disapproval are typical at presidential addresses and part of the political theater. But members of both parties were trying to recollect such a pointed attack from an individual lawmaker at a presidential address and noted that a similar remark could draw a formal reprimand if delivered at a routine session of the House.

Well, the speech IMO still contained the stuff we already knew if you paid attention to this issue. Still, the outburst over the Undocumented Immigrants coverage issue does raise a point on the Republican side. How will it be enforced. :P

At least he apologized. >.>