Earlier this week, President Obama released a modified health care plan – three days before a bipartisan summit on health care.
The modified plan, in general, contains the same fundamentals included in the House and Senate bills that have already passed, but with adjustments and provisions. President Obama is hoping that by laying out a health care plan that largely resembles the House and Senate bills that everyone could reach a compromise. By releasing his new plan earlier this week, days before the health care summit, the White House is trying to frame the debate until then.
Some highlights from the new White House health care plan:
New federal insurance regulation The plan includes a new federal health insurance regulatory board that will review rate increases and block those it deems unjustified. State insurance commissioners have the power to do this in most places, but a new federal authority could strengthen rate regulation.
Medicaid help for states The plan would eliminate the notorious and despised Cornhusker Kickback, a special Medicaid deal awarded to Nebraska under the original Senate bill. Instead, the Obama Administration’s health care plan would increase Medicaid funding for all states. The plan would also give extra funding to states that have already expanded their Medicaid programs, even without federal prompting. This could do a lot to appease governors who have been loudly protesting the Medicaid expansion called for under Democratic reform, saying the state-federal program will eventually break their budgets.
Weakens the cadillac tax The plan delays the implementation of the excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans until 2018 and raises the threshold for which plans would get taxed. Beginning in 2018, individual plans with premiums above $10,200 and families plans above $27,500 would be subject to the tax. There are adjustments made for companies where costs are higher because of age and gender of workers and there is an adjustment made for workers in high-risk occupations.
Closes the doughnut hole The plan would close the Medicare drug benefit “doughnut hole” completely by 2020. This would be paid for by an additional $10 billion in fees from drug companies.
Increases affordability The plan increases subsidies for middle income Americans buying their own health insurance on the open market beyond what the Senate bill called for.
Imposes higher fees on individuals and employers who go without insurance The plan would strengthen the individual mandate by adopting the House’s higher penalties for those who opt not to buy insurance. There are still hardship exemptions and exemptions for those with income below the tax filing threshold. The fee on employers who don’t offer coverage would be $2,000 per worker, with firms with 50 or fewer employees exempted from this requirement. There is also a $40 billion infusion of tax credits available to small businesses to help them offer coverage beginning in 2010.
National exchange, no public option and Senate abortion language The Obama plan does not mention any of these sticking points, meaning it favors the Senate exchange design (state based exchanges rather than the House’s national exchange), the Senate’s abortion language (not the House’s Stupak language) and the Senate’s lack of a public option.
The Obama plan would cost $950 billion over ten years and provide new insurance coverage for 31 million Americans.
SOURCE: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/22/details-of-obamas-health-care-plan/#respond