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Senate Committee Unveils Strong Health Care Reform Bill |
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The health care reform legislation unveiled yesterday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee is “a strong draft that demonstrates their commitment to comprehensive reform and the kind of leadership and energy the country needs to finally win quality, affordable health care for all,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who introduced the Affordable Health Choices Act, along with Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), says the bill contains
common-sense solutions that reduce skyrocketing health care costs, assure quality care for all and provide affordable health insurance choices. Much work remains, and the coming days and weeks won’t be easy. But we have a unique opportunity to give the American people, at long last, the health care they need and deserve.
Sweeney says the legislation
gives Americans the freedom to choose to maintain their current insurance or pick a public health care option that will increase competition in the market and lower costs.
America’s workers thank Senator Kennedy, Senator Dodd and all the members of the HELP Committee for their hard work on these issues. Nothing is more important to the well-being of families, and nothing is more important to the long-term economic health of our country.
The legislation also includes:
- Comprehensive reform of the way health care is provided that would significantly improve the quality and efficiency of care.
- Cost constraints by empowering doctors, other health care workers, consumers and purchasers to work together toward innovative changes.
Dodd says the bill “will strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t.” But he cautions:
We still have a lot of work ahead of us and are looking forward to working with our colleagues on a bipartisan basis to resolve the remaining issues and move.
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3 Comments
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It’s way past time,some sort of relieve is needed before all working men and women and many employers are broke.I truly hope that there is a bipartisan effort but have many doubts.It looks like the Republicans are going to fight what the majority of the people want again.Health care cost must be contained.
Just ask GM and Chrysler about health care costs and what they did to their business. Health care today is a money grab by insurance co’s and Rx co’s. One dose of a cancer drug I took was $8100, and I needed it 8x’s. The rest of the world benefits from our high Rx costs as they negotiate lower fees. We shouldn’t have to worry about going bankrupt when we’re sick, (70% bankruptcies due to medical reasons) we should concentrate on getting well. In the rest of the industrialized world this is not even a question, no wonder they are happier, healthier and we are more stressed out and ill. Health insurance for profit has their concerns first and patients continue to suffer, this needs to stop.
Health Care Reform
The next public issue is being debated.
We have all heard that masses of Americans have no health insurance coverage. They either wind up sick or depending on some form of charity; in most cases visiting an emergency room to deal with the serious crises resulting from a lack of preventive medical care. This is a fruit of operating health governed by the profit motive.
In the richest country in history this is an outrage.
Our healthcare system financing is governed by the ability of insurance and drug companies to dictate policy. For example, while the VA is allowed to purchase drugs by competitive bidding, Medicare is forbidden to do so. This allows the drug industry their own key to the safe at the US Treasury.
Supplemental Medicare policies are priced at the discretion of the sellers; Insurance companies. They tack on about $1,000 per year per policy as their profit margin.
For forty years we have had a program which serves a large portion of Americans quite well. It is Medicare. I have been on Medicare for six years and have never had to wait for urgent care, nor been denied the specialist of my choice, nor been saddled with the “list” cost of services. I recently had surgery that “lists” for $5,000 and Medicare and my supplemental policy paid less than $1,000. How could that be? You ask. It’s the result of mass purchasing power exercised by Medicare.
Of all the geezers with whom is swap stories of my ailments, the only complaint I hear is that they don’t get vision and dental care. The drug coverage of Medicare Part D is a Band-Aid for people who live on chronic drugs.
So, what can we do? Perhaps expand Medicare from over 65 years of age to everyone and finance the cost by increasing the FICA and Medicare taxes by removing the cap on taxable income; both wages and unearned income.
Also making employer provided health insurance taxable in the same way that Social Security benefits are progressively taxed. This taxation was introduced under the reign of Ronald Reagan.
Thirty years of financing government and wars on a credit card, Rushpublican “Borrow and Spend” has us in our current Recession.
We hear of the horror stories of Socialized Medicine from Insurance and Pharma, but I’m puzzled by the failure of Fox News to report on the worldwide bloody riots and insurrection against Socialized Medicine.
The answer is Medicare for All and a sane policy of progressive income taxation.