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Senate Votes to Proceed with Health Care Debate
The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act currently:
- Requires employers, with at least 50 full time employees, that offer no health coverage to pay a penalty of $750 per employee, if one or more full-time workers qualify for a government subsidy in the health insurance exchange. The AFL-CIO union movement continues to press for a full employer mandate covering all workers in all firms, but this at least creates a serious penalty for free rider employers.
- Would cover 94 percent of Americans while reducing the deficit by $130 billion over the next 10 years.
- Includes a public insurance plan option that will help bring down costs by keeping insurance companies honest and forcing them to compete. The inclusion of the public option in both the House and Senate bills shows that Members of Congress believe the public option is an essential part of any final health care legislation.
- Would also hold insurance companies accountable by ending the practice of denials and raising premiums because of preexisting conditions or gender.
- Includes a provision that will cut the rate of growth in Medicare spending in half, according to the Congressional Budget Office, through a powerful new Medicare Commission. Besides being a strong mechanism for controlling Medicare costs, the Commission will set a path that private purchasers can, and likely will, follow to control private health care spending.
But as Trumka noted, the bill needs work, especially its provision taxing the benefits of middle-class families:
The Senate bill’s strong cost cutting measures go further than any previous legislation. But the bill must be improved in important areas. The employer responsibility provision should be expanded to cover all employers. And any plan to tax working families’ benefits should be eliminated — taxes on the middle class are the wrong way to pay for health care.
Live Coverage of Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis
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Seth Michaels is posting live from Washington, D.C.
Today at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other leaders are launching a bold new agenda to create new jobs and turn around our economy.
Trumka is proposing five steps to help end the nation’s ongoing jobs crisis. In the face of a 10 percent official unemployment rate and millions more underemployed or struggling with long-term unemployment, Trumka says, we need immediate action to put people back to work. The five key steps are:
1. Extend the lifeline for jobless workers.
2. Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems.
3. Increase aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services
4. Fund jobs in our communities.
5. Put TARP funds to work for Main Street.
America’s jobs situation would be even more dire without the economic stimulus program President Obama and Congress enacted, which has saved or created 1 million jobs. But the depth of this crisis demands that we do more—and that we do it now, before more people lose their jobs, their homes, their health care and their hope.
Follow us here to learn more about the agenda to create jobs now and build a stronger, fairer economy for the future.
