Health Care Bill by Senate Finance Committee Should Include House’s Funding Strategy
A health care reform package that includes a public health insurance plan option, shared employer responsibility, cost containment and an end to private insurance company abuses was approved by a key Senate committee this morning.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
This legislation demands shared responsibility so families are less burdened. It will make health care more affordable by controlling costs and improving quality. And most importantly, it will provide coverage for all and help reduce the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured. Sen. Chris Dodd and Chairman Kennedy’s hard work and dedication have put forth a bill that moves us one step closer to the finish line.
The action by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee comes one day after the House version of health care legislation was introduced. But unlike the House bill, the HELP committee’s measure does not address financing.
House Unveils Health Care Bill with Public Option, No Benefits Tax; Vote Sought by Recess
Comprehensive health care reform took a significant step forward this afternoon when House leaders unveiled the final draft of a bill that contains a public health insurance plan option and shared responsibility, including an employer “pay or play” requirement—while not taxing the health care benefits working families receive through their job. A vote could come by the end of July.
The bill closely follows the health care blueprint developed by the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees and includes cost containment and insurance market reforms to help stop private insurance industry abuses. For a closer look at the House bill, click here.
Says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) about the bill:
Over the coming weeks, Congress will continue working with President Obama to make health care reform work for middle-class families in America….We have a path to success: lowering costs for consumers and businesses; giving greater choice to Americans, including keeping your current doctor or plan if you like them; improving the quality of your care; putting doctors, not insurance companies, back in charge.
Economists Back Health Care Reform, Two Reports Highlight Need for Public Option
Reforming the nation’s health care system to cover everyone “is essential to economic recovery,” say more than 300 leading economists and health care experts in a statement released this morning.
In addition to the statement by the economists, two new reports were released today at a news conference by the Institute for America’s Future (IAF). The reports show a health care reform plan that includes a public plan option and also requires employers to provide health coverage for their workers or pay into a fund—known as play or pay—that will likely create jobs.
Small Biz Group Says Health Care Reform Could Save Them $855 Billion
Health care reform that requires employers to provide health care coverage for workers or pay into a fund—known as pay or play—could save small businesses as much as $855 billion during the next few years.
A new study by the Small Business Majority disproves claims by health care reform opponents that requiring businesses to provide coverage to their workers would destroy their bottom line.
The Economic Impact of Health Care reform on Small Business, written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor Jonathan Gruber, says that small businesses, more than any other sector of the economy, “suffer from our broken health care system.”
From spiraling premiums to inadequate access to health care for themselves and their employees, small business owners have seen their prospects for growth diminished and their profits slashed by today’s patchwork of inefficient health care options.
