Whether health reform will pass comes down to one thing, and one thing only – the CBO score.
The Congressional Budget Office is a non-partisan entity that determines (in this case) what legislation will cost. Their numbers have sent Finance Committee members scrambling back to find new sources of revenue for their ‘test’ bill and forced the House to recommend taxing the wealthy for universal coverage.
The CBO determines the cost, and Congress and the President determines if that cost is do-able. Fortunately, so far none of the ideas/bills circulated around the Hill have passed both screens.
As the debate approaches meltdown temperature over the next two weeks, watch for the CBO’s score.
Prediction – none of the current bills will pass, resulting in a desperate attempt to find an alternative, at the end of which smarter heads will finally be heard saying “Hey, What about Wyden Bennett with Laszewski’s Affordability Model?”.
That’s the only way we’ll get reform that we can afford.
Jul
20
Health care reform aside, it gives me hope that their actually is an entity in Washington DC that is actually non-partisan. God Bless them!
Healthcare reform proposed by the Federal Government may actually eliminate affordable medical insurance from the private sector entirely. While publicly funded healthcare may seem to create affordable medical insurance for more Americans, it may actually create a bigger problem.
Private medical insurance is not the enemy of affordable healthcare in the US. In fact, if the federal government creates another public healthcare program, it will ultimately raise the costs of private medical insurance to exorbitant levels. While the idea of expanded public healthcare may seem to be the answer to affordable medical insurance, it could be the end of private insurance altogether. Medicare and Medicaid, the two public health programs currently in effect, cost private insurance companies – and by extension, Americans paying premiums for private insurance- $88 billion in 2007, according to the consulting group Milliman, Inc. In fact, the average family of four with private medical insurance saw their premiums increase $1500 because of public programs. In California alone, that represents nearly 10% of every premium dollar paid.
“may actually eliminate?” how about “WILL definitely eliminate” affordable medical insurance.
Read Page 16 of the H.R. 3200 bill: “Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law”
Wow. You cant change your private plan and if you lose coverage, you cant get a new one.. bad news. We are all out of a job if this thing passes intact.
Excuse me yes will definitely eliminate affordable healthcare!!