President Obama Pushes Healthcare Reform, Though Lawmakers Question the Cost
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, JUNE 17, 2009
President Obama addressed the American Medical Association in Chicago on Monday to gain support for healthcare reform, while in Washington, legislators weighed details of universal coverage as well as spending cuts and new taxes that would fund the $1 trillion undertaking.
The Senate Finance Committee is working on a plan that would allow private health-insurance companies to compete to offer coverage. The same plan would dictate that all Americans would have to have insurance or face penalties of up to 75% of the cost of the least expensive plan. These specifics are still being negotiated, though Sen. Max Baucus said he wanted to have the legislation ready for a committee vote next week. In the House, the Democrats on Ways and Means Committee were considering a broad VAT tax (a consumption tax) or a combination or smaller taxes, which could threaten the president's pledge to avoid raising taxes for households with annual income less than $250,000.
These discussions continued as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that a proposal from Democrats on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would reduce the number of uninsured only by a net of 16 million people. The Budget Office concluded that in 2017, 36 million people would be uninsured.
So far, President Obama has proposed about $950 billion in spending cuts to cover the costs of universal coverage, including $313 billion from Medicare and Medicaid payments announced over the weekend. These reductions would primarily affect hospitals, which could be problematic if numbers of uninsured remain high, since part of the savings would come from reduced payments to hospitals who treat lower-income patients.
Though President Obama has previously vowed to pass healthcare reform legislation in 2009, this legislation is clearly in a nascent state, and concerns about costs are drawing criticism. It is apparent there is more negotiating to be done in Congress, and it's unknown at this point how the legislation will look when it is formally proposed. HHS head Kathleen Sebelius reminded reporters on Tuesday that actual implementation for a reform package, if it passes, is a long way off: change would happen in phases, which could perhaps offset some of the costs, and could last into the next presidential term in 2013.
