American Retired Seniors

A clear summary of HR 3200.  Revising the health care industry in the United States is no easy task.  It has been a topic on the ‘table’ in America for decades.  Unfortunately, the Insurance Industry, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Republican Party are attempting to scare Americans with falsehoods and outright dishonesty in order to protect the very industry who contributes millions of dollars to their personal campaign coffers and to continue the huge profits the companies rake in from hardworking, taxpaying Americans.  They have even gone so far as to say the nationalization of health care is going to absolutely kill senior citizens. This is untrue; it is a conspiracy by the very people trying to protect their salaries and profits, putting their politics over the health of Americans.  This will be discussed further in this article.When one hears the ‘government wants to take over health care’, that is a false claim.  The government is only seeking to offer Americans a choice and bring in competition to offset the huge premiums and health care costs Americans face each day.  Today, an American family pays over $12,000 a year for health care coverage and then pays additional out of pocket deductibles, fees and prescriptions which can run into additional thousands of dollars.

For example FierceHealthcare reports the following top 10 CEO salaries for 2008.

• Ron Williams – Aetna – Total Compensation: $24,300,112.
• H. Edward Hanway – CIGNA – Total Compensation: $12,236,740.
• Angela Braly – WellPoint – Total Compensation: $9,844,212.
• Dale Wolf – Coventry Health Care – Total Compensation: $9,047,469.
• Michael Neidorff – Centene – Total Compensation: $8,774,483.
• James Carlson – AMERIGROUP – Total Compensation: $5,292,546.
• Michael McCallister – Humana – Total Compensation: $4,764,309.
• Jay Gellert – Health Net – Total Compensation: $4,425,355.
• Richard Barasch – Universal American – Total Compensation: $3,503,702.
• Stephen Hemsley – UnitedHealth Group – Total Compensation: $3,241,042.

Some Statistics:

• Health care costs have gone up 86% since 1996. American families cannot afford this.
• A family of 4 now has to pay on average $12,000 a year just for health insurance.
• In 20 years the cost could be half the gross income of a family spent on health care premiums.
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, firms offering health benefits to workers dropped 50% from 1998 to 2008 and annual family insurance premiums rose from $5791 in 1998 to $12,680 in 2008.
• About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs.
• Approximately, 1.7 million men have lost employer-provided health insurance from their jobs as of February 2009.
• As many as 14,000 Americans are losing health coverage each day!

A USA Today/Gallup poll finds 56% of Americans in favor and 33% opposed to Congress’ passing major healthcare reform legislation this year. Support for healthcare reform before the end of the year is sharply split along party lines, with 79% of Democrats in favor, compared with only 23% of Republicans.

Health Care Plan Will Not Kill Seniors and these claims are absolutely false. Page 425 can be found in Section 1233 of the full text of HR 3200 here.  The Republicans chose to misconstrue the section.

You can read the full section for yourself but nowhere in the language of the bill does it say seniors are forced to undergo end of life consultations.  In reality, what the section does is expand benefits to include advanced care planning so that if seniors want to see a doctor or nurse to, for example, be consulted on how to make a living will they can do so but are not forced to do so.  The bill expands Medicare benefits to include such consultations.  So in reality HR 3200 lets seniors, by their own choice, go to practitioner to find out about living wills, power of attorney, or health care proxies and have such visits covered by Medicare.

However, in order to scare people from reform the Republicans are twisting and torturing the language of this section to mean something it does not.

Ryan Witt, a St. Louis Political Buzz Examiner presents an articulate examination and explanation of HR 3200 from 1) the following MSNBC article provides an excellent timetable of what would happen under the health care reform bill.  2^nd) this article by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post does an excellent job of explaining the major sections of the legislation.  3^rd) Finally this summary by the House member staff provides the most detailed summary I have found.

I.  How will people get insurance?

The plan will basically create a marketplace full of plans anyone can choose from.  You still have to purchase the coverage but eventually no one could be denied because of the dreaded pre-existing condition.  One of the insurance plans you could purchase would be a “public option” that is provided by the government and would cover the most basic of services and medical needs.  Which services will be included?  A panel headed by the Surgeon General would decide.  This all would not be in full operation until 2013 at the earliest.

II. What about people who already have insurance?

They can keep it.  No really they can.  Even the conservative Wall Street Journal concedes that current plans would remain.  Eventually, however, these plans would have to meet the federal requirement to provide the same benefits as the public option.  In addition, the private plans would have to spend a certain amount of the premiums they collect on paying out claims.  Republicans argue that private plans will not be able to compete and that they will be driven out business.  Democrats obviously disagree.

III. But how will poor people be able to afford any of the plans?

The government will give some people credits to be able to purchase  the plans.  The poorer one is the larger their credit would be with the poorest of the poor having coverage almost entirely paid for.  Medicare and Medicaid would be expanded to cover more of the population than they current do.  The plan limits how much anyone would pay total for health care so in the event of catastrophe each individual would pay a maximum of $5,000 out-of-pocket.  Finally, in theory the increased competition from the public option would help keep costs under control and make plans affordable.  This obviously is a point of contention for Republicans.

IV. Does everyone have to get insurance?

Yes or else.  The “else” is a penalty of 2.5% of your gross income.  Large employers also have to either provide insurance or pay a fee to the government for each employee not covered.  Small employers are exempted on a sliding scale from this requirement.

V.  What about preventing illness?

The bill tries to do this by basically funding community health centers and wellness initiatives.  The language is vague but basically community health centers would be setup to encourage healthy lifestyles and preventative wellness.

VI. What about cost controls?

A number of measures are adopted to try to reduce costs.  First the program tries to provide incentives that reward efficiency and primary care within Medicare.  The emphasis throughout the plan is setting up a system where the government gets the most value for every dollar spent.  Basically accountability organizations would be setup that determines how efficient providers are and the most efficient providers would get more money.  Finally, the bill will simplify the paperwork process and also attempt to decrease fraud by implementing more oversight.

VII. How does all this get paid for?

That is literally the trillion dollar question.  Right now the plan is mostly paid for with anticipated savings from Medicaid and Medicare and a tax on the rich.  The tax would begin with a 1% hike for those making $350,000 and eventually would reach a 5.4% increase for those making over $1,000,000 a year.  This part of the plan is still be negotiated and may be the most likely to change.

Conclusion:

So there you have it.  Some 650 pages summed up in about two typed pages.  Some details were of course excluded for the sake of brevity but that is the heart and soul of the health care reform bill as it stands now.  Now that we all are more knowledgeable let the debates begin.

Beware of the scare tactics, perfected by the Bush Administration, where Americans were lied to about war, WMDs, and the like.  Coming to a TV commercial new you, will be the likes of Karl Rove, Tony Perkins who will scare Americans that HR 3200 supports abortion, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michele Maukin, Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly, Sen. John Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, Sen. Mitch McConnell and many other Republicans.  Remember they had the last 8 years to fix health care but chose to spend $1 trillion dollars to rebuild Iraq.

Then there is Rep, Republican John Kyl of Arizona who will says the Health Insurance industry is already ‘regulated enough”; (insurance companies do not need to be kept honest).  Remember it was United Health Insurance Company who was found to be underpaying doctors and hospitals by Attorney General Holder, and UHI settled for $400 million dollars.

The Senate Commerce Committee opened an investigation which revealed in June 2009, that Health Insurance Companies throughout America were underpaying millions of valid and legitimate health insurance claims cheating both patients and doctors out of care from both patients and doctors. (Sure Health Insurance does not need regulating?)  Read Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Who opposes Health Care Reform; Insurance Companies, Washington Lobbyists and Republicans.

HR 3200 is supported by the American Medical Association and Doctors for America and:

Some of the Organizations expressing support for HR 3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009

AARP

AFSCME

AFL-CIO

AIDS Institute

American Academy of Dermatology and AAD Association

American Academy of Family Physicians

American Academy of Nursing

American Association of Retired Persons

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists American College of Physicians

American College of Surgeons American Medical Association

American Medical Association

American Medical Student Association / Foundation American Osteopathic Association American Psychiatric Association American Public Health Association

Association for Community Affiliated Plans

Association of Departments of Family Medicine

Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors

Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology

Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials

Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

California Primary Care Association Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

California Nurses Association

Center for Medicare Advocacy

Coalition of Full Service Community Hospitals Communications Workers of America

Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities:

ACCSES

Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

American Association of People with Disabilities

American Association on Health and Disability

American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association

American Network of Community Options and Resources

American Occupational Therapy Association

American Therapeutic Recreation Association

Amputee Coalition of America

Association of University Centers on Disabilities

Autism Society

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Brain Injury Association of America

Burton Blatt Institute 2

Council for Exceptional Children

Council of Parent Attorney’s and Advocates

Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

Easter Seals

Epilepsy Foundation

Family Voices

Helen Keller National Center

Higher Education Consortium for Special Education

Lutheran Services in America

Mental Health America

National Alliance on Mental Illness

National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics and Prosthetics

National Association of State Head Injury Administrators

National Coalition on Deaf-Blindness

National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare

National Council on Independent Living

National Disability Rights Network

National Down Syndrome Congress

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

National Respite Coalition

National Spinal Cord Injury Association

Paralyzed Veterans of America

The Arc of the United States

United Cerebral Palsy

United Spinal Association

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Doctors for America Families USA Healthcare for America Now

Doctors for America

Infectious Diseases Society of America

International Association of Fire Fighters International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Main Street Alliance

March of Dimes

MoveOn.Org National Association of Community Health Centers

National Association of County & City Health Officials National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans

National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare

National Education Association National Medical Association

National Jewish Democratic Council

National Physicians Alliance National Women’s Law Center

North American Primary Care Research Group

Patient and Consumer Coalition

Breast Cancer Action

Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund (of the National Research Center for Women & Families)

Center for Medical Consumers

Consumers Union

Government Accountability Project (GAP)

National Consumers League

National Women’s Health Network 3

Our Bodies Ourselves

THE TMJ Association

U.S. PIRG

Pew Charitable Trusts & Community Catalyst SEIU

Physicians for a National Health Program

Service Employees International Union

Society of General Internal Medicine

Society of Hospital Medicine

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America

Special Olympics

Trust for America’s Health United American Nurses United Auto Workers United Steelworkers

US Preventive Medicine

US Women’s Chamber of Commerce

Voices for America’s Children YMCA

A letter from 303 Organizations Supporting HR 3200′s public health and prevention strategies

Filed under: Senior Health Care