Pelosi to Reveal House Healthcare Bill
(April 2, 2009 - Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and distinguished Representative from California is set to release Pelosicare this morning and the eyes of America will be on Capitol Hill where she is expected to announce her proposal for the most overreaching expansion of government in our nation’s history. After weeks of closed door negotiations, the Speaker is finally ready to share with the country what she has kept “secret” for weeks. In fairness, who are we kidding? We know what is going to be in this bill, and we know that it will cost far more in dollars and cents than anyone will be able to predict; and perhaps far more in terms of individual liberty than anyone should tolerate.
So what will this bill look like? Just as every other “secret” on Capitol Hill is revealed before the big day, much of Pelosicare leaked to the press yesterday and this morning with the dubious label of “on the condition of anonymity.” So if we assume that isn’t just a bunch of arrogant writers making stuff up and attributing it to that “anonymous” guy, then this is what you can expect to hear this morning.
First of all this thing will be big and it will come fast. Apparently Pelosi was uncomfortable waiting until 2013 for many of the provisions of this bill to take effect and will call for them to be implemented immediately. The bill will strip the insurance industry of its antitrust exemption in market allocation, price-fixing, and bid-rigging, and would allow the Federal Trade Commission to investigate/monitor the insurance industry at its leisure.
Then there is the good stuff. The bill will create an “exchange” that will provide for those previously uninsured. The bill for this will be paid by tax payers of course through tax credits offered as “incentives” for uninsured Americans to sign up….As if they have a choice….The bill will require every American to have an employer, government provided, or exchange-purchased health insurance plan by 2013 or they will face penalties from the federal government. (this is where they tax via fine). Individuals are not alone in the fining department though. All employers will be required to provide health insurance or they too will be fined (in addition to payroll tax, capital gains tax, state and local tax, etc).
The only real concession to moderates, or those on Capitol Hill with half a brain, appears to be a modest one at best. The bill will reportedly require the government to compete “evenly” with the private sector when negotiating payments schedules/rates with doctors and hospitals. This will prevent the government plan from operating so cheaply that it drives the private health insurance industry into the tank. This was a concession by the super-libs who wanted the plan to act as Medicare does requiring hospitals to pay a lower rate.
The bill will also dramatically increase Medicare, but will do little to alleviate the costs / burden placed on the 50 states. The House bill will not have an “opt-out” clause that the Senate version possessed. I guess they needed to leave something out there for compromise. The bill will have to be merged with the Senate version – that is assuming that both Houses can pass a bill. After debate and an amendment process, there should be a vote in both Houses within the next two weeks.
I will be glued to the set to watch Pelosi as she releases her plan for the D-day attack on healthcare and I will be sure to update you as reports of casualties come rolling in.
FOX News “I’m pretty confident that we’ve got the right pieces in place,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, one of the three panels involved in writing the bill. “We can quibble over parts of it, but the fact is when you’re taking a 60-year-old system that grew up in a rather haphazard fashion and you’re trying to bring some coherence to it, these are sort of the things you have to do at the beginning of that process.”
House leaders want to begin debate on their bill next week, with the aim of finishing before Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11. The Senate is aiming to start debate sometime in the next several weeks.
In the end, Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House leaders were unable to round up the necessary votes for their preferred version of the government insurance plan — one that would base payment rates to providers on rates paid by Medicare. Instead, the Health and Human Services secretary would negotiate rates with providers, the approach preferred by moderates and the one that will be featured in the Senate’s version.
That marked a defeat for liberal lawmakers, who argued for months that a public insurance plan tied to Medicare would save more money for the government, and offer cheaper rates to consumers. Moderates feared that doctors, hospitals and other providers, particularly those in rural states, would be hurt, and in the end they looked poised to prevail, despite constituting a distinct minority in the 256-member House Democratic caucus.
“We were laughed at in August. Who would have thought that the Senate bill would have a public option?” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Woolsey was noncommittal about whether progressives would accept the negotiated rates. “This is not walkaway time and it is not acceptance time,” Woolsey said.
The legislation would set up a new purchasing exchange where small businesses and individuals without affordable health care options could shop for and compare insurance plans. The new public plan would be one offering in the exchange, and it would be optional; an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of early versions of the bill said that the public plan would be expected to cover 9 million to 10 million people by 2019.
Republican House members quickly attacked the legislation as a government takeover.
“Americans health care is too important to risk on one gigantic bill that was negotiated behind closed doors,” said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich. “The Medicare cuts will hurt seniors, the tax increases will kill jobs and the government takeover of health care will increase premium costs.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned a formal announcement Thursday morning, but details were still being finalized, lawmakers and aides said. Officials said the legislation could be up for a vote on the House floor next week.
The rollout would cap months of arduous negotiations to bridge differences between liberal and moderate Democrats and blend health care overhaul bills passed by three separate committees over the summer. The developments in the House came as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried to round up support among moderate Democrats for his bill, which includes a modified government insurance option that states could opt out of.
Reid met Thursday with Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who faces a potentially tough re-election next year.
The final product in the House, reflecting many of President Barack Obama’s priorities, includes new requirements for employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties, fines on Americans who don’t purchase coverage and subsidies to help lower-income people do so. Insurance companies would face new prohibitions against charging much more to older people or denying coverage to people with health conditions.
The price tag, topping $1 trillion over 10 years, would be paid for by taxing high-income people and cutting some $500 billion in payments to Medicare providers. The legislation would extend health coverage to around 95 percent of Americans.
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