Senate May Borrow Health Finance Ideas From States
BY ARTHUR D. POSTAL
Washington Bureau -- NU Online News Service, Jan. 10, 2007, 8:14 p.m. EST

Sen. Edward Kennedy says he wants to use state health coverage expansion programs as a model for federal health insurance reform efforts.

Kennedy, D-Mass., now has succeeded Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The federal government should follow the lead of Kennedy’s state, Massachusetts, and require everyone to have health insurance, Kennedy said today at a committee hearing.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher.” Kennedy said. “Too many trends in health care are going in the wrong direction. Insurance coverage is down. Costs are up. And America is heading to the bottom of the league of major nations in important measures of the quality of care.”

Enzi, who is replacing Kennedy as the most senior minority party member on the committee, said he hopes to find bipartisan agreement with Kennedy and others on efforts to reduce health care costs, improve health care quality and expand access to care.

Enzi has been a major supporter of association health plans. He said he sees room for a compromise that would combine an AHP program with health insurance purchasing tax incentives for small businesses, low-wage businesses and employees of those businesses.

“I am prepared to seriously explore such an approach, provided it is fiscally responsible, operationally sound, and fully paid for,” Enzi said.

Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, New York, testified at the hearing that the United States now spends at least twice as much per person on health care as other major industrialized countries but is the only major industrialized country that fails to provide universal health coverage.

“One-third of families now report medical bill or medical debt problems,” Davis said.

Another witness, Pat Vredevoogd Combs, president of the National Association of Realtors, Chicago, pointed out that the percentage of NAR members without health coverage has doubled since 1996.

“As we sit here, 28% of the nation’s 1.3 million Realtors do not have health insurance,” Combs said.



My Thought Procees:
Here are some other interesting tidbits

We (USA) have the most expensive health care of all industrial nations, and the most persons left out of the health care system, and the least coverage

The new mandatory health insurance will be paid by the participant not the employer- this is an act to remove insurance as a cost or burden to corporate America

Risk will be financed between participant and the State they reside in, probably NOt, the federal government- but the Federal government will underwrite some pools of hi-risk pateint/citizens (risk management!)

The feds will underwrite those below poverty level, that is $9,800 in US, In california that = the cost of your registration and car insurance plus maybe a coupla a tanks of gas, my point, federal poverty level needs an adjustment in Calironia and most likely all states of the Union.

Now here is the real thought- how many people learned about holistic medicine based on lack of coverage - that is no access to allopathic doctors- some did indeed, educate themselves when they realized their health insurance premium could cover their alt med providers cost easily...so why pay $600 a month in health insruance premiums?

How many were not getting well and dumped their insurance to spend that premium money on other "cures"

There are now Blue Cross ploicies that are a combo of alternative and catastrophic (over 5k in expense for heart transplants etc, )these will become the norm as soon as employers are off the hook)Especially for the baby boomers and below in age brackets

There will be an increase in using allopathis when we are all paying for our own insrance costs,
This act is the Full employment act of allopathic doctors

Another Hop/thought:

Maybe if some of the interest groups like LAC's Chiro's, etc get invloved they can be included in coverage- otherwise it will worsen the already "uncovered" services of ND's , lAC's, etc.