AHIP Statement on the Release of Proposed Senate Legislation
Posted by The Campaign on November 19, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Washington, DC – Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), released the following statement today on the release of proposed Senate legislation:
“The promise of health care reform is that it will provide all Americans coverage, allow them to keep their coverage if they like it, and bends the cost curve to put the system on a sustainable path. These are the standards by which any reform bill should be judged, and the Senate bill falls short of meeting them. We believe that these issues can be addressed and improved to achieve these goals, and we will continue to work with policymakers toward that end.
“We believe that all Americans, regardless of health status or medical history, should have guaranteed access to affordable coverage. We have proposed guarantee issue coverage with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions in conjunction with a coverage requirement and adequate subsidies for working families. We also have made a commitment to do our part by proposing far-reaching administrative simplification reforms that improve efficiency, reduce costs, and free up time for physicians to focus on patient care. We stand by these commitments, but agree with a wide range of health policy experts that market reforms will not work if there is not an effective coverage requirement.
“This proposal encourages people to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage, which will significantly drive up costs for those who are currently insured. The legislation also imposes rating rules that will raise the cost of coverage for millions of young families in more than 40 states.
“The new health care taxes and fees will raise the cost of coverage for individuals, families, and employers. Health plans will be required to pay a $6.7 billion tax beginning next year for the next 10 years, in addition to ‘stabilization’ fees of $25 billion in 2014, 2015, and 2016. According to Fortune magazine’s analysis of the companies listed under ‘Insurance and Managed Care’, earnings in 2008 totaled $8.61 billion with a profit margin of 2.2% -- ranking the industry 35th on the Fortune list.
“This bill will also exacerbate the health care cost shift as health care providers offset reductions in public program reimbursements by charging more to families and employers who have private coverage. The new government plan will cause even more cost-shifting and threaten the employer-based coverage with which Americans are overwhelmingly satisfied.
“The $117 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage will threaten the choices that seniors have across the country and significantly reduce seniors’ benefits in many major metropolitan areas.
“Congress is being forced to turn to these financing mechanisms because it has been unwilling to make a commitment to specific strategies and enforceable objectives that will bend the health care cost curve downward.”
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ICYMI: Buffalo News Editorial -- Senate and House Bills Fail to Bend the Cost Curve Downard
Posted by The Campaign on November 19, 2009 at 11:05 AM
A Buffalo News editorial argues that the Senate bill fails to lower skyrocketing health care costs.
Here are a few key excerpts:
"If Americans are going to have the health care reform they urgently need, it will be because the Senate does more than the House did to control the exploding costs of care."
"But the spiraling of health care costs is the main out-and-out crisis. It threatens the health care system and the entire American economy. Without that component woven into the bill, any effort to extend coverage to the uninsured will ultimately fail, later if not sooner."
"The wordage in the House bill does not save the millions spent annually by doctors for tests and procedures to cover themselves in the event of a lawsuit. It ignores the example of states that have adopted malpractice caps. Texas, as an example, did so several years ago, and the state has had a 50 percent drop in malpractice premiums, fewer lawsuits and a sharp increase in new doctors."
"But the report [Lewin Group report] also notes that the Senate plan, as well, fails the critical test of lowering the costs of health care. Or, as the foundation put it, 'It does not bend the total health care cost curve downward as a percentage of the economy.'"
For the full article, click here.
AHIP Statement on the Letter Regarding Health Care Costs
Posted by The Campaign on November 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM
Washington, DC – Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), released the following statement today on the letter regarding health care costs:
“We welcome the opportunity to address the issue of soaring health care costs. We look forward to providing information about how, where, and why costs are rising.
“Premium increases track increases in underlying medical costs, and each state has a process for reviewing changes in premiums.
“In addition to the growth in underlying medical costs, experience has shown that cost increases have been exacerbated in states that have enacted new health care taxes and shifted more costs from public programs to the private sector by underpaying providers. This experience underscores the serious concerns we have raised about the potential unintended consequences from new federal legislation that does not bend the cost curve.”
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ICYMI: Dean of Harvard Med School Assigns a "Failing Grade" to Health-Reform Proposals
Posted by The Campaign on November 18, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School, believes Congress' legislation will markedly accelerate health-care spending while simultaneously doing little or nothing to improve quality and stifling any opportunity for innovation.
Here are a few key excerpts:
"Speeches and news reports can lead you to believe that proposed congressional legislation would tackle the problems of cost, access and quality. But that's not true. The various bills do deal with access by expanding Medicaid and mandating subsidized insurance at substantial cost...However, there are no provisions to substantively control the growth of costs or raise the quality of care. So the overall effort will fail to qualify as reform."
"In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it."
"Likewise, nearly all agree that the legislation would do little or nothing to improve quality or change health-care's dysfunctional delivery system."
For the full article, click here.
POLL VAULT: Gallup Poll Shows Overwhelming Majority of Americans Support Maintaining Health Care System Based Mostly on Private Health Plans
Posted by The Campaign on November 17, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Gallup, Nov. 5-8, 2009
"Which of the following approaches for providing health care in the United States would you prefer: replacing the current health care system with a new government-run health care system, or maintaining the current system based mostly on private insurance?"
Replace with Government-Run System (32%)
Maintain Private System (61%)
Unsure (7%)
ICYMI: Samuelson Continues to Cite Lack of Cost-Containment in Reform Bills
Posted by The Campaign on November 17, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Robert Samuelson's argument that health spending will increase under current legislation is bolstered by a recent CMS analysis. Here are a few key excerpts:
“In my Newsweek column this week (see excerpts here), I argued that-contrary to the Administration's claims-none of the various proposals now floating around Congress would reduce future budget deficits or the rapid rise in national health spending.”
“Quite the opposite: the proposals would probably increase both deficits and national health spending.”
“Now comes Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency, making the same points with a lot more detail. In a study published after my column was written, Foster estimates that H.R. 3962, which passed the House of Representatives on Nov. 7, would raise national health spending by about $289 billion from 2010 to 2019.”
For the full article, click here.
ICYMI: Reform Bills Will Increase Cost of Coverage for Small Business and Freelance Organizations
Posted by The Campaign on November 17, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Forbes magazine examines the impact reform will have on small businesses and individuals. One example the Forbes article uses is that of Sara Horowitz, the creator of the Freelancers Union, a loose affiliation of 130,000 creative workers who pool together to buy health insurance and retirement funds.
Here are a few key excerpts:
"Under new insurance regulations, Horowitz says her group may have to morph into a cookie-cutter operation that will have to accept any new customer off the street...exchanges [in the bill] will exclude groups like hers that already pool risk to get good rates. That means that Freelancers Union members may have to forgo a subsidy if they want to keep their existing coverage..."
"The bill 'violates the president's promise that it won't force you to change your coverage,' Horowitz says. 'This is a third of the workforce.'"
"The National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents 350,000 small businesses, has criticized plans for a new political body that will likely mandate expensive levels of minimum coverage."
"The bill also removes some of the tax advantages around health savings accounts, a popular way for self-employed workers to get cheaper coverage...doesn't address the unlevel insurance-buying playing field, where individuals must buy insurance using after-tax dollars, while those who get health insurance at work are never taxed for the benefit."
For the full article, click here.
ICYMI: New Report Says A Trigger Option Would Slow Down Real Reforms
Posted by The Campaign on November 17, 2009 at 9:12 AM
The Heritage Foundation’s in house health care expert Stuart Butler examines the “trigger” in a recently released report.
Here are a few key excerpts:
“…while the trigger idea may seem like a reasonable compromise, it is unworkable and would actually slow down or undermine creative solutions to coverage gaps at the state level.”
“What a trigger does is hold off reforms until future, uncertain circumstances.”
“Say a state with a high uninsured rate, such as Texas (27 percent uninsured today), makes tremendous progress in expanding coverage using innovative market-based approaches not favored by the Obama Administration and reaches 90 percent coverage. Under the trigger idea, the health czar could pull the trigger anyway and order the state to stop what it is doing and create a public plan instead.”
“Some claim that the proposed trigger is simply what Republicans used as a fallback in the 2003 Medicare drug legislation, in case private plans did not emerge. That is untrue. That legislation actually prohibited a ‘governmental entity’ or public plan as the fallback, stating that every plan sponsor must be a ‘nongovernmental entity.’”
For the full report, click here.
Poll Vault: Two New Polls Show Americans Concerned Reform Will Increase Costs
Posted by The Campaign on November 17, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Two new polls were released in the last day highlighting the growing concern that Americans have about the impact reform will have on their personal costs and costs for the entire health care system.
Here are the key results:
ABC News/Washington Post:
- By a nearly five-to-one margin (52%-11%) Americans say their personal health care costs will increase rather than decrease.
- By a nearly three-to-one margin (56%-20%) Americans say overall health care costs will increase rather than decrease.
Full poll results are here, and analysis is here.
Rasmussen:
- By a three-to-one margin Americans say the cost of health care will increase as a result of reform rather than decrease.
Full poll results are here.
ICYMI: Experts say reform without effective coverage requirement could lead to “Unintended Consequences”
Posted by The Campaign on November 16, 2009 at 7:02 PM
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on what certain provisions of reform could mean for Ohio's middle class families. The article notes that without an effective coverage requirement, many experts predict this could actually result in increased costs for families.
See below for a few key excerpts:“Leading business groups say health care reform plans before Congress that are supposed to help more businesses and individuals secure health insurance may have the opposite effect, making it cheaper for companies and taxpayers to pay fines than to buy coverage.”“Grant Bailey, a Cincinnati employee benefits consultant who advises 65 firms in Ohio and Kentucky, is convinced the proposals will make it so attractive to drop coverage that many companies won't be able to resist. If that happens, Bailey anticipates a rise in insurance costs and taxes that will squeeze middle class families.”"‘If there isn't an effective mandate that requires people to purchase coverage, it will drive up costs for everyone who buys insurance,’ warns Robert Zirkelbach of America's Health Insurance Plans, the health insurance trade association and lobbying group. ‘The fines in the bill are not effective.’"
For the full article, click here.
