MARCH 5, 2010

This Week in Health Insurance Reform

This week, President Barack Obama continued to pressure lawmakers to pass a final health insurance
reform bill, calling for its passage through reconciliation, a process
which only requires the support of a simple majority. Republicans
continued to oppose the President's proposal , vowing to fight the
expedited reconciliation process, while House Democratic leaders began
intense internal discussions to rein in the needed votes.

Health Care Reform Negotiations

Health
Care Summit Ends in Stalemate: Last Thursday , President Obama and
congressional leaders spent nearly seven hours debating how to overhaul
the U.S. health care system. Republicans argued against this new
proposal, labeling it a government takeover and suggesting a more
incremental approach. The philosophical differences between the parties
were evident throughout the summit and remained unchanged at day's end.
As predicted, no new agreement was reached, and Democratic leaders left
the meeting determined to press forward with or without bipartisan
support.

Tensions Increase Between the President and
Congressional Republicans: After last week's health care reform summit,
which displayed deep rifts between both Democrats and Republicans, the
President sent a letter Tuesday to Congressional leaders. In the
letter, the President offered to incorporate a handful of Republican
ideas into his bill, including: the expansion of health savings
accounts; increases to Medicaid reimbursements to doctors; the
implementation of undercover investigations to combat fraud in the
Medicare system, and increases in funding for grants to states to
explore alternatives to resolve medical malpractice lawsuits.

Republicans
rejected his proposal, calling his bill "unsalvageable," and asked him
to listen to the American people and start the process from scratch.

President
Obama Calls for Passage through Reconciliation: On Wednesday, the
President stepped up the pressure, urging lawmakers to finish work on
health care reform legislation. He encouraged them to ignore the
politics of the issue, saying, "I do not know how this plays
politically, but I know it's right."

Additionally, the President
expressed his support for using the reconciliation process to prevent a
Republican filibuster. The process would involve legislators in the
Senate working with House members to develop a reconciliation package.
This package of "fixes" would only require a simple majority vote in
the Senate, as opposed to the 60 votes usually required to pass
legislation. Democrats can no longer rely on the normally required 60
votes to pass the bill , due to the election last fall of Republican
Senator Scott Brown.

Republicans continued to express strong
opposition for the reconciliation tactic, saying that it was never
intended for such important legislation; it raises the specter of
unlimited amendments and challenges to the bill's provisions.

Democrats
Work to Shore Up Votes: Democrats continued to work behind closed doors
to garner enough votes to pass the Senate bill before the congressional
Easter recess, which begins March 29, a deadline set by the President.
A number of issues continue to present challenges for Democratic
leaders, including Medicaid funding, immigration and abortion funding.

Abortion
Issue Looms over Health Care Reform Bill: As final legislation begins
to take shape, the debate around the use of federal funds for abortions
continues to draw rancor from both sides of the issue.Currently, the
new legislative package contains less restrictive language on federal
funding of abortion, which diverges from the language included in the
version passed by the House last fall. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), a
leader among anti-abortion Democrats, has intimated that this new
language could cost House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the 10 to12 votes
that she needs to pass the bill. On the other side, supporters of
abortion rights fear the inclusion of more restrictive language.

Additional Activities

Jobs
Bill Extends COBRA Coverage and Medicare Payments: This week, both the
House and Senate passed bills giving unemployed Americans another month
of health care coverage through COBRA and protecting physicians from a
looming 21 percent cut in Medicare fees. This measure will now go to
President Obama, as debate begins on a much broader bill that would
extend the safety net programs through the end of the year.

House
Energy and Commerce Committee Expands Investigation into Rate
Increases: After recently examining the rate increases proposed by
Anthem Blue Cross in California, House legislators signaled their
intention to expand the investigation by summoning the chief executives
of the nation's four largest for-profit health insurance companies to
testify before the committee on the topic of preexisting conditions.
The top executives at WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna
have been invited to appear before the Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations on March 23.

White House Meeting with Insurers:
On Thursday, five health plan CEOs and representatives of the National
Association of Insurance Commissioners met with Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the White House to discuss
insurance premium increases and rising health care costs. The President
also stopped by the meeting.

Public Opinion

Americans
Support Incremental Steps to Reform: In a newly released Rasmussen
Reports survey , 52 percent of American voters continue to oppose the
health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional
Democrats. Further, 63 percent of those polled believe that passing
smaller, more targeted bills is a better strategy for achieving health
care reform. In addition, just over half think that health care costs
will rise if the current plan passes into law. Only 17 percent are
convinced that the plan will decrease health care costs.

Editorials
Point to Failed Massachusetts Health Care Experiment: Also this week,
both the Wall Street Journal and Boston Herald featured opinion pieces
pointing to the high costs of health care in Massachusetts, which
passed its own version of universal care in 2006. Talk radio host
Michael Graham in the Boston Herald pointed out that the Massachusetts
plan is already $47 million over budget this year, saying, "It's
killing us on costs: Average Massachusetts premiums are the highest in
the nation and rising. We also spend 27 percent more on health care
services, per capita, than the national average."

Looking Ahead

The
next major step will be for Senators to send the reconciliation bill to
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for a cost estimate, which could
take days or even weeks to finalize. As Democratic leaders continue to
lock down a strategy on the process, timing and substance of the bill,
President Obama plans to travel to Philadelphia and St. Louis next week
to discuss the importance of the bill's passage. www.easytoinsureme.com