This morning Nancy Pelosi released the health care reform bill that the full House of Representatives will consider. Congressman Frank Pallone (NJ6) put out this statement:
"This is history in the making for health care in America," said Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., a key author. "Once these reforms are enacted, every American will be able to take comfort in the knowledge they will have access to affordable health care and that insurance coverage won't be denied or taken away. Good health care is a basic need shared by all Americans, this will make it a basic right for everyone."
I had the chance to join Pallone's conference call for the media this afternoon. The messages I took away were:
Pallone is happy with this bill, says it refects for the most part the bil passed by his Energy and Commerce committee. When asked what disappoints him, he says "nothing."
He emphasizes that many aspects of reform will take effect immediately. In particular, rescissions, denial of pre-existing coonditions, and lifetime limits on coverage will be banned. He raised the point that some (certainly not all) of the protections exist in New Jersey state law already, but insurers will find it harder to evade federal law as they now do state law. |
| He praises the new revenue source, the millionaire's tax. First, he strongly prefers to the Senate Finance Committee's tax on valuable health insurance plans. Second, the revision of the millionaire's tax to the highest incomes (compared to previous versions) protects New Jersey, which as a high income state could be dispropotionately affected by a tax that went down to $300K/yr in income or the tax on health care plans. He also was quite firm as saying they are not "cutting Medicare," but rather going after waste, fraud and abuse.
The exchanges and public option will go into effect in 2013, but he noted that an interim high risk pool will help many presently uninsured people until those options are available. I recommend this dailykos poll for more on these reforms, including increased funding for Community Health Centers which Pallone forgot to mention. Also, Pallone reminded us that most people in the exchanges will likely choose private insurance.
The public option rates will be "negotiated," but they can go as low as Medicare reimbursement rates or as high as the local average of private insurance. Pallone notes that this will likely prevent most doctors from "opting out" as they might for a lower reimbursement rates. Based on conversations with South Jersey doctors, I'd say thats' a very good point.
There is no state "opt-out" in the House bill, but Pallone claims to be very unconcerned with whether or not one is in the final bill. He does not believe states will opt out, and I imagine he envisions an opt-out that is possible only after the program starts (say in 2014.) I believe the quote was ""as far as I'm concerned, it's never happen."
Federal funds will not pay for abortions, and money used for abortion coverage will be segregrated from the subsidies. What exactly this means is not clear to me. Illegal immigrants will not get subsidies, and proof of legal residence will be needed. Pallone dismisses this as an issue ,saying that Medicare/Medicaid don't have significiant fraud from such people. 96% of the population are expected to be covered under the bill, the remainder being largely the illegal immigrants. They wll continue to get emergency care in hospitals.
I'll add that if you are looking for a rebellion from the Left on this bill, it's obvious that Pallone has no interest in one. He strongly supports this reform package. |
