Senate Bill Subverts Massachusetts' Attempt at Universal Health Care

[caligirl]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=64549
4/25/2006 3:32:00 PM


>WASHINGTON, April 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The viability of Massachusetts' closely-watched attempt to insure nearly all of the state's residents depends on state requirements for health insurers to take all applicants, a consumer protection that would be eliminated by legislation the U.S. Senate is expected to take a final vote on next week. Massachusetts lawmakers may vote as early as today on whether to override Gov. Romney's veto of employer responsibility and patient protection rules.

Massachusetts law requires insurance companies to offer insurance to all applicants (known as the "take all comers" rule), neither denying coverage nor pricing it entirely out of reach for those who are ill or at risk. S. 1955 (Enzi - Wyoming), would override these "community rating" laws and allow any health insurer or HMO to charge patients more because of their age, health or gender.

"This junk insurance bill is being peddled to the public as a way to cover more uninsured people, yet its chief effect would be to strip away state rate protections like Massachusetts', as well as Patients' Bills of Rights across the country," said Judy Dugan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR). "To pass such a bill during the Senate's Health Week even as Massachusetts struggles with how to enact its plan, is cynical and deceptive." Read more about the legislation here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/healthcare/pr/?postId=6148 <

[Ian David]

1. I hate Republicans. I hate them with a fire that burns. n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Well said. nt

[Sapere aude]

3. Makes you wonder why any working class person would vote for them.

It has to be that the working class is misinformed or stupid.

[Cobalt Violet]

11. Same for the middle class.

[AndyTiedye]

14. Because Their Preacher Told Them They MUST Vote Republican

A problem that gets worse every election, and is MUCH worse now with Pope Maledict,
who has placed the full weight of the Catholic Church behind the Republican party.

[caligirl]

18. Interestingly 2 catholic groups are on the 5 page list of opponents.

Catholics for Choice and NETWORK a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby http://www.nationalpartnership.org/portals/p3/library/TheUninsured/S1955/OpposedtoS1955.pdf

[AndyTiedye]

19. Glad To Hear It

I suppose Maledict will try to excommunicate them all. Time for a good schism anyway!

[sweetheart]

23. absolute authority

sycophants to authority, no matter the guise,
be it biblical, political, or military, these
suckers are browned nosed to their mature age,
that some day, they too can live forever
vicariously as the ultimate authority.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. I don't know, bush seems cartoon-like too me.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LSK]

38. so in other words conservatives are just plain dumb???

:shrug:

[AndyTiedye]

40. John Stewart Mill Nailed It!

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative."

[Bridget Burke]

34. Gosh, how interesting!

Please let me know how the Pope has "placed the full weight of the Catholic Church behind the Republican party."

Explain how the Church's opposition to Capital Punishment & Aggressive War fit the Republican platform.

[AndyTiedye]

41. Has The Current Pope Said Anything Against The War or Capital Punishment?

Perhaps I missed it.

JP2 did, but I have not heard anything from this one.

[Cobalt Violet]

10. They don't care who dies.

As long as they make more money.

[discordian]

16. They do care who dies, they very much want the sick poor to die...

It's much more profitable for these companies if you die quickly and with minimal medical care. Never ever forget, not for one second, that the sole purpose of insurance companies is to make profit. Any service they may provide is only a vehicle for profit. If you get a long term sickness, they will do everything they can to make it as stressfull as possible, in the hopes that you die quickly instead of wasting thier precious money on medical care.

I've given up, now all I do is stock up on ammunition for when the SHTF.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

39. Good idea...

Fight gas with gas, I always say.

[rodeodance]

4. the US Senate bill is being promoted by BusH-you know it is bad.

a consumer protection that would be eliminated by legislation the U.S. Senate is expected to take a final vote on next week.

[rodeodance]

5. Sample Letter of Opposition to S. 1955 (Enzi, WY)

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/healthcare/fs/?postId=6026&pageTitle=Sample+Letter+of+Opposition+to+S.+1955+%28Enzi%2C+WY%29
Sample Letter of Opposition to S. 1955 (Enzi, WY)

Dear Senator,

Re: S. 1955 - Junk Health Insurance

We are writing to urge you to oppose S. 1955 (Enzi, Wyo.) which would allow any HMO or insurer to ignore state benefit and service mandates and sell junk health insurance, often deceptively marketed as "association" or "small business" health plans. S. 1955 will allow insurance companies to override HMO Patients' Bill of Rights laws passed in 41 states.

The current attack on states' rights puts millions of patients, many of whom are business owners and self-employed, at risk in a move that amounts to national deregulation of health care.

Dana Christensen bought one of these "association health plan" policies and a special chemotherapy rider, yet was left with nearly half a million dollars in unpaid bills when her husband, Doug, died of bone cancer. These limited benefit health plans have very low maximum benefit payments and no out of pocket maximums for patients, despite fraudulent marketing that claims the plans are better than HMOs. On his death bed Doug urged Dana to divorce him to avoid liability for the bills, which she refused to do. Dana was ultimately able to hold her insurance company accountable and recover her costs under state anti-fraud laws that S. 1955 would put association health plans beyond the reach of.

Pre-empts State Oversight & Allows Junk Health Insurance

S. 1955 allows any insurer to avoid all state regulation as long as it "offers" at least one plan that provides benefits equal to those provided to state employees in one of the five most populous states. However, the bill allows an insurer to price that policy prohibitively high, thus rendering the apparent protection meaningless. Further, one of the five most populous states, Florida, recently approved a high-deductible, low-benefits health plan for state employees. Under S. 1955 any insurer could choose to offer the Florida low-benefits plan and thereby avoid all state regulation.

This massive exemption holds even if no plan that meets the minimal state requirements is actually sold and opens the door to total deregulation of the health insurance market.

[caligirl]

8. And remember, snail mail piles high email can be deleted.

I am following up my calls with hard copy letters to their stae offices. Want to avoid the time it takes to go through the capitol mail screening.

[drm604]

31. Fax it to their DC offices also.

Faxing avoids the capitol mail screening time-lag and faxes are still physical paper that can't be mass-deleted like email can.

[Delphinus]

6. Being uninsured (but not in MA)

I was really interested in this. But the plan, from what I've read and heard, doesn't really help the person. If they really want to help people they'll come up with a Universal Health Plan, like Medicare.

[caligirl]

9. Lincoln Durbin bill is based on the federal system the senators get

and its been around longer than the Enzi bill. ADA AARP and other groups visited Blanch Lincoln's office and had a briefing on it. They are supporting that instead of the Enzi bill. It offers true coverage without the stripped down policies and consumer protections stripped away.

[Massachusetts]

21. "they'll come up with "

At least its headed in the right direction....baby steps are better than no steps.

[caligirl]

7. More info here, Kennedy's office said IT WILL BE on the floor next week.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2590237&mesg_id=2590237

And thank you for all the votes.:thumbsup: :hi:

[Demeter]

12. That Didn't Take Long, Did It?

There must still be some marvelous pipelines flowing from the insurance companies to K Street and beyond....

[caligirl]

13. NFIB 's PAC is named SAFE Trust, was trying to find financial info

on them and Enzi, Burns, Nelson(Nebraska), and other sponsors of the Enzi Bill. Any idea who migh have it? I tried open secrets but I am not to good at tracking this stuff.

[YankeyMCC]

15. Sonovabitch!

WTF! When the states (in this case my home state) start to try and pick up the slack of the current 'do-nothing' federal government (in the hands of the repugs) then they get off their buts and Interfere to block our efforts!

Trying to block Cape Wind, now trying to block our health care efforts (personally I'm not convinced the current Mass plan will really be for the best but it's our f'in state our f'in plan give us a Frackin break!)

Ugg, well this thread managed to push my buttons - Frack! Frack! Frack!

[caligirl]

17. FIVE page list of organizations,and others opposing this bill, pdf.

http://www.nationalpartnership.org/portals/p3/library/TheUninsured/S1955/OpposedtoS1955.pdf

[DrBloodmoney]

20. Follow the money...

... nice to see that Congress has been bought and paid for. Glad corporate America is riding their little pony. :sarcasm:

[sidpleasant]

22. Sounds like Bush is intentionally messing with Romney's '08 chances

The MA health care plan was going to be the big accomplishment upon which Romney would stake his 2008 GOP primary campaign. Looks like Bush and his tool Frist are pulling that rug out from under Romney. Romney has precisely zero chance of winning the GOP nomination anyway (the Mormon Romney is practically a pagan in the eyes of the fundamentalist Christians who vote in GOP primaries, and he'll be tagged as the governor who allowed gay marriage in his state) but this looks like Bush is playing favorites already. I guess hugging Bush in public is paying off for McCain.

[lastliberalintexas]

24. What a BS headline

Mass didn't attempt universal healthcare, they're trying to force universal insurance purchases. Big difference there.

[SoCalDem]

32. Exactly.. Here in CA we have mandatory auto insurance, BUT

the "minimum" is so ridiculous, it's not even worth mentioning.. I think it's still $5K, and it's only really necessary when you register the vehicle and /or get a DL. There are brazillions of fly-by-nighters who offer it by the month.. Once a premium's missed, the policy is cancelled, so at any given time there are many people driving without it anyway.

My son and I went round & round over this.. We made him pay the difference when we covered him on our MAXIMUM coverage policy.. He squealed and squealed about how his FRIENDS only had the minimum and how cheap it was.. We reminded him that his having a DL was NOT worth us loding our house if he hit a brand new BMW..

When he went out on his own? MAX coverage was the way he went too :)

[DS1]

25. The MA bill was just punishment for being poor

If you worked in a crap job with no health bennies, you'd get fined. Add that to the blowout gas prices, and you'd have unemployment out the wazoo.

[Ciggies and coffee]

26. The $1000 fine for individuals who don't become insurance clients

Is curiously absent in this article.

[ramapo]

27. Sounds like NJ gets screwed too

We have pretty good protection here...no denial of benefits, no preexisting conditions (as long as coverage was in effect, limited if no previous coverage, group ratings, etc.

[ieoeja]

30. Amendment X

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."


So which are the conservative champions of the 10th Amendment upholding here: the powers of the states or the rights of the people? Given that this state law increases the rights of the people, it would appear they are defending neither. And so, once again, they act in opposition of the 10th Amendment.

[Festivito]

33. BCBS had this rule & dropped it. NO other group ever got same permission.

Blue Cross Blue Shield was given special breaks because they would insure anyone. They dropped their special right, and that right was never given to any other company.

They want this kind of right GONE FORGOTTEN AND BURRIED alongside the democratic people they kill.

[caligirl]

36. came across this at another blog site, simple but very effective.

Well, in an ideal world, yse, "some things might get dropped". Reality of the bill is though, so long as insurance companies provide ONE plan, regardless of how unaffordable, that covers the state minimums (ie, offers coverage for cancer screenings, maternity, maybe diabetes supplies, cancer treatments, etc etc), they can offer as many plans as they like with NO coverage of those things.

So basically, Insurance Company, Inc. decides to make their one required plan cost, say, 15 times what the rest of their plans cost. Their other plans leave out all that extraneous nonsense that no one needs anyway, you know, prostate exams, mammograms, little minor things like that, and is super-affordable! Nevermind that people are either paying out of pocket for their cancer checkups, for maternity coverage, for birth control.


Point is, as long as the insurance company offers one single solitary plan that covers it all, they can offer as many empty, flimsy, paper-thin plans as they like, with as many conditions on them as they see fit. How's about an insurance plan that only covers you, say, on weekdays for emergency room coverage? Sound good? Or one that only covers X-rays on the third Tuesday of the month?

Of course, unless you take the time to read the 400,000 pages of paperwork that accompany the plan, you'll never notice that until you get to the ER on a Sunday with that leg broken in three places.


My example is a hyperbole, clearly, but it illustrates the point--that's the sort of thing we're flirting with by allowing insurance companies to completely bypass state regulations. The states are there for a reason--let them do their jobs.