Health Care Reform and the Economic Recovery Bill (Think Progress)

[pinto]

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/pr20090204/index.html/mobile.html

The Progress Report
by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

February 4, 2009

HEALTH CARE
Don't Withdraw Health Care Reform

<snip opening paragraph>

THE SHOW MUST GO ON: During his campaign for president and since his election, Obama has consistently said that health care reform is one of his top priorities. "The time has come -- this year, in this new administration -- to modernize our health care system for the 21st century; to reduce costs for families and businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American," Obama said last December. Noting that Daschle "had a combination of talents not easy to find in one person," The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn argued that health care reform can "go ahead, this year." However, he added, "It'd be foolish to think this development {Dachle's withdrawal} doesn't set things back. But, as one senior administration official just told me, 'the most passionate advocate for health reform in the administration is staying put -- right in the Oval Office.'" Reform has strong advocates on Capitol Hill as well. Yesterday, during a speech just before Daschle's announcement, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D- MT) said, "Getting health care reform legislation enacted this year is my top priority." Baucus later said he did not think Daschle's withdrawal would affect health reform. "The committees are going full speed ahead...and President Obama is totally committed to health care reform." Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday, "We intend to move forward with the issue."

REFORM IN RECOVERY BILL: If the economic recovery bill the House passed last week -- and the Senate is now debating -- becomes law, it would "create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid, the health program for low-income people. Spouses and children could also receive benefits, no matter how much money the family had." The bill contains over $100 billion in new spending for health care ranging from easing state burdens related to increasing Medicaid costs to improving health care quality and efficiency through increased use of electronic health records and other health information technology. The bill also contains a measure to help newly unemployed workers pay for private insurance. For decades, these workers have been allowed under COBRA to continue to purchase their employer's health care plan for up to 18 months, but at 102 percent of the cost of the premium. Unemployment benefits don't come close to helping pay those costs, resulting in more uninsured which ultimately drives costs higher. The recovery bill addresses this problem by providing "newly unemployed workers a 65 percent subsidy to help pay their COBRA coverage for up to a year." In fact, helping the newly uninsured may be one of the most popular elements of the recovery plan. A Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation poll last week found that "helping the newly unemployed pay for health insurance ranked second only to helping businesses keep or create jobs as the top priorities for President Obama and Congress."

REFORM HELPS THE ECONOMY: With Congress and the White House currently embroiled in the debate over Obama's economic recovery plan, it is important to point out that, as Baucus noted in a "Call to Action" last November, "the link between health care costs and the economy is incontrovertible." "Health care reform is not a distraction from addressing our economic challenges; health care reform is an essential part of restoring America's overall economy and the finances of our working families," he said. Just this week, Jeanne Lambrew, deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform, framed the need for health care reform "as a response to the fiscal crisis," noting that "every one percent drop in employment means 1.1 million more uninsured, larger Medicaid rolls, more people relying on COBRA as transitional insurance." She also pointed to a study "showing that half of families in foreclosure pointed to medical debt as a partial cause." Indeed, premiums have skyrocketed over the last decade, hurting both families and employers financially. As a recent New America Foundation study concluded, "We must reform our struggling health system not in spite of our economic crisis, but rather because of the impact health care has on the American economy. The economic and social impact of inaction is high and it will only rise over time." In fact, the growing health care burden has contributed significantly to U.S. automakers' dwindling profits while states are struggling to finance their health care programs as unemployment increases and tax revenues falter. Not only have health care costs contributed to the current economic crisis, the crisis threatens Americans' health. Doctors are seeing "growing evidence that the ill economy is making patients sick, spawning headaches and churning stomachs, and even causing bouts of anxiety and depression among people who never before sought psychiatric help."

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/pr20090204/index.html/mobile.html