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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 03:24 AM
Original message
Obama Supports National Health Insurance Exchange
WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators working on President Barack Obama's health overhaul bill appear likely to drop a proposed income tax increase on high-wage earners and possibly jettison a requirement for large businesses to offer coverage to their employees, Democratic officials said Tuesday.

Negotiators are considering extending the Medicare payroll tax, which now applies only to income from wages, to cover some of the investment earnings of couples making more than $250,000 a year, and individuals earning above $200,000. That could make up lost revenue from dropping the high-wage income tax and scaling back a proposed tax on high-value insurance plans, which is strongly opposed by organized labor and House Democrats.

On another high-profile issue, the negotiators are discussing a hybrid of a proposed national insurance exchange contained in the House bill and the state-by-state approach favored by the Senate. House Democrats are pressing for a national system to apply pressure to the insurance industry after their proposal for a new government-run insurance option was ruled out due to opposition from Senate moderates.

These officials also said key lawmakers and the White House were hoping to include more money to protect state governments from the cost of an expansion of the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor. That issue flared after Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., the critical 60th vote for the health care bill in the Senate, got a deal for the federal government to pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion in his state forever, whereas other states would have to pick up part of the tab after a few years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/obama-supports-national-h_n_420688.html

Well, finally! This is the first time I've seen the President endorse items from the House side.

The article goes on to state he is looking for a way to 'tweak' the excise tax on high priced benefits. One proposal was to, possible, exempt high priced plans that are part of union contracts. The unions do not favor that approach as they want to see union and non union workers protected and do not want to be seen as getting special treatment (well, there goes the idea the unions were just out for themselves). What I think will, likely, emerge from this is they will raise the amount of the premiums which will be subject to the tax.

President Obama is also said to favor the more generous subsidies of the House version and revoking the anti trust exemption (good).

Another item, reported in other articles today are that the employer mandate from the House probably will, likely, be dropped. The Senate bill does not have an employer mandate but would penalize companies whose employees receive government assistance (subsidies) to help with their premiums. This, IMO, would lead to problems with employers not hiring the poor. For instance single mothers would probably have a hard time finding work (bad).

Other issues you might consider letting your reps and the White House know about are: the wellness programs which will allow insurance companies to charge you higher rates if you don't meet certain goals (essentially a way to charge more for those with preexisting conditions or health concerns), the annual limits loophole, the loophole allowing rescissions.

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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 03:27 AM
Response to Original message
1. Kick and your first Rec. Looks like things are finally moving. Your last paragraph ...
Edited on Wed Jan-13-10 03:28 AM by Hekate
... is an important action item as well.

Hekate
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 03:39 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Thanks for the rec. The bill is still a monster but it's nice to see the President stand up
...for a couple of the progressive measures the House bill contains. I think the unions had an impact. And, as some of the House reps told him a couple of days ago, it's all well and good for the White House and Senate to decide to piss off the unions but they don't all have to face a reelection campaign in November. Nice to see the unions reject the idea of carving their members out of the excise tax provision saying they want to protect all workers, not just union workers. Kind of goes along with my belief that strong union presence benefits all workers.
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thotzRthingz Donating Member (585 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:48 AM
Response to Reply #2
7. re: "The bill is still a monster..." (I agree, and I am not very impressed with OBAMA
finally throwing a crumb to those of us who think we've been badly betrayed by him). Go back to his campaign and even post his oath-of-office... and he insisted that a "public option" was essential to any real reform. This "crumb" is going to make me forget that? I think not!

An "EXCHANGE" does nothing to control costs... also see: "the current health care DEFORM monstrosity" @ http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7453580

P.S.

KILL THIS BILL and give us a SINGLE PAYER system!
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shopgreen Donating Member (190 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 03:55 AM
Response to Original message
3. He supported a robust PO also. and...
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 04:02 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. I think he abandoned that early on. Now, we're down to the wire
I suspect he will get most of what he asks for at this point with small concessions. I, frankly, think he's gotten everything he really stood up for all along. I'm not happy with this bill but, like I said, this is the first I've seen him support anything from the House side against the Senate. So, little victories.
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thotzRthingz Donating Member (585 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:53 AM
Response to Reply #3
9. re: "He supported a robust PO also" ayup, that he did... and quite emphatically too!
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freddie mertz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 08:21 AM
Response to Reply #9
13. That was a bit of an "exaggeration," depending on what your idea of "support" is...
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thotzRthingz Donating Member (585 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 08:49 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. I suppose it could have just been the typical "smoke & mirrors" politics... but, I took him at his
WORD (and a man's "word" means everything, in my world). Here's but one example, to watch, of what OBAMA said he thought to be the best way toward HCR:

Obama tells doctors: ‘The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend.’

Last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) registered its opposition to a key plank of President Obama’s health reform efforts — the creation of a public health insurance plan. At the same time, Senate Democrats have begun backing away from a public plan and instead gravitating towards a proposal to create a non-profit co-operative. Media reports have suggested that the White House may be warming to the idea of dropping the public plan. But today, in a speech before the AMA convention, Obama reiterated his strong support for a truly national public health insurance plan:

OBAMA: If you don’t like your health coverage or don’t have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we’re calling a Health Insurance Exchange. … And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

Obama told the physicians, “The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend, I believe.” Watch it:

source: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/obama-public-plan-friend/


note: we're talking PRESIDENT (not "candidate") OBAMA... other examples:

"But, I can tell you, as I’ve been very clear about before, I continue to believe a robust public option is the best way to go." - President Barack Obama, July 20, 2009

"Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange -- a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs, and track records of a variety of plans -- including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest." - President Barack Obama, July 17, 2009


Bottom-line? If President Obama really believed that the PUBLIC OPTION was the best way to go... why isn't he insisting upon it? He *had* (and, unfortunately, I think that's the reality now) the might to get it done! I think his backing-off of REAL HCR will also mean he has NO means of getting anything else, of real importance, done.

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freddie mertz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 09:00 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. I agree. I had a whole thread on the pres's lies and reversals on this.
I don't really believe me on anything anymore.

Which is a problem.
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RC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:13 AM
Response to Original message
5. Insurance is the basic problem.
Why is no one looking at and discussing what the rest of the industrialized world is doing? The real solution is being pointedly ignored. The powers that be either totally ignore Single Payer, Universal Health Care or dance around the obvious like the large elephant in the room that it is.
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thotzRthingz Donating Member (585 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:49 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. re: "Insurance is the basic problem." -- SPOT ON!
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mmonk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:32 AM
Response to Original message
6. Thanks.
Looks like there may be a few victories in there.
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Phoebe Loosinhouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 07:58 AM
Response to Original message
10. Thank God! A patchwork of 50 state exchanges is exactly the kind of
redundancy that HCR was supposed to eliminate.

I see people trying to say that state exchanges will be regulated more than a National one and that a National exchange is a deregulation, but I simply don't buy it. If state regulation of insurers was up to the job, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in right now. I believe very much that a citizen of Virginia and a citizen of Florida should be offered the same choices when it comes to insurers or plans and I believe that Federal regulators on the whole do a better job than state regulators and have more teeth and enforcement tools at their hands.
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thotzRthingz Donating Member (585 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 08:18 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. "If state regulation of insurers was up to the job, we wouldn't be in the situation we are" - amen!
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freddie mertz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 08:20 AM
Response to Original message
12. For once, the president sides with the lesser of two evils on HCR.
I hope this means the state-by-state disaster will not be inflicted upon us.
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laughingliberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 11:11 AM
Response to Reply #12
16. I hope so, too. And I hope some support for some provisions in the House bill becomes a trend. nt
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freddie mertz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 01:38 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. It is the only hope we have.
Otherwise, we get a bad bill, the repubs return to power, and they repeal the thing leaving us with less than nothing.
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uponit7771 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-13-10 02:06 PM
Response to Original message
18. Don't know why it's so hard to manage expectations from the WH, doesn't seem like ti would be
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