He based his comments on these provision:
Secures Four Amendments in Health Care Reform Bill
Congressman Kucinich 111th
Washington, Jul 17, 2009 -
In addition to securing a historic victory for states’ single-payer health care, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today won adoption of four other amendments in HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act. The Kucinich amendments:
• drive down the cost and increase the access of prescription drugs by ending the pharmaceutical industry’s practice of manipulating physician prescribing habits to pharmaceutical representatives;
• ending the insurance industry practice of raising costs or decreasing coverage for Americans during the time Americans are not allowed to switch plans;
• require the disclosure of insurance company costs like advertising and marketing costs, as well as executive compensation, that use consumer’s money to increase profits instead of covering care;
• improve access to integrative medicine by requiring its consideration for standard coverage and by requiring the identification of integrative medicine providers .
“With the addition of this language,
this is a stronger bill that will protect Americans and hold health insurance companies accountable to their customers,” said Kucinich.
How on earth did Kucinich come to the conclusion that those provisions would hold health insurance companies accountable? Also how has the bill changed since then? Well, it includes:
Sanders' sate single payer provision.
This:
The president’s bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review, and to block, premium increases by private insurers, potentially superseding state insurance regulators. The bill would create a new Health Insurance Rate Authority, comprised of health industry experts that would issue an annual report setting the parameters for reasonable rate increases based on conditions in the market.
linkThis:
You’ll buy your individual plan from a health insurance exchange where all plans will have to meet minimum standards for coverage and spend about 80 to 85 percent of premiums on health care on their customers, instead of on overhead, profits, and executive perks.
linkThis:
Another piece of the proposal would allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to regulate the interactions between brand-name and generic drug companies. At issue is the revelation that brand-name drug companies have been paying off generic drug companies for support on patent extensions for certain drugs. This means that consumers will see serious delays in the release of certain generic drugs and therefore still face the higher costs of
brand-name drugs. The FTC is filing suit against the drug companies to end this practice and the White House proposal aims to give the FTC authority to regulate and end this practice. The summary of the proposal states that the White House would, “ anti-competitive and unlawful any agreement in which a generic drug manufacturer receives anything of value from a brand-name drug manufacturer that contains a provision in which the generic drug manufacturer agrees to limit or forego research, development, marketing, manufacturing or sales of the generic drug.” The White House claims that payouts to generic drug companies cost consumers up to $35 billion a year.
linkWhat I'm not understanding is why Kucinich believes these significant accountability measures make the bill less likely to "hold health insurance companies accountable"?
edited extra word, typos
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