President in Iowa City
You may watch the President’s speech here, scheduled to start at 1pm!
For background information on the President’s visit and how reform will help our state, be sure to check out all the latest background policy pieces from our partners at the Iowa Policy Project. The most recent brief, “Health Reform: Iowans to See Benefits” describes the concrete benefits of the Medicaid expansion, small businesses ability to purchase insurance in the Exchange, and the elimination of insurers’ abuses on all Iowans.
Senate Continues to Debate Reconciliation Bill
Today the Senate should wrap-up debate and vote on the reconciliation package, the last remaining legislation for the current comprehensive health care reform.
However, the bill will need to go back to the House for their vote on it since the Senate made small changes.
Health Reform Bill to Be Signed Today!!!
This past Sunday night, the House finally passed the Senate health care reform bill and awaits the President’s signature today! The House also passed the “Health Care Affordability and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010″ that needs to also be signed by the Senate before going to the President.
This Thursday the President will be in Iowa City to talk about the health reform package.
Health Care Can’t Wait Petition
In the home stretch, and from our partners at Community Catalyst comes a petition for enacting comprehensive national health care reform…
Sign the “Health Care Reform Can’t Wait” Petition – and pass it on!
- Community Catalyst is partnering with PICO, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Families USA, and other national groups to send everyone in Congress the message: “Move forward and pass health care reform. It’s time to act.”
- The sign on deadline is tentatively set for March 16. Please sign the petition and send this link: http://www.healthcarepetition.org/10707_communitycatalyst to your networks, neighbors, friends, and family – across the street or across the country.
Together, we can make sure Members of Congress know their constituents want them to get the job done!
More News from the White House on Health Reform
Today, President Obama set the tone for the final work Congress must take in order to pass comprehensive national health care reform! His speech is available to read here.
The President acknowledges the difficult problem of enacting reform in terms of policy- the complicated system of health care now in America lends to many inter-related changes- and politics- utilizing the simple majority vote of reconciliation in the Senate to finally pass the legislation.
In the coming weeks we should see:
- The Senate promise the House to use reconciliation to pass provisions that the House would like,
- The House to then pass the Senate’s version of the bill, and
- The last step, the Senate to use reconciliation as the final step of bringing the bills into one piece of legislation for the President to sign.
Health Reform From the White House
Yesterday, President Obama unveiled proposals for national health care reform that expand upon the versions of legislation passed from the House and Senate. The President’s provisions can be seen as his vision for comprehensive reform, and will undoubtedly be a center of debate in the upcoming Health Reform Summit this Thursday.
Among some key provisions related to children and families are:
- The expansion of Medicaid to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level ($29,000 a year for a family of four)
- The preservation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program to 2019, with full funding through 2015
Here is a related summary on the President’s proposal that focuses on Medicaid, CHIP, and low-income provisions. This document is provided by Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families.
Health Reform Process Myth
In efforts to more easily pass health reform legislation, one strategy recently proposed is for Congress to only pass certain provisions of the current reform bills. Critics of comprehensive health reform are calling for this piecemeal approach as an alternative process, but tweaking only a couple of cogs in the health care system will not do the trick for real reform.
The piecemeal process is destined to fail as a reform measure. For example, if legislation required insurers to cover all individuals regardless of health status without any other reform provisions, we could see what health policy experts call a “death spiral.” As insurers are required to cover everyone regardless of their health status, the average person’s premium, even if they already have health insurance coverage, will likely rise even faster than presently. Insurers will have to cover the costs of insuring the sick and those with chronic conditions, but as premiums rise, healthy individuals would begin to opt out of health insurance, deciding that the high premiums simply are not worth coverage. This would leave insurers with an even unhealthier pool of the sickest and those with the most severe chronic conditions, further increasing these individual’s premiums.
Similarly, requiring all individuals to purchase insurance sounds like a good idea, but in isolation the practice would be impossible. Too many people are unable to qualify for insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and many others are unable to afford insurance because of high premiums as a result of their pre-existing conditions or their moderate income. Without some sort of mechanism to require insurers to cover everyone and assist low- and moderate-income families with purchasing insurance, the individual mandate simply could not work.
Iowans and Americans need comprehensive health reform that takes into account issues like these simultaneously to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, quality health care.
Health Reform Benefits for Iowans
While the health reform has continued to stall in Washington, people around Iowa still want reform passed, and cannot wait much longer…
- Over 282,000 Iowans were uninsured in 20 08, and due to recession-caused job losses in 2009, this number of uninsured Iowans has most likely grown.
- Not just low-income Iowans are struggling to get health insurance: working Iowans, small business owners, and rural Iowans are among the groups that find getting affordable health insurance particularly difficult.
- Over 72 percent of uninsured Iowans worked at least part-time during 2008, with 34.5 percent having worked full-time.
- For small business owners and employees, health insurance premiums rose 113 percent from 1999 to 2009. As a result, fewer and fewer small businesses offer health insurance benefits.
- Some 85 percent of small business owners in Iowa reported that they simply cannot afford health insurance coverage. The damaging effects of rising premiums and rising health care coverage costs are felt even more in a recession when small businesses are cutting back on costs.
- In rural Iowa, where small business dominates the economy, the particular problem of small businesses not being able to provide insurance benefits to employees is more evident. Health insurance premiums for small businesses are on average 18 percent higher than for large firms. For Iowa’s 1.2 million rural residents, this is a huge issue.
Rural Iowans and Health Insurance Coverage
Iowa’s Health Insurance Shortage
Or check out other related materials from the Iowa Policy Project
Though the national health reform debate has been a long battle, and has seen some major setbacks, it is more important than ever that a comprehensive health reform bill be passed.
Yet in light of some political setbacks, some critics of reform are calling for a piecemeal approach to reform, suggesting that Congress pass only certain provisions of the bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, such as requiring insurers to cover all patients regardless of medical history or requiring all individuals to obtain health insurance.
Though it sounds attractive and like a step forward, a piecemeal approach to health reform is destined to fail.
If legislation required insurers to cover all individuals regardless of health status without any other reform provisions, we could see what health policy experts call a death spiral. As insurers were required to cover everyone, regardless of their health status, the average person’s premium, even if they’re already have health insurance coverage, will likely rise even faster, as insurers will have to cover the costs of insuring the sick and those with chronic conditions. As premiums rise, health individuals would begin to opt out of health insurance, deciding that the high premiums simply are not worth it. This would leave insurers with an even unhealthier pool of the sick and those with chronic conditions, further increasing premiums.
Similarly, though requiring all individuals to purchase insurance sounds like a good idea, in isolation the practice would be impossible. Too many people are unable to qualify for insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and many others are unable to afford insurance, either because of high premiums as a result of their pre-existing conditions or their moderate income. Without some sort of mechanism to require insurers to cover all and assistance to low- and moderate-income families to purchase insurance, the individual mandate simply could not work.
Health care is a complex system. Tweaking one cog alone simply won’t do the trick. Iowans and Americans need comprehensive health reform to ensure that all have access to affordable, quality health care.
National Health Reform Continues!
Both the Senate and the House have passed their respective versions of health care reform, but negotiations to reconcile the bills into one has slowed down significantly after the Senate Democrats lost the 60 vote super-majority that would have prevented filibustering. This does not mean that health care reform has stopped, it only means that there will probably be another method for passing legislation. Options such as reconciliation and breaking up the current bills into smaller legislation and passing those are available. Nevertheless, the urgency to pass national health reform has not diminished and families and children across Iowa and around the entire country need the benefits of reform.
Guaranteed quality and affordability for all Americans are the most important goals and the work to bring these to our broken health care system will not stop. Our Congressional delegation needs to hear and know that this work will not stop and that they need to continue to work hard to get legislation passed!
To that end, here is the phone number for the Congress switchboard: 1-800-828-0498. Please urge Senators Grassley and Harkin, and your Congressman, to keep working until health reform is finally, finally passed. Each call is important and can be done multiple times. They need to hear from Iowans and they need to know that we cannot wait any longer for the bill to be done. The health care system without reform is not an option. Feel free to let them know some of the great provisions that benefit children and families, listed below on our blog.
Our leaders need to know how important reform is to you and that they are accountable for finishing this difficult work.
Ten Child Health Related Provisions in the Manager’s Amendment
The Manager’s Amendment was passed early this morning, adding significant changes to the Senate health care bill. Ten exciting provisions around children’s health include:
1. Insurers can no longer deny coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions. This would go into effect immediately for children instead of 2014 for adults.
2. Extend funding for CHIP for another two years. The CHIP re-authorization of 2009 legislation had funding end in 2013, but now funding is available until September 2015. This will protect children by keeping them in the children-focused insurance program for longer, instead of being shifted into other, newly established reform programs.
3. States must continue maintenances of effort for Medicaid and CHIP or else lose out on federal funding for Medicaid. The current levels, eligibilities, and enrollment procedures for children above 133% of the federal poverty line must be maintained through fiscal year 2019. This will help make sure that even during current fiscal shortfalls in states, child health coverage and children public insurance will stay a top priority.
4. While children could eventually move into Insurance Exchanges (because no federal funding is given to CHIP after 2015), there will be a screening process first to see if children are eligible for Medicaid. If eligible, children will be enrolled in Medicaid, if not eligible, then the state must make sure that comparable coverage is instituted for children to move into the Exchange.
5. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services will review and certify Exchange plans to make sure CHIP-comparable benefits and comparable cost-sharing procedures are in place. The exchange plans must have affordable and child-only plans.
6. More funding for CHIP enrollment and renewal activities.
7. Creates a public “buy-in” option for state employees’ children in CHIP.
8. Allows children to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until 26 years old.
9. Develops and improves children-specific quality priorities, quality measurements, and quality reporting for care.
10.Invest in preventive and wellness programs and services to encourage effective healthy behaviors that prevent illness and disease. Make sure all children have access to such programs under their health insurance plans.
If you like, you can check out the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University and Every Child Matters Education Fund for more information.
