Archive for the ‘Reform’ Category

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Kennedy Anticipated to Propose Healthcare Changes

Monday, June 1st, 2009

The plans to restructure the U.S. healthcare system have now begun to collect momentum. Senator Edward Kennedy, also the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee will soon announce a health system in the United States. Recently, Kennedy gave a rough outline of his healthcare bill to the Boston Globe.

Kennedy’s support of universal healthcare coverage is strongly reflected in his proposal. Some key aspects of the proposal include a new government-subsidized program which would provide medical coverage and make an order that all Americans must have some type of healthcare coverage. Kennedy insists that through his plan he can negotiate with insurance companies to keep premiums and copays low and affordable for those who have payment problems.

These aspects have sparked a lot of controversial debate within congress and amongst the public since President Obama wants to begin reforming the U.S. healthcare structure by the end of 2009. Republicans and insurance firms are concerned that private insurers would not be able to contend with government in the market for healthcare and would thus be driven out by a government monopoly in healthcare. Experts also predict that Kennedy’s plan will expand Medicaid programs to the poor and change Medicare benefits requirements by lowering the eligibility age from 65 to 55 years old.

Senator Max Baucus from Montana, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee is making another version of the bill which he hopes will be supported by Republicans and Democrats. Both Kennedy and Baucus have agreed that their committees will draft bills that complement each other.

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Congress Reconsidering VAT for Financing Healthcare Reform

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Many questions have been raised on how to overhaul the US health care system. Just recently in an interview with The Seattle Times, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) discussed a few options Congress is considering to finance the massive health care reform. “A number of ways are under discussion. It could be a combination of tax increases — possibly on alcohol, soft drinks and tobacco — and spending cuts in programs such as Medicare, where overcharges run into the billions of dollars,” Baucus stated. Baucus also made clear that President Obama wants to keep his campaign promise on a public health care plan for all Americans. Baucus notes, however, that many Republicans and moderate Democrats have concerns with the public plan, and whatever health care plan created by Congress needs to be a bipartisan effort.

One of the most grave concerns with the refinancing of the American health care system is that the strategies proposed by Congress to finance the system simply will not cover the cost of the overhaul. David White of the Wall Street Journal stated yesterday: “Most of the options being discussed for financing health reform — higher taxes for the rich, added levies on business and introducing taxes on sugar-laden sodas to name a few — have one thing in common. They won’t cover the bill.” One suggestion to help finance the reform is to create a VAT, or value added tax. The tax is popular among European nations today and was considered being used in the US during the Regan administration. The VAT essentially taxes goods at each stage of production. For instance on a good like refrigerators, there would be a tax collected from the manufacturer, the wholesale distributor, and the retail appliance dealer. Clearly, consumers would end up paying the tax in the form of higher prices.

The VAT is generally considered unpopular, however, it certainly can achieve strong results. In 1985, for instance, a 5% VAT would have produced $60 billion dollars for the US. Still, however, the tax is considered regressive as it would make the lives of each American less convenient, and the tax could seriously hurt the poor, as they spend most of their money on essential items like food and housing.

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The Grim Reaper: Coming Soon to Take Away your HealthCare

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

It is common knowledge that Medicare will not persist at its current rate and that the grim reaper will soon butcher Medicare into bankruptcy. New figures indicate this demise will happen as early as 2017, which is an earlier figure than those of previous estimates. This indicates that the payment situation for Medicare is getting worse at an increasing pace.

This disturbing information was reported by the Medicare Trust Fund, which is legally bound to disclose the status of its healthcare program for seniors. Unfortunately, despite the predictions about the end of Medicare, nothing is being done to fix the problem. Political action must be taken in order to eliminate the bias Medicare currently has for elderly people and to keep the grim reaper away.

Healthcare expenditures have exceeded revenues for years and they continue to do so. Something which augments the issue is that life expectancy has been increasing due to the technological and medical advances of our society. The longer people live, the more Medicare dollars they will consume. Also, now that the baby boomer generation that brought us bellbottoms and Woodstock is reaching the age which qualifies them for Medicare, an increasing amount of people will be given the cheap healthcare political leaders have promised them. This is bound to decrease the life expectancy of Medicare even more so within coming years. Regrettably then, healthcare is paid for by people who will not have a chance to benefit from it because of the coming doomsday of Medicare in 2017, if not earlier.

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A single-payer health care reform can contribute to an economic stimulus

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

According to an article in The Nation, we need the right health care reform for our nation to recover economically so it can prosper. The establishment of a national single-payer style healthcare reform system that expands the existing Medicare system to cover all Americans is said to be the “right reform.” The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association (NNOC/CNA) released a study last week that shows that if we implement this reform, it would provide a major stimulus to our economy by creating more than 2.6 million jobs and instilling $317 billion in new business and public revenues into our economy. $100 Billion in wages will be added as well to the U.S. economy.

Unemployment hit 7.2% in 2008; a 16 year high and over 2.6 million jobs were lost. The single-payer system will create the jobs we lost last year, approximately 2.6 million.

“Through direct and supplemental expenditures, healthcare is already a uniquely dominant force in the U.S. economy,” said Don DeMoro, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the NNOC/CNA research arm.

“However, so much more is possible. If we were to expand our present Medicare system to cover all Americans, the economic stimulus alone would create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come,” DeMoro said.

Healthcare in the U.S. currently accounts for $2.1 trillion in direct expenditures. Total health care spending is nearly $6 trillion. The comprehensive plan includes attributes such as universal eligibility, regardless of age, income, pre-existing conditions, and employment status; a uniform single standard of care for all enrollees which would eliminate the existing disparities in Medicare and Medicaid; and a single payer system for both funding and administration. The entire nation will have access to the same health services, costs, administrative cost burden, and eligibility requirements.

This single payer system can make significant contributions to the access of health care for all residents of the United States as well as a substantial economic stimulus in the form of new jobs and increased wages. The total cost for this system is $63 billion, which ends up being a huge percentage less than the bailouts paid for AIG and CitiGroup.

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