William Chirolas -- World News Trust
Sept. 12, 2009 -- Well the Baucus bill is out, and there is no Federal Regulator, or regulation of coverage, or companies -- except for those co-ops, if they ever exist.
The state regulation that has brought us this mess continues as the sole control. We will not have a federal regulatory agency that treats health insurance companies like utilities -- like they have in every other country that uses an insurance company based system.
Seems the former VP of Wellpoint, Liz Fowler, now the Senior Counsel to the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, had Mike Ross of the Blue Dogs submit an amendment in July that uses the exact same wording as the "new" Baucus outline. After the Obama speech, insurance stocks rose and AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans), the health insurance industry trade group, appear to be boasting about their role in crafting it, saying "Many of the changes to the insurance system now under discussion are the ones that have been advocated this year by the insurance companies themselves ... the industry has been the leader in creating the proposals everyone is about to endorse." (the tiny, state law based, co-ops that could become multi-state -- but only with great difficulty, is the Wellpoint idea that today had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) endorsement as a reasonable variation of the "public plan").
So from the Senate we will get co-ops that are not permitted a national charter and which therefore lack the scale to affect prices, followed by House blue Dogs forcing the conference to accept this removal of any attempt at cost containment, all without a regulatory agency or any regulations as to how little a policy can offer and still be considered part of the "universal coverage.
To be permitted to pass this bill, we agree to give Walmart a billion tax dollars -- and similarly for other corporations, via the math in the Baucus Bill. The Baucus/AHIP/Blue Dogs bill "fines" employers up to $400 per employee if they don't provide their employees with health care" -- for Wal-Mart that is a $560 million fine if it refused to provide insurance to any of its employees. But there are no standards, regulation, or even regulatory agency for what must be in the health policy offered by Wal-Mart. As the GOP has noted, policies that provide near-zero real insurance can be had for $2,500 and still meet the requirement that they provide some part of the cost of preventive and primary care, physician services, outpatient services, emergency services, hospitalization, day surgery and related anesthesia, diagnostic imaging/screenings (including x-rays), maternity and newborn care, pediatric services (including dental and vision), medical/surgical care, prescription drugs, radiation and chemotherapy, and mental health and substance abuse services that meet minimum standards set by federal (there are none) and state laws (there are near zero standards for group, and near zero requirements as to what is a meaningful benefit). So Wal-Mart gets to pay $3.5 billion a year to meet its obligations under the Baucus/Insurance Industry bill. But there is a provision for those extremely low paid Wal-Mart workers to get Medicaid if they make less than 133 percent of the poverty level, easily accomplished by paying single employees less than $14,403 a year (by holding down hours since the minimum wage kicks up a slightly larger annual salary), or a single mom with two kids less than $24,352. Assuming 500,000 employees qualify, Wal-Mart saves $1.25 billion a year as a reward for paying poor wages.
Meanwhile, as there is no agency set up to produce and enforce those minimum standards set by federal and state laws -- and indeed there is near-zero federal law in this area -- you can kiss your 80 percent of cost benefit "Good bye" as the insurance premiums continue to rise after this bill.
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William Chirolas brings 40 years of real-world business experience in local, state, national, and international tax, pensions, and finance to the world of blogging. A graduate of MIT, he calls the Boston area home, except when visiting kids and grandkids.