Perhaps we'll hear something in the Budget speech?
Feb. 22, 2009 -- Rumors on the status of the Senator Kennedy Task Force results to date are encouraging.
President Obama
campaigned on a promise to expand government health programs and give
people subsidies to help them afford coverage. He also proposed
creating a public plan to compete with private health insurers.
Senator
Kennedy's task force has found that many insurance executives say they
are willing to accept stricter regulation, including a requirement to
offer coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions, if the
federal government requires everyone to have coverage.
Two ways are
being discussed for making insurance available to all -- by offering
subsidies for private insurance, based on a person’s income, and by
expanding public programs (the group agrees “eligibility levels for
Medicaid should be increased,” so that more people would qualify, so
the public policy option promised by Obama could be the right to buy
into a Medicaid policy.
Lobbyists said that if the government
subsidized insurance premiums, it would probably need to set minimum
standards for benefits as well, but with the actual benefits and
standards of care set by a board of experts rather than Congress, with
experts defining the minimum coverage “within statutory parameters” set
by Congress, and with insurers allowed to offer different benefits with
the same overall value. Insurers are willing to accept that federal
standards “may supersede state benefit mandates.”
***
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/latestheadlines/story/803272.html
Obama has big challenge in overhauling health care
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
WASHINGTON (AP) — Now for the hard part.
Even
if the national credit card is maxed out and partisanship remains the
rule for Washington's political tribes, President Barack Obama and
Congress are plunging ahead with a health care overhaul.
This week, Obama will start the dialogue on how to increase coverage, restrain costs and improve quality.
Whether
a bill can get through Congress and to Obama this year is uncertain.
For half a century, the track record on health care has been one of
missed opportunities, spectacular failures and hard-won incremental
gains.
Read The Entire Story
***
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.