Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) says she’d like to be able to purchase health insurance across state lines the same way auto insurance can be purchased. (0:23)
By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service
Small business owners testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday in an attempt by the committee to find methods for reducing the ever-increasing health insurance costs facing small businesses.
“Today, I’m announcing my own investigation into the pricing practices of health insurance companies that sell policies to small businesses,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), HELP Committee Chairman. “Health insurance companies should open their books, explain to the American people why they support a health insurance market for small businesses that is so dysfunctional and so lacking in transparency.”
Harkin argued that the legislation presented by the Senate would create health insurance exchanges that pool small business together and increase competition, also making health insurance more transparent.
“Small businesses pay 18 percent more then large businesses for exactly same insurance plan and coverage. The [exact] same policy,” he said.
Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, accepted a $5,000 deductible on services provided by a hospital in order to keep costs manageable for his small business. The deductible forces cancer patients covered by the policy to pay $2,500 out-of-pocket for a shot at a local hospital – or to drive to the next town in order to pay $25 for the same shot at a clinic. The insurance prices, he said, drive down the potential revenue that the town could have earned from treating the patient at the local hospital.
“We need more insurance competition in the rural marketplace by knocking down state cartels,” he said. “We need to know that a single health catastrophe will not bankrupt us and bring down everything we have worked for over the past 20 years.”
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Chair of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, said that the cost of health care is rising rapidly and that insurance companies have little ability to address the issues.
“The challenge moving forward will be to overhaul the delivery system to promote prevention, quality and results-based care to encourage healthy lifestyles and to eliminate waste and fraud in the system,” said Praeger. “The difficulties in the small group market, as in the individual market, are ultimately the result of medical spending that has outstripped the ability of most Americans to pay for it.”
By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service
Members of the Joint Economic Committee released a report Thursday that revealed 1.4 million women have lost their health insurance during the recession. More than 1 million of those lost were due to a spouse’s job loss.
“Clearly the system is broken when 1 million women lose their health insurance because their spouses lose their jobs,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)
“Under the status quo, women are more vulnerable to higher health care costs than men and when they lose their coverage the impact is felt heavily on their children and their families,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said.
Sarah Wildman, a self-employed journalist and mother, testified about her experience with what she described as an “inappropriate health care plan”.
“I didn’t realize that my choice to start a family would put us into debt,” Wildman said, after receiving a $22,000 hospital bill from her health insurance company that initially claimed to cover maternity care. “When you buy insurance on your own, there’s no guarantee that what you pay for is what you get,” she said, calling her private sector health insurance “anti-middle class, anti-entrepreneurial, and anti-family.”
“It is so important that the voices of people like Mrs. Wildman not be drowned out,” Rep, Cummings said. “We can not allow the current system to continue to break America’s families, businesses, and economies, and we must not allow it to break American women,” he said, urging Congress to continue promoting health care reform legislation that ensures women access to quality health care without being charged higher premiums than men.
“I didn’t realize that my choice to start a family would put us into debt,” says Sarah Wildman, a self-employed journalist and mother, after receiving a $22,000 hospital bill from her health insurance company that claimed to cover maternity care. “When you buy insurance on your own, there’s no guarantee that what you pay for is what you get,” she says, calling her private sector health insurance “anti-middle class, anti-entrepreneurial, and anti-family.” (0:45)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) says that the health insurance industry is waging a war of disinformation against the health care reform bill in order to maintain the status quo. The Speaker says that members of Congress will work throughout the August recess to promote their message and “set the record straight.” Pelosi says she is confident the American people will see through the “myths” and ultimately support the health care bill. (0:26)
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says folks with quality health insurance are currently paying more in premiums because the current system doesn’t cover everyone. (0:23)
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says that two out of the five relevant House and Senate committees have passed health care reform legislation which is something that’s never been done before. She says, “Congress has made historic progress on health insurance reform that will put patients and doctors back in charge and ensure quality, affordable, accessible health care for America’s middle class.” 0:33)
“This legislation ends gender rating in insurance,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md), praising the Affordable Health Services Act that passed through the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Wednesday for ending the apparent presence of gender discrimination in health care. (0:34)
Michael Tanner, senior fellow of the Cato Institute, says people in Massachusetts who had health insurance and were happy with it are having to change their coverage because their current plan does not comply with the state’s mandates. It is just one example of the lessons he believes the federal government should take from the results of Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reforms. (0:23)
By Courtney Costello- Talk Radio News Service
Volunteers of America hosted a discussion today on the baby boomer generation’s affect on the future of health care and Social Security.
America is at a turning point, where the oldest baby boomers will be 65 in the next two years. By 2030 there will be an estimated 71 million seniors in comparison to the current 37 million seniors, said Donna Brazile, Democratic political strategist and moderator at the discussion.
Baby Boomers were born between the years 1946 to 1964 and it is estimated that there were 77 million babies born within these years.
.
Said Brazile, “We have to re-think the way that we deliver care for our nation’s older Americans in the future.”
Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader, said, “Clearly cost is an issue that we have to address…we also need to bring everyone under the system resulting in coverage for all… many Americans are underinsured [and] 48% of the people who have insurance don’t have the care they need today.”
Today, one of the biggest health concerns for seniors in this country is Alzheimer’s, and with more research, more positive outcomes can be expected.
“If you could imagine a world without Alzheimer’s by 2030, you have changed for probably half the baby boomers the trajectory of their life, and you have changed for their children a great deal of the trajectory of their lives,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
On the issue of the future of Social Security, author and anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson said, “trust in the system is urgent to reassure people that social security will be there.”
“The earlier we find a way to migrate towards some kind of compound [social security] interest model, where you know what you have invested, and you get back the compound interest effect for 50-55 years of work…remember people will work longer in the next generation, not shorter.” said Gingrich.
85 % of Americans expect long term care to be a part of health care reform… It requires Presidential leadership, said the panel.
