Two of the nation’s most influential health care adversaries are uniting to promote key portions of health care reform but leave unaddressed the debate’s most controversial element: the creation of a public insurance plan.
The consumer group Families USA and the trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are launching a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to push the package of reforms, which includes expanding Medicaid. The partnership could significantly reshape the debate over health care reform.
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Adversaries team up on health careBy: Chris Frates
ReplyDeleteApril 20, 2009 04:04 AM EST
Two of the nation’s most influential health care adversaries are uniting to promote key portions of health care reform but leave unaddressed the debate’s most controversial element: the creation of a public insurance plan.
The consumer group Families USA and the trade association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America are launching a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to push the package of reforms, which includes expanding Medicaid. The partnership could significantly reshape the debate over health care reform.
The groups will begin asking Congress this week to expand Medicaid eligibility to cover more of the nation’s low-income families, provide income-adjusted subsidies for middle-class families and cap out-of-pocket expenditures for people with insurance, POLITICO has learned.
The proposal could bolster the chances of expanding the Medicaid program, an option that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, are reportedly discussing.
Indeed, a stamp of approval from the groups could give all three ideas more political currency among both parties. Families USA is influential among Democrats, and PhRMA holds sway over many Republicans.
It’s not the first time the two groups have partnered. Families USA and PhRMA supported expansion of children’s health care coverage and spent $35 million during the two-year campaign to pass it.
Their new planned lobbying and media blitz could also change the dynamic of the debate over whether to create a public health insurance plan that would compete with private coverage — a tremendously controversial proposal that Families USA and PhRMA fiercely disagree on.
Not surprisingly, the two groups have very different ideas about how their reform proposals will affect the public plan debate.
Families USA’s founding executive director, Ron Pollack, said the reforms provide the cornerstones for broader health care reform, including a debate over the public plan option.
But PhRMA President Billy Tauzin makes it no secret that he hopes the proposal “helps us avoid the debate over whether a public plan is needed to get people this coverage.”
“The last place I want to be in is where we’re fighting over a public plan. It takes us all the way from the table, and that’s not a good thing,” Tauzin said. “That’s the place we would have to draw a line in the sand because we know what it causes, we know what it results in, and if it results in lack of access, that’s exactly the wrong way to go.”
PhRMA and critics of the public plan option argue that it would lead to government-run health care. Supporters argue that it’s crucial to providing universal coverage.
But that’s not to say that PhRMA believes the proposal it’s pushing is perfect. Medicaid is still a government-regulated program with price controls and less-than-robust drug coverage. But the group hopes that the proposals will spur Medicaid reform.
The upside is that it would help drug companies tap a new market by providing coverage to those who are too poor to buy drugs.
Still, Tauzin expects to hear from Republicans unhappy with PhRMA’s support for expanding the government-run Medicaid program. But he stressed that PhRMA still believes in the free market and patient choice.
“We hope they understand that our politics is very different this year and that’s a product of the election. We got a new team in town who could, I guess, pass what they wanted to,” Tauzin said. “Our job is to make sure that what they pass has as many elements of our principles in them as possible, and that means being at the table.”
Pollack, meanwhile, said that the debate over the public plan has overshadowed other crucial elements needed for successful health care reform. “As important as that issue is, the key ingredients in making health coverage affordable are addressed through what we’re talking about,” Pollack said. “That’s why we want to make these three key components of reform a top priority for Congress and the president.”
To promote their message, the groups are planning a national advertising blitz. The plans have not been solidified, but print, radio, mail, and national cable and network television buys are being considered.
“We’re not talking about a token effort here,” Pollack said. “We’re talking about a major effort that will be very visible.”
The ads will support three key policy proposals.
One would increase adults’ Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which would include individuals making about $14,400 annually and a family of four making $29,300.
It would also allow individuals to use Medicaid funds to buy private insurance if it saves Medicaid money. They would enjoy the same protections that apply to regular Medicaid participants.
A second would provide income-adjusted subsidies for families buying coverage in the private market. The subsidies would be weighted to provide more assistance to the lowest-income families, who would also receive more help with out-of-pocket expenses.
The plan also calls for reforming the insurance market to prevent insurance companies from denying care to those with preexisting conditions and other health conditions.
Finally, the third proposal would cap out-of-pocket costs to provide families with financial protection.
“What we’re proposing is very consequential,” Pollack said. “It’s designed to expand coverage in an affordable way for people who don’t have it today and are at risk of losing it tomorrow.”
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC
Way to go, guys; a series of proposals to nibble around the edges of the problem and create new puzzles of eligibility and forms to fill out when people are about to lose their homes to doctor bills. You know what is wrong with Medicaid? You have to apply for it and prove you deserve it! Other than not having to pay premiums,it resembles private insurance, in that there is a layer of bureaucracy one must fight through before being eligible to see a doctor. You know what sucks about a single-payer system? NOTHING, unless you are dependent on insurance company profits for your income!
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