New Health Care Deadline: September 15
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Health Care, Legislation
Roll Cal has more (subscription required) reports that Max Baucus is setting this new date and my guess is that it’ll all come down to whether or not the Dems can get the Repubs to jump on the health care co-ops.
Here’s more on what’s moving through the committees…
Four congressional committees have approved bills, largely on party lines, that would require that every person carry health insurance, would offer credits to families and small businesses that have trouble affording coverage and would begin to realign financial incentives toward performance-based care.A key fifth committee in the Senate is negotiating a more centrist bill, which could pave the way for a less-ambitious compromise.
Meanwhile, the health care misinformation is getting some light shone on it as well by the AP.
My favorite debunking is about this idea of rationing…
CLAIM: The Democrats’ plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have.“Expanding government health programs will hasten the day that government rations medical care to seniors,” conservative writer Michael Cannon said in the Washington Times.
THE FACTS: Millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.
Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.
Still…too little, too late?
We shall see…
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 and is filed under Health Care, Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Whew. That’s a relief knowing that the Feds will never ration Health Care once they rip the decision making authority away from those nasty insurance companies. Along these lines, Michael Moore’s favorite health care model in the U.K. has decided to ration pain-killing injections to old people and hot naked young women (this last inferred from the article photo):
Of course, we should not worry about that happening here, because Barry told us it won’t, and his promises can be trusted. In other news, the administration is sending up trial balloons for the inevitable breaking of Obama’s campaign promise to not increase taxes on the middle class.
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Unfortunately for mw’s attempt at argument the point is that rationing is already taking place on the part of the insurance companies’ solely on the basis of cost and cutting the right kind of deals with the right corporation to maximize their profits. They have little to do with what is best for patients.
August 2nd, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Oh.. I wouldn’t call it an argument. I’d call it an illustrative observation.
What isn’t clear in all of this, is why the proponents of government rationing (like Jim and Justin) think they will do it any better than insurance companies, or the NIH?
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
MW the hope is that they won’t be any worse. Private health care can only get worse from here on out, so there’s honestly not a huge risk here.