A Second Look | U.S. Senator Patty Murray – Murray, Kennedy, HELP Democrats Announce “Affordable Health Choices Act”

via U.S. Senator Patty Murray – Murray, Kennedy, HELP Democrats Announce “Affordable Health Choices Act”.

Bipartisan Talks Continue on Outstanding Key Issues

For Immediate Release:

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the past year, Chairman Edward M. Kennedy and Democratic Members and staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) have been working to develop legislation that reduces health care costs, allows Americans to keep the coverage they have if they want it, and makes health insurance affordable to those who do not have it today.

Today, while discussions between HELP Committee Democrats and Republicans on key outstanding issues continue, Chairman Kennedy released the landmark “Affordable Health Choices Act.”

“Our health care system is a crisis for American families and President Obama and members of Congress of both parties recognize the urgency of the problem. Our goal is to strengthen what works and fix what doesn’t. Over the next few days, we will continue working with our Republican colleagues on common sense solutions that reduce skyrocketing health care costs, assure quality care for all and provide affordable health insurance choices. Much work remains, and the coming days and weeks won’t be easy. But we have a unique opportunity to give the American people, at long last, the health care they need and deserve,” said Senator Kennedy.

(snip) “Our health care reform bill is a step toward ensuring all Americans can see a doctor when they need one and that our long term economic strength is not held captive by the skyrocketing cost of care,” Senator Murray said. “I applaud my colleagues for the hours of work they have all put in and thank Senators Kennedy and Dodd for their leadership in moving this forward. I am particularly proud that as we work to offer quality, affordable coverage to all Americans that we have included a plan to ensure we have enough health care professionals to provide that care. We still have work to do, but this bill is a good step forward on protecting patient choice, lowering costs and providing coverage for the millions of Americans who currently have none.”

I’m on many people’s email list, including Senator Murray. I’m glad that she and the rest of the H.E.L.P committee have been working so hard to produce a plan to give us some relief from skyrocketing costs. Working with Republicans for common sense answers is the best way forward.

I read through several portions of Affordable Health Choices Act and it all sounded so good that I had to ask when the next shoe would drop. I had to ask. It seems that the right-wing libertarian, flat tax, drown government crowd has already come up with what the right will call intelligent answers, I’m sure.

Just to add controversy,the following snippets are from an article in the right-wing rag, Associated Content. The article is called, Can “The Affordable Health Choices Act” Save the American Health Care System? As you can see, it starts off with a title that attempts to place the Affordable Health Choices Act in some sort of doubt.

Millions of Americans live their lives every day without health insurance. In fact the Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the number of uninsured people in the US to be around 45.7 million. For years the debate over the government’s role in solving what some call a crisis has raged on in Washington and on Main Street USA. Earlier this month Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (D) announced the creation of the “Affordable Health Choices Act” on his website. However, some critics are asking can we really afford it?

As you can see in this first paragraph the author, Morgan Phelps June 17, 2009, uses excuses, invention, and weasel words to set up the argument in opposition to the Democratic party’s health care reform plan. Indeed, millions of Americans do live their lives everyday without health insurance, but those facts in no way make the uninsured any more comfortable and it is surely not okay that they do live without access to a doctor. Phelps says that the debate has raged for years in Washington, but that is simply not true. There has been no serious debate about health care on Capitol Hill since 1993, 16 years ago. He says that “some” call our situation in America a crises. I would like you good readers to consider that everyone in America, not just some, but a vast majority of Americans consider health care reform an immediate concern. He asks if we can really afford Senator Kennedy’s plan, but the pertinent question should be can we afford not to adopt this plan.

To cut and paste an automatic opinion, Phelps quotes a  libertarian named Michael D. Tanner. Tanner, via the CATO Institute – a libertarian think tank, says there are many reasons why we can’t afford this plan (of course), here’s one:

Taxing employer provided health insurance. Under current laws an employee’s health insurance benefits are not considered to be a part of his salary. In fact, employee can choose to pay their portion of the costs from their pre-tax dollars effectively lowering their taxable income as an incentive to accept insurance. Tanner says that if the exclusion were to be totally and universally repealed it would generate an estimated $3.5 trillion in revenue over the next decade – more than enough to pay for the Act. That would; however, amount to a massive tax increase on the middle class working people that President Obama and Senator Ted Kennedy say they’re trying to help.

The only problem here is that Kennedy’s draft released Wednesday doesn’t include a provision to tax employer provided health insurance. As a matter of fact, the bill doesn’t mention how it is to be funded at all. Mr. Tanner seems to have jumped to a conclusion.

The House is kicking the idea of taxing health benefits around, but it is not in the Affordable Health Choices Act. From OpenCongress.org:

The House Ways and Means Committee also released an outline (pdf) of what will likely be included in their version of health care reform legislation. According to the outline, their version includes a public option that would operate on a level playing field with private insurers. The Associated Press is reporting that “House Democrats are considering a new tax on employer-provided health benefits to help pay for expanding coverage to the uninsured.” But that is not made explicit in the outline released today.

I posted the portion of the email from Senator Murray to inform you good readers that the Senate is not dawdling on this issue and the Democratic Party wants to produce a comprehensive bill that contains a public plan.