Health Bill Wins Key Support

The chief House health care reform bill received two critical endorsements Thursday, one from AARP and the other from the American Medical Association.

Neither endorsement is a surprise—both organizations already were on record supporting insurance-market reforms and steps to extend coverage to uninsured Americans. But the endorsements should help House Democrats muster the 218 votes they need to pass the legislation when it comes up for a vote on Saturday.

AARP, with 40 million members, is one of the most powerful lobbying forces in Washington, especially now that it represents baby boomers as well as senior citizens. It plans to run ads supporting the bill and already has emailed 4 million of its grassroots activists urging them to contact House members.

“As members of the House gear up for this historic vote, they will hear from older Americans,” AARP CEO Barry Rand said.

AARP likes the House bill because it will prevent insurance companies from discriminating against older Americans and strengthens Medicare benefits. “We cannot continue to let insurers price older Americans out of the market,” Rand said.

The AMA’s endorsement was conditioned on the House also passing legislation to stop the upcoming 21 percent reduction in Medicare payments to physicians.

Dr. John Rohack, the organization’s president, said the House health care reform bill “is not the perfect bill, and we will continue to advocate for changes, but it goes a long way toward expanding access to high-quality affordable health coverage for all Americans.”

Under the bill, insurers could no longer deny coverage because of preexisting conditions. The bill expands Medicaid to cover more lower-income Americans. Individuals and small businesses could shop for coverage through new insurance exchanges, which would include a government-run plan that would negotiate the rates it pays to health care providers.

The legislation would require individuals to obtain health insurance coverage, with subsidies available to lower-income Americans. Employers with payrolls of $500,000 or more would be required to offer coverage to their employees or pay a fee of up to 8 percent of their payroll to the government. Insurance plans would have to offer a minimum level of benefits.

Most business groups oppose the House bill. They contend the public plan would pay low rates to providers, resulting in cost shifting to private plans. The minimum benefits plan would be richer than what many small businesses now offer, they add. Plus, they oppose the employer mandate, saying it would slap an additional tax on employers who would offer insurance if they could afford it.

They also hate the bill’s 5.4 percent surcharge on individuals with more than $500,000 in income, contending that new tax would hit the nation’s most successful small-business owners.

Business groups ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the National Federation of Independent Business have formed Employers for a Healthy Economy, a coalition that is blanketing the airwaves with ads this week. The ads contend the House bill would raise costs for employers and even force them to lay off workers.

The Chamber also emailed its members Thursday, urging them to contact their House members. The fate of the bill “could come down to a handful of votes,” the email said, because “the severity of its flaws has caused moderate members of Congress to waver.”

Those moderate Democrats are much more likely to listen to the business community than to Republicans, who staged a “Health Care Freedom” rally Thursday outside the Capitol. Yes, it was a “tea party,” so some folks got a little giddy.

Representative John Shadegg (Republican from Arizona), for example, practically accused President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of treason. He said they “neither understand nor believe in freedom,” and claimed they “don’t believe in this nation and its great destiny.”

That’s crazy. Fortunately, the bill requires health plans to cover mental illness.

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Kent Hoover is the Washington bureau chief for bizjournals.