It was an eve of Christmas when the Senate voted on and passed a proposed bill “in the Senate” that contained new mandates, oversight boards, new rules and regulations, and assorted housekeeping items for the US health care laws. While this may sound like it’s a done deal, it isn’t. The “proposed” law itself has “not” actually been passed – yet.
This proposed bill hasn’t been passed into force yet largely because the bills in the House and the Senate have to be reconciled first. Will this be another long “process” while everyone argues over the thing? Hard to say, but one thing that you should know is that it will only require a simple majority to pass the actual bill. After the bill is signed, it is sent to the President to sign it. By the looks of things, this is probably going to happen. When? No one seems to be sure, but if you have an interest in politics and health care reform for the 21st century, you might want to keep your eyes and ears pealed.
Just so you don’t find things too confusing with “two” versions, you really only need to know the similarities because those are what is important. For instance, both bills state it is mandatory that people without insurance get health insurance and if you don’t get it, there will be penalties. This might give you some pause for thought if you think you can save money by not buying health insurance. It will eventually become more expensive to “not” have it in the form of fines and realistically, everyone will need medical care at some time in their lives.
There will be government subsidies to assist in paying for health insurance for low and middle income families. Interestingly, there will also no longer be “any” exclusions for pre-existing conditions; a huge bonus for many of the currently uninsured in the US. What this means is that insurance companies will be required to accept anyone who applies, despite what medical condition they may have.
Health insurance coverage for dependent children is going to be broadly expanded for children under 27 years old. This makes sense given the tough economy and considering the number of older children that have had to return home to make ends meet. There will also be “no” limitations or caps on health benefit amounts. Right now, there are limits of roughly 1 to 2 million dollars. All in all, the changes should see some real differences in the way health care is handled in America.
Just as there are things that are the same in both of the bills, there are a couple of differences about which you will want to know. The bill in the Senate slices and dices the Medicare budget by roughly 500 billion dollars, and that’s a whole lot of money. The House bill includes the Stupak amendment. In essence it bans the use of federal money for supplementing abortions that any health plan offers. This still seems to be under debate, so there is no telling how it will resolve.
If you’ve been wondering about the so-called “public option” relating to health insurance companies – there is no public option listed in the Senate bill, but there is one in the House bill which features non-profit health insurance cooperatives that would compete with the big bucks insurance companies in the business for profit. This would certainly generate a whole lot of interesting competition in relation to the policies offered. The bottom line is stay tuned for more developments as things start to heat up while the House is back in session.
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