So What's in it for the average American?
Reporting
Pat Kessler WASHINGTON (WCCO) ―
The Senate is now well on its way to clearing the health care reform bill before Christmas. Early Monday morning they voted to move forward toward a final vote on the bill.
The Senate plan expands health care insurance to 30 million additional Americans. It creates non-profit insurance exchanges where the uninsured could shop for the best coverage, while the government would subsidize lower-income Americans to help them buy insurance.
What's been tough about the debate is that it's been hard to know what's in the bill because it was changing every hour. Now we're beginning to see it more clearly. Both the House and Senate bills share certain items that could dramatically change American health care.
Under the proposals:
• Insurance companies cannot deny you coverage or raise your premiums if you have a pre-existing medical condition.
• They cannot drop your coverage if you have high medical bills.
• Young people can stay insured on their parents' insurance policy to age 25 or 26.
• Large companies would be required to cover their employees, or pay a fine.
• More people who are poor could get coverage through Medicaid.
• Insurance would be mandatory for almost everyone. If you are too poor to buy insurance, there would be government subsidies.
This is a huge bill with many costs. The price tag is nearly $1 trillion over 10 years, paid for through spending cuts and tax hikes.
• There's a medical device tax that could hit Minnesota's medical alley, totaling $20 billion.
• Seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage programs, which let patients get their benefits through typically more expensive plans from private insurance companies, could lose some of those extra benefits. There wouldn't be any cuts to standard Medicare benefits, however.
• A 10 percent tax on tanning booths and a tax on cosmetic surgery.
The House bill has very restrictive language about the use of public money for abortions, which the Senate doesn't like. In turn, the Senate won't accept a public option, which is the centerpiece of the House bill.
These are differences that will have to be resolved in the reconciliation process, before a final bill is returned to both chambers of Congress for another vote.
