Reid’s Office Defends Nixing Of Key Consumer Protection From Bill
The internet is buzzing today with the news that Harry Reid quietly inserted a loophole in the Senate health care bill that would let insurance companies put limits on medical care for folks struggling with costly illnesses — angering patient advocates, and in apparent violation of a promise made by Obama this fall.
But in an email to me, Reid’s spokesperson defended the move, arguing it was necessary to hold down premiums.
The news started making the rounds this morning after the Associated Press reported that a “tweak” to the Senate bill had been made, weakening a provision originally banning such limits. Advocates for patients protested that such a ban is a key consumer protection.
The current bill would allow insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care — provided those limits are not “unreasonable,” a term the legislation doesn’t define.
This seems at odds with Obama’s impassioned rhetoric on the issue. As Jane Hamsher notes, Obama vowed in August to stop insurance companies from placing “some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime,” because “no one should go broke because they get sick.”
Asked for comment, Reid spokesman Jim Manley justified the shift in an email:
“We are concerned that banning all annual limits, regardless of whether services are voluntary, could lead to higher premiums. We continue to work with experts on how best to accomplish our goals of preventing insurance companies from imposing arbitrary coverage limits while providing the premium relief American families need and deserve.”
Given Obama’s previous tough talk on the issue, the shift could create a bit of a headache for the White House, and it seems unlikely that such a politically sensitive move would have been made without tacit or overt White House approval. More when I learn it.
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Attention Harry Reid. Paging Harry Reid.
They are not holding down premium costs now, even thought they are putting limits on how much they will pay for.
What a gigantic clusterfark this has become! Reid’s ineptitude means that we aren’t gonna get ANY health care reform. Start over. Please.
Come on sbj, nobody’s going to start over. This is the ugly part of getting legislation passed and we all knew it was coming. Chill, you’ll get your HCR, assuming that’s really what you want. Did you join the early celebrations too wholeheartedly?
This probably belongs downstairs, but I think Rush Limbaugh just made some news:
“Plus there are the Republicans using procedures, parliamentary procedures, and offering all these amendments. Now the purpose — I talked to Sen. McConnell about the purpose of the amendments. He said we’re trying to flush out with these amendments, just who it is that really we have to focus on here. And the two names that he mentioned were Ben Nelson and Jim Webb in Virginia. Because there’s something that Webb is not going along with the Democrats on, I forget specifically what it is. My point in mentioning all this is, that the Republicans in the Senate are using parliamentary procedures, they are offering all these amendments, not to make the bill better, but to flush out and to find out who it is that they really need to work with to stop this. That is their objective, to stop it.
When contacted by TPM, McConnell’s office could not immediately comment.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/limbaugh-mcconnell-told-me-republicans-are-proposing-amendments-in-order-to-stop-health-care-bill-no.php
Kinda makes him look like a liar when he writes this in the WaPo:
“Americans are increasingly frustrated with the U.S. health care system as we know it — and they expect real reform, not just the promise of a reform that never comes”
Mmm mmm mmm.
Senate Minority Leader Admits He Doesn’t Want to Do His Job
The private health insurance industry will be getting a guaranteed new stream of revenue. Remind me again what we’re getting in return, because it sure isn’t universal coverage, an end to coverage caps and an end to coverage limits for “pre-existing conditions.”
Which confirms my earlier statement.
Republicans want to put more than thirty million Americans” lives at risk. The Republican Party is promoting massive domestic Terrorism.
How the hell can they claim that they want to keep Americans safe, when they are trying to let millions of them die.
Ethan — thanks. I’ll try to get comment
Easiest way to hold down cost…Single Payer.
Look, I solved the health care crisis!
Nice Greg. Should be interesting…
Turns out cap/trade IS a job killer:
The American Petroleum Institute said about 40 employees would be departing as part of a restructuring designed to focus more attention on the oil group’s grassroots lobbying efforts.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/71829-api-announces-cuts
Well, god forbid a Republican offer an amendment that makes the bill better. That person would face the Wrath of Rushbo! So, does that mean any GOPer who offered *any* during this process, much less had it inserted, is a turncoat? The mind boggles at the number of GOP primary challenges to come.
“Democrats trying to push President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul plan through the Senate got a sober warning Friday that costs will keep going up and proposed Medicare savings may harm the program.
A new report from government economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department found that the nation’s $2.5 trillion annual health care tab won’t shrink under the Democratic blueprint that senators are debating. Instead, it would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress does nothing.
More troubling was the report’s assessment that the Democrats’ plan to squeeze Medicare for $493 billion over 10 years in savings relies on specific policy changes that “may be unrealistic” and could lead to cuts in services. The Medicare savings are expected to cover about half the nearly $1 trillion, 10-year cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured.
In still more bad news, the report starkly warned that a new long-term care insurance plan included in the legislation could “face a significant risk of failure” because it would attract people in poor health, leading to higher and higher premiums, and eventually triggering an “insurance death spiral.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD9CH93RO4
via The Corner
” Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or lifetime, and we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses – because no one in America should go broke just because they get sick.
-Barack Obama August 14, 2009.”
Someone better f*cking ask Gibbs about this bullsh*t, pronto.
I’m puzzled isn’t what “sbj” talking about the CORPORATE OWNED “Medicare Advantage” that should never have been allowed to mislead people into think it was associated with the GOVERNMENT RUN Medicare?
Corporate media seems to want to blur the line between the CORPORATE OWNED version of corporate-medical-insurance that was falsely and misleadingly branded “Medicare Advantage” and the actual government run “Medicare”.
“Easiest way to hold down cost…Single Payer.
Look, I solved the health care crisis!”
MEDICARE PART E FOR “EVERYONE”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/09-9
Al Qaeda Terrorist “In-Charge” of Plotting Attacks in USA, Europe Killed in Drone Strike
According to the U.S. official, Saleh al-Somali was responsible for al Qaeda’s operations outside of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and formed part of al Qaeda’s senior leadership circle. He is also said to have had “connections with other Pakistan-based extremists.”
Al-Somali was engaged in plotting terrorist acts around the world and “given his central role, this probably included plotting attacks against the United States and Europe,” the official said.
Al-Somali took operations guidance from senior al Qaeda leaders and “translated it into operational blueprints for prospective terrorist attacks,” the official added.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/Terrorism/al-qaeda-operations-planner-saleh-al-somali-believed/story?id=9314585
all, happy hour roundup posted
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/economy/happy-hour-roundup-126/
Common sense here. You can’t stay in business – for profit or not for profit – if the rules demand that you issue insurnace to sick people and can’t limit what you pay out to anyone.
The answer is to drop the guaranteed issue mandate. Set up a subsidized high risk pool to cover the uninsurable. Drop all other federal regulations.
Anyone who thinks this has anything to do with HEALTH, or CARE, is dreaming and fooling themselves. It does have to do with topdown power and control and confiscating OUR MONEY. It also has to do with killing off an entire generation as quickly as possible.
Wake up. You’re next.
This all comes down to what side of the federal check you are on doesn’t it! Those poor, dumb slobs that work their butts off have their money confiscated by the Feds at the point of a gun. That stolen money is given to welfare people that just can’t seem to EVER get enough free money. The thing is, the takers have never met , or even been on, a payroll so they are like children that just WANT, CRY and DEMAND. There is a revolution brewing my friends. It’s coming soon. It will be at the polls first. in the street later if required.When people have their house taken away and food taken from their kids mouths to give money to lazy, non working people, the stuff will voilently hit the fan.
Coverage for everyone… with a $5.00 lifetime limit. Isn’t socialism great!
What I don’t get is the Obama supporters who don’t get that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are not passing what Obama promised – Universal coverage.
Catastrophic caps just like the evil private sector (and for the same reasons), millions still not eligible, costs possibly more per family in taxes than it would if purchased from the private sector (only now jail time or penalties will be mandated if you don’t buy it).
All you need to know about this program is that it is not good enough for those who are forcing it on us and that they will have their own separate Cadillac plan.
This isn’t “Universal Coverage”, it is another cash for clunkers programs with the ignorant thumb-suckers cheering it on.
Harry wanted caps not only to lower premiums but also to bring the overall cost of the bill being scored by CBO down to earth.
Remember, the cap was HIDDEN within the topic of unlimited caps. Makes one wonder what other dastardly stuff has been stashed in the cracks of other parts of this horrible bill.
Reid has certainly proved beyond any doubt that he is a cheat. He and his cohorts are not to be trusted…at all.
This bill needs to be mercifully killed. Peroid.
“But in an email to me, Reid’s spokesperson defended the move, arguing it was necessary to hold down premiums.”- Greg Sargent
Well, of course! As if that’s a legitimate excuse! Heck, that’s why insurance companies put caps on as well – to hold down premiums so their policies are AFFORDABLE.
So what’s the difference? Except that the government will eventually be the ONLY game in town. And when (and if) it is, we are all in big trouble.
What does the government do efficiently except the IRS? They come for your hard earned already taxed once money even after you DIE.
Mary,
We need to let Harry Reid know that we do not like him giving The Private Insurance Monopoly authorization to operate Death Panels.
“no one in America should go broke just because they get sick” – B. Obama
What he MEANT: “But let me be clear: Insurance companies SHOULD go broke when someone gets sick. And when the young healthy folks reach middle age – they can find some other entity to bankrupt”
No doubt at the end of all the exagerations,lies,compromises and other senseless acts of hatred and stubborness.The United States of America will still emerge with something less than either side hoped for.I for one hoped for a bill that would not embarrass the country when thousands of people seek asylum in other countries on the basis of no medical treatment available by reason of financial hardship.”Send Us Your” now how does that read aagain? What about all those glorified,sitting in some museum or the capitol,declarations and bills made over the generations.Do Republicans or Democrats really want to allow this shameful legacy of greed to continue? Yes America you are free to live in wealth or die in poverty but nothing in between.It is just too darn expensive! What hypocrisy it makes of such gallenty defended bills and notions about freedom here in this country! Shame on all of those who mock the word “LIFE” for without life there is neither liberty or the pursuit of happiness! Thank you!
Liam,
At least a sick person can go around the Insurance companies for treatment. My community has had fund raisers to help families pay for medical care the ins. companies don’t cover. But when the government death panel says no that is it. The sick person will have to go to another country for treatment or die. Guess you haven’t heard the news about the women in England with breast cancer being denied a drug that could prolong their life. They can’t even buy the drug if they have the means to pay for it. The government won’t allow it.
Get private health insurance out of our health care system. Those guys have to worry about having enough assets to cover future expenditures. It is a real handicap. Government can just tax or borrow or print more money if they need it. No worries. And all that competition stuff is just so much wasted energy. Government workers, secure in their jobs, would then be able to focus solely on customer service.
Here is obama famous death pill he talked about. Here graandma takes this pill, bend over and kiss your geister goodbye as obama, reid and pelosi don’t think you are worth what it will cost to fix your health. reid you are slime. period
obama s death panel that Palin talked about and obama LIED about. Where are you Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell???????????????????????????????
This bill is a business and job killer. The point cannot be emphasized enough.
The taxpayer funded abortion is also a big political problem for it’s possible passing.
Reid,
you SKUNK……………
Limit on catastrophic diseases?.
How about you, and al your cronies, having to accept the same coverages as we Po Folks in the hinterlands.
Now, that’s CHANGE AH kin believe in!!!.
Hypocritical LIAR.
[[What does the government do efficiently except the IRS?]]
Social Security, to name just one thing.
[[They come for your hard earned already taxed once money even after you DIE.]]
No, they don’t, unless you’ve got more money than roughly 99.5% of Americans. And if you do, you’ve likely also got tax accountants who can help you out.
Mary, you really need to re-examine some of your premises. Just sayin’.
I love this site. Everytime I come here I end up sitting here for WAY 2 LONG !! LOL Thanks admin.