Tuesday § November 3, 2009
A Closer Focus on the Numbers in Both House and Senate as Debate on Reform Bill Nears
On this election day, there is news from the healthcare reform front even though we are still in the pre-debate stage of bringing a final merged bill to a vote. As the debate rages on, the more vacillating among lawmakers are beginning to question the finer points of the reform bill. On the social side, arguments in the House (particularly among anti-choice Dems) surrounding abortion and the magnitude of government involvement in underwriting this procedure under reform are proving to be hold-ups and are being hammered out as you read this post.
On the fiscal side, the breadth of government mandated care access in a healthcare exchange[1] marketplace among illegals is keeping things interesting, as well.
Some are postulating that the impetus behind these concerns is the statistic released by the CBO last week which estimated the the participation in any government-sponsored option would be a paltry 2 percent. Of course, that figure is up for debate if many states prefer to opt out of any public option, a provision agreed upon in the Senate plan. Is it worth it? Would a public option, even with such a minute percentage of participants, drive up costs by placing government-backed reimbursements in parity with private plans; or would such a provision attract the much feared less healthy risk pool whose sheer use of services would trump even the most assiduously negotiated government rate? The debate’s eleventh hour could turn out to be an argument over the numbers. | LINK
- Mainly, whether to allow illegal immigrants to access insurance exchanges with their own funds as they would be taking advantage of a government-run system and its services. [↩]
Related Posts Within Doctor Pundit:
- House-Senate Agreements within Reform Bill Signal Obama’s Pending Signing The quest for a public option has been watered down...
- Senate Releases Bill Markup, Prompting Imminent Debate The full text of the Senate health reform bill is...
- House Passage of Reform Bill Places Scrutiny on Senate Strategy in Debate The House may have closed the current chapter on health...
