Here is another installment of my analysis of Congressman Wu’s letter about the “benefits” of HR3200. In this segment he brings up the argument that you can keep your benefits if you like them. Don’t believe it.
H.R. 3200 builds on what works in our current health care system and fixes many of the parts that are broken. It protects current coverage – allowing individuals to keep the insurance they have if they like it – and preserves choice of doctors, hospitals, and health plans. The legislation also creates a new health insurance exchange – a transparent marketplace for individuals and small employers to comparison shop among private and public insurers. The health insurance exchange works with state insurance departments to set and enforce insurance reforms and consumer protections, facilitates enrollment, and administers affordability credits to help low- and middle-income individuals and families purchase insurance.
- Wow, so many claims are made here without one single reference to any piece of evidence to back them up. I wonder why that might be? What does he consider to be “broken” and what does he think “works”?
- Let’s look at the first claim that is verifiable: the protection of current coverage. Looking at section 102 of HR3200 or section 202 of HR3962 you can find their idea of a “grandfather clause” here and here. If you read through these sections you will see that there is a grace period of 5 years. Once the 5-year period is over, there will be no more grandfathering of past policies and all policies will have to be changed to whatever the government deems acceptable. This means you can only keep your current health coverage for a maximum of 5 years, but even that is unlikely. Before the grace period passes, your coverage is not allowed to change in any way or you will have to leave it. Premiums can’t change, terms and conditions can’t change, and benefits and cost sharing can’t change. I don’t know about any of you, but my insurance changes yearly. It would take a very generous reader to conclude that the Congressman’s statement that we get to keep our current coverage is true. Any rational view will see it for what it is…a lie.
- Preservation of choice… Hmm, what to say about this? I can only assume this will come under the auspices of the Health Choices Administration as legislated in Sec. 141 of HR3200 (Sec. 301 in HR3962). So yes, you’ll have your choice…of whatever the Health Choices Administrator decides are your options.
- The Health Insurance Exchange is billed as a market where you can compare various private plans and compare them with the public options. This is just ridiculous. The private plans will all have to meet certain specifications which will make them identical to the public plans, but since private providers are not subsidized by the taxpayer, they won’t be able to compete nor will they be able to offer anything particularly different from the public plans. It’ll be a rigged game designed to push insurance companies out of business. The fix will be in.
- It sounds like the affordability credits would work similarly to Medicaid, but the language is painful to read and I honestly can’t do much with it. Here is an example from HR3962:
(2) APPLICATION OF VERIFICATION PROCESS FOR AFFORDABILITY CREDITS- The provisions of paragraphs (4) (other than subparagraphs (F) and (H)(i)) and (5)(A) of section 341(b), and of subsections (v) (other than paragraph (3)) and (x) of section 205 of the Social Security Act, shall apply to the verification of eligibility of an eligible individual by the Secretary (or by a State agency approved by the Secretary) for benefits under this section in the same manner as such provisions apply to the verification of eligibility of an affordable credit eligible individual for affordability credits by the Commissioner under section 341(b). The agreement referred to in section 205(v)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act (as applied under this paragraph) shall also provide for funding, to be payable from the amount made available under subsection (h)(1), to the Commissioner of Social Security in such amount as is agreed to by such Commissioner and the Secretary.
