A Senate Healthcare Plan Offers Choices: Platinum, gold, silver or bronze private insurance!

[Better Believe It]

- A Senate Healthcare Plan Offers Choices: Platinum, gold, silver or bronze private insurance! -

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Senate Panel’s Health Care Bill Shuns Public Option
CQ TODAY
June 19, 2009

An outline of a Senate Finance Committee proposal to overhaul the health care system would require individuals to have health care coverage, offer tax credits to help them afford it, and set up a marketplace for people to buy “platinum,” “gold,” “silver” or “bronze” coverage.

A spokesman for Finance Committee Democrats this week confirmed the authenticity of the outline.

And the outline stops short of requiring businesses to offer health care coverage, which liberal Democrats have sought. Businesses, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have been adamantly opposed to any requirement that they offer coverage.

Instead of an employer mandate, the Finance Committee outline suggests a system where companies with employees in Medicaid would have to pay in 50 percent of the national average cost of Medicaid. For those workers who obtain health insurance through the “exchange’ marketplace called for in the proposal, their employers would have to contribute half of the cost of the tax credit the workers would be given to help them buy the coverage.

The exchange — basically a national or regional marketplace for people to buy coverage outside of the traditional employer-sponsored market — would offer four levels of plans: “platinum,” gold,” “silver,” and “bronze.” To participate in the exchange, insurers would have to offer plans in at least the “silver” and “gold” categories. The names for the categories designate how much the plans would cover, with “platinum” being the most extensive.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=cqmidday-000003148809

I wonder what that "bronze" plan looks like, it's cost and what it covers? Corporate and Wall Street executives will probably have the "platinum" plan.

A real nice plan based on class distinction and lines!

[tinrobot]

1. How about a Red, White and Blue plan?

One that covers ALL Americans... period.

[Better Believe It]

3. They may offer us the "Black and Blue" plan after they beat the crap out of us!

[rucky]

2. Our nation's best and brightest hard at work.

:puke:

[Joanne98]

4. How about an "empty space" plan. If they keep up their shit that's

what it's going to be!

[NC_Nurse]

5. You can dip a turd in shiny coating, but it's still a piece of shit.

Sigh.

[JimWis]

6. And the one most folks could afford would probably be the one

with high deductibles and co-pays? - that doesn't sound like reform. It should be one affordable cost, everyone covered equally.

So, how many plans have we got going now in the Senate? - I have been watching the mark-up meetings on the one from Kennedy-Dobbs. This one is from the other committee. We have the one just released from the House - which is better than both, IMHO. And HR 676 single payer. Gonna get interesting.

[Beartracks]

13. Do ANY of them involve public options or single-payer yet? n/t

[JimWis]

15. The Kennedy/Dobbs bill has a public option. The one that the

House just announced by Waxman and others has a public option. And the House bill HR 676 is single payer.

[Yavin4]

7. The Bronze Plan - Cost A Fortune, Cover Nothing

The Bronze plan will probably cost at least $800 a month, and it won't cover a bandaid. This shit has got to end. This is just a sop to the health insurance industry, nothing more.

[avaistheone1]

41. I think that is the one we are being offered now.

[Shagbark Hickory]

8. Let me guess. Working folks end up with the shitty plan. LOL What a crock. nt

[sisters6]

9. some explanation here.......

*

Senate Finance proposes unaffordable underinsurance
Posted by Don McCanne, MD on Friday, Jun 19, 2009

This entry is from Dr. McCanne's Quote of the Day, a daily health policy update on the single-payer health care reform movement. The QotD is archived on PNHP's website.

Health Care Reform: Draft Proposal

Posted by Ezra Klein
The Washington Post

June 18, 2009

Senate Finance Committee

Excerpts

Benefit Options - Actuarial value
Bronze = 65%
Silver = 73%
Gold = 81%
Platinum = 90%

Tax credit for individuals and families
Up to 300% federal poverty level (FPL)

Medicaid
Children and pregnant women - up to 133% FPL
Parents and childless adults - up to 100% FPL

Individual requirement - fine for non-compliance
Exempt from fine if lowest premium exceeds 15% of income
Exempt from fine if below 100% poverty

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/health_care_reform_draft_proposal_061809.pdf

The Senate Finance Committee members were informed by the Congressional Budget Office that the impact their preliminary reform proposal would have on the federal budget would be much greater than a bipartisan consensus would permit. Before moving further forward with the legislative process, the committee is considering changes to reduce the amount of funds that would have to be budgeted. The draft proposal cited above is not a definitive recommendation but merely presents ideas for discussion.

Nevertheless, the process should alarm us. The committee members continue to steadfastly refuse to look at financing options that would be effective in providing affordable health care for everyone. They begin with the insistence that reform be built on the obsolete infrastructure of private health plans, even though they have just proven once again that this archaic model no longer works.

Look what happens when they try to cram reform into this model. They expect an individual or a family with an income of 300% of the federal poverty level to pay 15% of their income for the premium alone, and for that they receive a plan that covers only 65% of the actuarial value of their health care services. They would require Americans to pay to private insurers a premium that they can’t afford, to purchase an underinsurance product that would fail to prevent financial hardship should they need health care, and to fine them should they fail to comply.

So they say, wait, this isn’t final. Let’s work with these numbers so that we can find products with adequate benefits and affordable premiums that do not further burden our federal budget with excess subsidies. As long as our legislators rely on an infrastructure of private health plans, that game will never end. Those numbers do not exist.

There is a way we can do it. We can establish separately a single, equitably-funded, universal risk pool which would be affordable for everyone. We could then use those funds in a much more efficient, single health care purchasing system that would ensure that everyone receives the care that they need.

But you’ve heard this before. And so have the members of Congress. Yet they continue to craft policies that impair the health care finances and health care access of far too many of us merely to ensure the viability of the obsolete, dysfunctional insurance industry. Talk about perverse priorities!

If you haven’t yet co-signed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Petition to Congress, please do so now, and ask others to do so as well:

http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-762a5b050809



http://www.pnhp.org/blog/

[Beartracks]

12. Is it "reform" if you just rearrange the leopard's spots?

I love this: The Senate Finance Committee proposal "would require Americans to pay to private insurers a premium that they can’t afford, to purchase an underinsurance product that would fail to prevent financial hardship should they need health care."

Hell, we've got that kind of a system already! Is it really "reform" if you simply make this inefficient, ineffective system mandatory?

McCanne is right on!

[sisters6]

16. I think lots will be window dressing and we are being puked on.

[quakerboy]

19. And the Fines could use some definition

"fine for non compliance based on percentage of the average cost of lowest cost option available"

Whats that mean to me? At 800+/month cost, I cannot afford to buy in to something I cannot afford to use. 65% covered is the same as 0% covered if you don't have money to spend. And given I do not have a family of 4, I am sure I do not meet the income limit for any help with this. I make too much for most things, even though most of my money goes straight to our student loans.

So, depending on the percentage, I might be far better off skipping it and just paying the Fine. the financial incentive, plus the fact that I have no interest in participating in the private insurance scampany deal means that this plan would be better off not existing, as far as I am concerned. At least now I have some specifics to call congress about right now.

[sisters6]

26. I see your point. My guess is that they will be setting up an expensive

administrative bureaucracy just to collect fines.

[quakerboy]

37. I am more ok

paying a government bureaucrat than a corporate lord and his bureaucrats..

[Hello_Kitty]

32. You got it. 65% covered is the same as 0% covered if you have no money.

And, like you say, if you don't have children you can pretty much hang up getting any kind of gov't subsidy to help you pay your premium. This is why so many young people don't have insurance. Most of them are working in low-paying jobs with no benefits or have giant student loans to pay off. What sense does it make to buy a lousy high-deductible plan that STILL has a hefty monthly premium when you're going to be paying big out-of-pocket costs anyway in the event you need to use it? These young people make the perfectly rational decision to forego insurance and take their chances. Then they are demonized as "free riders" and deadbeats by people who think mandates are a great idea (most of whom, you'll notice, have excellent employer-sponsor coverage themselves).

[wroberts189]

35. "Exempt from fine if lowest premium exceeds 15% of income" wtf...nt.

[Yavin4]

10. Don't You Just Love How They Use Condescending Rhetoric

"Gold" plan, "Silver" plan, and the "Bronze" plan. OOOhhhh goody, we're going to win a medal!

[Beartracks]

11. Wow, they're really thinking outside the box here.

:sarcasm:

Thank God they're trying to scrap that ineffective, byzantine, profit-based system that most of the developed world ditched a long time ago.

Hey, Congress, listen to the PEOPLE in your districts and states (they're the ones with hearts, votes, and health problems) instead of the special interests and corporations (they're the ones with bureaucrats, lobbyists, and a stranglehold on the health and welfare of the citizens). Here's another way to tell them apart: special interests and corporations are the ones positioned behind the citizenry as the citizenry is bent over the operating table.

[Oregone]

14. Because only the richest deserve platinum

Heathcare based on social class. I love it. Uniquely American

Single-payer - One equal, affordable, effective plan for ALL

[kenny blankenship]

17. You know what would be GREAT??? Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze VOTERS!

SERIOUSLY! think about it. Should EVERYONE have their vote counted the same??? Who says so! Some people are terrific for our country, some have plenty on the ball, some are redundant and some others are just plain WORTHLESS!
Let the best 10% have 90% of the voting power. The second best decile can have 7% of the vote. The third decile 3% of the vote and the remaining 70% of the population can have an electronic suggestion box to drop their comments in.

Why value their votes the same? Why value their lives all the same? It just makes no sense. They don't contribute to the vitality of the country equally. It's just silly to get hung up on equality. If a hurricane is coming, you'd naturally move the best people out of the way first, the decent people second, and since time is pressing you'd move the rest in no particular order after that - if you bothered moving them at all! Same thing with medical care. Prioritize for greatest national good!

The Senate has struck up one hell of a paradigm shifting, transformational, outside of the box idea, and I think it will do wonders for our country.

We could mark the transformation by renaming the United States to "Dickensian England". My goodness, I like the sound of that!

[ohheckyeah]

18. We already have those options.

It's called deductible and that's what determines the price. This sounds like stupid bullshit to me.

[liskddksil]

20. Now they're using baseball ticket price levels

Who the f do they think we are a bunch of morons.

[DefenseLawyer]

21. They really are going to end up with something that is worse than nothing.

I'm sure the Bronze plan will the equivalent to the "we keep you legal for less" car insurance that is offered for no other purpose than complying with the "mandate" of "universal car insurance".

[Hello_Kitty]

33. Yep.

Look for every insurance company to issue plans with minimal coverage and big copays. The monthly premiums will be exactly what the mandated "fine" threshold is.

[crimsonblue]

22. what, are they being advised from microsoft?

what a stupid idea.

[Sebastian Doyle]

31. Sounds like it

Hell, I'm surprised they didn't call it the "Vista Health Care Plan" :puke:

[grillo7]

23. Which Senators cooked this up?

We need to bombard them with calls and letters that this plan is completely unacceptable.

[SoCalDem]

24. "Bronze" healthcare plan

[Willo]

29. +1

[quakerboy]

38. But at least

I am sure we will be given the privilege of paying at least $800 a month for it.

[Better Believe It]

40. It's not that good. This is the "bronze" healthcare plan supported by the fundamentalists

"Jesus Will Make It Better" bandages along with a "Jesus Heals" sticker.

[avaistheone1]

42. lol

[quantass]

25. Funny how all this complexity for something that should be simple -- Always a sign of ulterior motiv

Obviously we all know why they are offering these redicious gimmicks but i find it fascinating that they keep trying.

The most fascinating thing of all is how the public polls shows an overwhelming desire for a public option (and likely they'd pol the same for single-payer) but yet these gimmicks keep getting churned out of committees.

Obama needs to use these polls and the support he has in the House to ram this thing through congress....republicans and blue dogs be damned.

[LittleBlue]

27. Hey, fine by me. If the Democrats can find enough votes to win elsewhere, I salute them.

But they can't count on me, or a few million others.

My message to Dems: kill this, and then I wish you good luck getting re-elected after washing my hands of you.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

28. And next year they'll add tin, resin and paper plans when it is discovered

that rates are STILL too high, since nothing was done to address WHY healthcare costs so much ----- PROFIT!!!!!!

[Cleita]

30. Sold down the river again. I hope saner heads in Congress vote this plan

down. Gum damn Harry Reid. This should not have gone to the Finance Committee particularly with DINO Max "They Bought My Office" Baucus in charge.

[wroberts189]

34. This is a joke right? nt

[Wilms]

36. .

[Brigid]

39. You know this is deliberate, right?

It's a deliberate attempt to come up with a health care plan so stupid and unworkable that it'll get voted down and those who oppose health care for anyone but the rich can say, "See? It just isn't possible in this country." :grr: