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May 14 2009, 3:22 pm by Marc Ambinder

Outlines Of A Health Care Plan In The House

The Associated Press obtained an outline of some key baseline figures for health care reform in the House of Representatives. Under legislation being written by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, employers would be required to purchase health insurance for their employees. And people earning less than $88,000 would be eligible for government assistance with their premiums.  A Public Plan:  the House draft contains two important variations on the idea. One is that the Department of Health and Human Services would create and administer a self-sufficient health insurance option. That means that it would not be funded by taxpayers, but by the premiums paid by participants. The second: that a group of experts would recommended benefits that a new "exchange" like mechanism would cover; this option would be available to individuals and very small businesses.  Mandate: at this point, the House bill does not contain an individual mandate.  Costs: according to the AP, there's no cost estimate.  Insurance restrictions: As in the various Senate proto-plans, insurance companies would face significant new regulations; they'd be required to cover more money and have less flexibility in denying coverage.

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Jeff Sutter

The notion that government must needs be inept is becoming tattered around the edges as states collaborate and share best practices - web mediation of all kinds of interactions has been a tonic. And the proof is the obvious concern among insurance companies that the HHS default health care plan could attract significant market share from them. Knowing that "competition" brings more confusion than choice and cost containment incentives are an urban legend, the third party payers assume that the HHS plan will call their bluff.

In the new environment, commercial coverage can only prosper to the extent that it can be demonstratively more effective at reducing costs without affecting outcomes – there’s gold in them boomer hills doing lifestyle management of age related chronic conditions. And there will be a market for providing coverage for less effective treatments for people with the money to experiment with treatment modes that are either too new or more costly than the approved alternatives.

If they carve out Social Security taxability by adding amounts spent on healthcare or medigap insurance to the taxability thresholds it may make means testing unnecessary.