I hope everyone realizes the bolded portion would be a tax increase on millions of Americans....
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Bush health care plan looks to states for action 42 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - States may have to roll back some or all of their laws that mandate health insurance cover under President George W. Bush's plan to reform health care, the White House said on Monday.
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The White House and the Health and Human Services Department offered a few details of the plan to help cover some of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, which Bush plans to highlight in Tuesday's State of the Union speech. He also previewed it in his radio address on Saturday.
Under the plan, states could subsidize health insurance premiums directly, they could establish high risk pools for the sickest people, and could help individuals and small businesses create their own insurance pools.
"States that provide their citizens access to basic, private insurance at an affordable price would be eligible for funds under the Affordable Choices Initiative," the White House said in a statement.
To get the federal money states would need to make health insurance affordable by such means as "reducing benefit or premium mandates," it said.
Currently, each state has its own set of mandated conditions that health insurers must cover. For example, South Carolina has a law requiring insurers to pay for at least one night in the hospital for women who have just given birth.
Requirements to cover mental health conditions are also legislated by states, although Congress has considered several federal approaches.
Bush also proposes allowing people to buy health insurance offered only in other states.
"The secretary of HHS would be able to redirect federal payments away from institutions (such as hospitals) and to needy individuals in eligible states. These grants would allow states to help low-income individuals purchase private health insurance," the White House statement added.
States already work with the federal government under the Medicare, Medicaid and children's health insurance plans for the elderly, needy and the very young.
Some groups have called for expanding these services, but Bush's plan emphasizes private insurance.
Bush's plan would consider employer-provided health insurance to be taxable income but also allow a one-time general deduction, similar to the mortgage deduction.
Some Democrats said they would oppose Bush's plan.
"The President's so-called health care proposal won't help the uninsured, most of whom have limited incomes and are already in low tax brackets," said California Democratic Rep. Pete Stark, Chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee.
"But it will hurt middle-income Americans, whose employers will shift even more cost and risk to their employees," he added.
Stark said he instead favored expanding Medicare. |
