Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Health Insurance Fear vs. Other Fears, Pt.8 –- Bipartisan Reform?

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Because cost cutting is the prime source of $1 trillion of the $1.1 trillion saved by Hacker's plan this remains a big obstacle. Perhaps because of timing, neither Obama nor Clinton have elaborated on how their health insurance/care plans will adequately control costs. While it’s true they will see some savings from administrative efficiencies and more cost-effective care, the savings would be comparatively minor. They have also left it unclear about what employers would have to pay in lieu of providing health insurance/care, though a 7% cap has been suggested. At this point in the campaign they have both advanced to the point of embracing the politically savvy part of Hacker's plan, but have chosen to hold off on announcing methods of serious cost controls. All must realize the grueling process of reckoning with the insurance industry and trying to get anything through Congress while preserving a vestige of the original objective. If too many colors run together, we could be left with mud. The health insurance/care system we’re left with may degenerate to one “very much like the current one, just with more subsidies for coverage and more clearly structured [health] insurance choices, but with relentless cost increases that translate into reduced actual care,” as Ezra Klein puts it.

With all this, it should be noted that Hacker’s health insurance/care plan is not the only game in town. Even though “versions of his plan are getting the most attention at the presidential level, in Congress, the action is around the Healthy Americans Act sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon”, Klein introspects. This health insurance/care plan is structured very differently.

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