In preparation for today’s bipartisan health care summit, President Obama posted his health care plan, which builds on the bill passed by the Senate with certain key improvements.
His proposal makes significant improvements in making health care more affordable for low-wage workers, seniors, and state government. In addition, he reiterated his support for the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, which will allow workers to pay into an insurance program for long-term services and supports.
The full proposal is available on the White House website.
New and Revised Policies Proposed
The proposal includes a number of important new or revised policies that would advance the goals of making health care more affordable:
(1) Making coverage more affordable: Compared with the legislation passed by the Senate, the President’s proposal would significantly improve health care affordability for most low-and moderate income families by reducing both premiums and out-of-pocket costs for most families earning less than $44,000. This is critical for direct-care workers because:
- One in every five nursing home workers and more than a third of personal and home care aides lack health coverage.
- In 2008, annual earnings for direct-care workers averaged $17,000 (pdf).
- About 44 percent of direct-care workers live in households earning below 200 percent of the federal poverty level income (pdf).
(2) Reducing the cost of prescription drugs for seniors: The proposal would also make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors by closing the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan’s “donut hole,” which currently leaves some seniors unable to afford the medicines they need to remain healthy.
(3) Regulating excessive insurance rate increases: In addition to adopting the House and Senate ban on insurance companies denying people coverage for pre-existing conditions, the proposal would create federal oversight of excessive rate increases by private insurers.
(4) Increasing federal support for state Medicaid programs: The President’s proposal eliminates a special deal negotiated for Nebraska, and instead increases federal support to states to defray the cost of enrolling people who will be newly eligible for coverage under health reform. The federal government will provide states 100 percent support through 2017, 95 percent support for 2018-2019 and 90 percent support for 2020 and beyond.
This will help hard-pressed states expand coverage to low-income households, including those of direct-care workers. Two in five direct-care workers live in households that receive one or more public benefits (pdf) such as food stamps; Medicaid; and housing, child care, energy, or transportation assistance.
Additional Information
A side-by-side brief prepared by the Pico Network gives a comparison of the status quo, the Republican House plan, and the President’s plan, as well as what will be discussed at today’s Health Care Summit.
If you missed today’s live broadcast of the summit, visit HealthReform.gov.
– by Carol Regan
