Rep. Shea-Porter Among House Members Announcing Health Bill
HOUSE BILL
New Hampshire Union Leader
Joe Markman
Boston University Washington News Service
10/29/09
WASHINGTON – Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., joined fellow lawmakers Thursday in unveiling the House Democratic leadership’s version of a health care reform bill that the full chamber could vote on before Veterans Day.
Shea-Porter lined up beside Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the National Mall to announce the compromise legislation, a combination of bills that three House committees had approved.
The bill includes a public health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers, though the plan is less expansive than some more-liberal members would have preferred. The plan—the so-called public option—would negotiate insurance rates with doctors and hospitals, similar to what private insurers do, rather than be based on the generally lower Medicare rates, a step that did not have enough support in the Democratic caucus.
“What we have here is the effort of every member in the House of Representatives,” Shea-Porter said after the press conference in response to a question about the public option’s rate structure.
“We will be delivering great service at great value to the American people,” she said. “Insurance companies will still be able to make a profit, Americans will be healthier and it’s really a win-win.”
Lawmakers were flanked by a crowd of people disenchanted by aspects of the current health care system. Shea-Porter introduced Priscilla King, a senior citizen from Bow, N.H., who said she is struggling financially because she and her husband often fall into the Medicare prescription drug plan’s so-called donut hole.
“We have gone into debt because of the times we’ve fallen into the donut hole,” King said. “Can you imagine buying a meal at a restaurant and getting an empty plate?”
The donut hole is a coverage gap that exists in nearly all Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. After a Medicare beneficiary surpasses a specific coverage limit, the beneficiary must pay for the entire cost of patented prescription drugs and, in many cases, the full cost of generic drugs until the out-of-pocket cost reaches the catastrophic coverage threshold.
King’s husband Ernie is in a New Hampshire hospital and could not attend. She said they have 13 prescriptions between them and live off their monthly Social Security checks. When in the coverage gap, King said she and her husband rely on generic drugs.
For 2010, according to Medicare, once recipients have spent $2,830 for covered drugs they must pay for all their drug costs until they have spent $4,550. After that, they are responsible only for a small co-payment on each prescription. Thus the cost of the gap is $1,720.
Shea-Porter said that King’s was an “all-too-familiar” story and that the House bill would fix the problem by shrinking the gap in coverage over time and providing seniors a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescriptions when they are in the donut-hole.
Other highlights of the House bill are expanded coverage for 36 million Americans, elimination of gender and pre-existing condition discrimination, a ban on dropping coverage when people get sick and a higher, 27-year-old age limit on children remaining on their parent’s plans.
The bill would cost $894 billion over 10 years, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. It would be paid for by cutbacks in Medicare and a tax on individuals making over $500,000 a year and couples making over $1 million.
