Category: Erin Kutz
Shays Sponsors Plan to Make Health Insurance Affordable for All
HEALTHCARE
Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
February 15, 2008
WASHINGTON – Presidential campaigns are not the only front in the debate over expanding health care coverage across the nation. As presidential candidates have laced their stump speeches and debates with talk of overhauling health care, U.S. Reps. Christopher Shays, R-4, and James Langevin, D-R.I. have made a bipartisan effort of their own to bring about affordable insurance for all.
The duo introduced legislation Monday that would require that all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants be enrolled in a health insurance plan at least equivalent to the plan that covers U.S. government employees. Any residents not covered by another program could enroll in a plan in Shays’ proposal.
Shays’ American Health Benefits Program would provide affordable insurance, as it offers a range of plans through various private insurance companies, Shays argued. He added that costs would become lower as a bulk of enrollees would allow the government to bargain for better prices. People would have the option of carrying their health plan with them even as they switch jobs and those who fail to obtain insurance would be automatically enrolled in the least expensive plan in their region
While presidential candidates have proposed the expansion of the federal employees health insurance and have lauded the need for affordable health care insurance for all, Shays argued that his bill represents a concrete step in that direction.
“They’ve advocated it but they haven’t written the bill,” Shays said. “So we’re very eager to have them take look at it” once elected.
The bill would require the federal government to pay nearly three-fourths of the insurance premium, which would cost nearly $540 billion annually but would be heavily funded by a payroll tax levied on employers who don’t already offer health benefits. Individuals would pay the balance of the costs. Employers who offer coverage equivalent to American Health Benefit Program could continue to do so.
Even with the premium, the federal employee benefits may be far more extensive and pricey than what healthy or less affluent people are seeking, said Devon Herrick, senior fellow and health economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank.
“The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is a very rich set of benefits,” Herrick said. “What if I don’t want that benefit?”
Herrick also worried that special interest groups lobbying on what constitutes necessary coverage could further drive up the cost of the healthcare plans. He said proposals that offer the same health tax-credit to everyone would better allow persons to choose how much they want to spend and how much coverage they want.
WellPoint, Inc., the largest commercial health benefits company in the country, favors health care proposals that offer consumers choice.
“In contrast to past health care reform efforts at the federal level, those being discussed this year focus on expanding coverage while maintaining the choices available to our individual members and employer customers,” Shannon Troughton, vice president of communications at WellPoint, said in an email. “We believe this reflects good public policy.”
Shays’ plan would prohibit insurance companies from denying prospective enrollees coverage because of poor health. Troughton said this guaranteed coverage would burden the entire health insurance system and instead advocated for the continued use of high-risk pools — nonprofits created by states to cover healthcare costs for those who have been rejected by insurance companies for medical reasons.
“Requiring insurers to offer coverage to individuals regardless of their health or ‘guarantee issue’ creates an incentive for people to wait to obtain health coverage until they are sick,” she said. “This has been tried in several states and in every state with such reforms, premiums have increased dramatically and insurers have left the market.”
Under Shays’s proposal, the government also would subsidize co-payments for doctor visits, a hurdle that often keeps low-income people with insurance from seeking medical care. The plan calls for the government to completely cover co-payments for individuals under 125 percent of the federal poverty level. All children and pregnant women in families under 250 percent of the federal poverty level would receive complete co-payment subsidies.
Shays said he hopes to get feedback from the employer and health care community in his district. Small businesses could especially benefit from the program because they won’t have to bear as heavy a burden of health insurance premiums for their employees, Shays said.
Shays predicted the bill could take two to four years to pass.
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Dodd Urges Protection of Benefits Under Family And Medical Leave Act
DODD
New London Day & Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
February 14, 2008
WASHINGTON –U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act’s passage by accusing the Department of Labor of restricting employee access to the law’s benefits and advocated for paid work leave.
“How many speeches we've heard about family values—it can make you nauseous to hear them all,” Dodd said at a press conference before a Senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday on the act. “But when it comes down to actually doing something about it, nothing qualifies more clearly than this ideal.”
The act was the first that Bill Clinton signed as president. Dodd had championed the cause for more than five years and through several vetoes by previous administrations. It has since allowed more than 60 million Americans up to 12 weeks of unpaid work leave to care for a sick family member, treat their own medical condition, care for a newborn baby or care for a newly adopted child or foster child.
The Department of Labor Monday proposed changes in how the act is implemented that Dodd and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said would discourage Americans from taking advantage of their leave rights.
Among the proposals are requiring employees who take leave for chronic medical conditions to submit periodic medical proof of those conditions, and allowing employers to call employees’ health care providers to obtain medical information. Dodd called both suggestions insulting.
“A lot of these ideas seem gratuitous and rather unnecessary,” Dodd said. “If you have diabetes, you have diabetes. It doesn’t go away.”
Kennedy said the requirements would further burden those with perpetual medical problems, such as his son, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), who’s been an asthmatic since birth.
Victoria Lipnic, assistant secretary of labor for employment standards, testified Wednesday before the Children and Families Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She called for employees to notify their employer of the leave need as soon as it becomes known and abolish the provision allowing employees to notify employers of their need up to two days after their absence.
Dodd, who is chairman of the subcommittee, acknowledged the possibility of employees’ taking undue advantage of their leave rights, but said 90 percent of employers required to grant leave cited a neutral or positive effect of the leave on their company profits.
The United States is one of only four countries in the industrialized world without provisions for paid maternity leave, Dodd said. The other three are Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland,
Dodd previously introduced a bill calling for eight weeks of paid family leave, noting more than 80 percent of people who didn’t take their allotted family or medical leave did so because they can’t weather the loss in pay.
Katheryn Elliott, a representative from the Society for Human Resource Management and assistant director of employee relations at Central Michigan University, urged committee members to repair existing holes in the law before pressing ahead for paid leave.
She said the intermittent allotment of sick leave can result in abusive practices, and told the story of an employee in her workplace who took 76 intermittent days off work, working a full week only 7 times in the entire year.
“While well-intentioned, proposals that build on a flawed [Family and Medical Leave Act] framework will only exacerbate the significant challenges both employers and employees currently encounter,” she said.
Kristen Grimm, president of a 30-employee communications consulting firm, said paid maternity leave results in enhanced employee loyalty and productivity and thereby a stronger economy. The family leave act only requires companies with 50 or more employees to grant leave, but Grimm said she allots her employees six weeks of paid and six weeks of unpaid maternity leave.
“We have many women at our firm, many working at a senior capacity,” she said. “I’m confident these are the best people at what they do. And quite simply, I don’t think we would have been able to attract or retain many of them were they not assured the ability to take the time necessary to start a family.”
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Some Claim Effectie Programs Left Out of Economic Stimulus Plan
STIMULUS
Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
February 7, 2008
WASHINGTON — Two programs left out of the Senate economic stimulus plan Thursday—extended jobless aid and more money for food stamps—would have provided bigger boosts to the economy than those included in the bill, according to economic analysts and Connecticut agencies.
The Senate Democrats’ original plan, which the Finance Committee approved last week, was blocked Wednesday night by a 58-41 vote, just shy of the 60 votes needed to bring the package to a vote. That plan, unlike the House version, included tax rebates for seniors and disabled veterans, extensions of unemployment insurance and funds for the low-income heating assistance program.
Provisions for additional spending for food stamps did not make it into the Senate’s original plan, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., requested Thursday that increased food stamp aid be added to the legislation.
But in the end, all that was added to the House version of the bill were rebates for 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans. The revised bill passed the Senate, 81-16, late Thursday afternoon.
A report by Moody’s economic research Web site, economy.com, shows that every dollar spent on food stamps returns $1.73 to the economy and every dollar spent on extended unemployment insurance benefits contributes $1.64, according to a statement by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit organization that studies state and federal fiscal policy.
Last week, nearly 50,000 people in Connecticut requested unemployment checks, up 3.8 percent from the same period last year, according to John Toomey Jr., a research analyst with the Connecticut Department of Labor. The original Senate plan would have extended unemployment benefits for 13 weeks.
Each month, 104,000 households receive food stamps in Connecticut, according the state Department of Social Services.
Rep Chris Shays R-D-4, said immediately after the Senate acted that his final vote on the bill would be based on how effectively the provisions would advance the economy.
“The first question is: will it stimulate the economy?” he said. “Otherwise it’s a huge waste of dollars. And after that you ask how you would get it to the people who benefit the most.”
About 76 percent of all people who get food stamps use them within the first week and more than 90 percent use them within the first month, according to Lucy Nolan, executive director of End Hunger Connecticut.
“For me it’s a bit of a no-brainer,” Nolan said. “If you want to infuse money quickly into the economy, that’s what you do.”
“People in Connecticut, like people across the United States, are hurting as a result of Bush economic policies and need programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps to help during times of need,” said Colleen Flanagan, communications director for Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. “Sen. Dodd is committed to working with his colleagues in the Senate to ensure that people who need help making ends meet receive the help they need, and will work toward a stimulus package that addresses both the short- and long-term needs of our economy.”
Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan budget watchdog group, expressed concern that Senate Democrats’ initial requests turned the economic stimulus plan into a gift exchange of partisan desires.
“Everyone with an interest wants to get on board because they know with a stimulus package it will go through quickly,” Bixby said. “It will have the Christmas tree effect, with everyone trying to build on it.”
Bixby said tax rebates for seniors and disabled veterans seems to draw more of a bipartisan consensus and could be the provision most likely to make it through in the end.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn, expressed concern over the blocked benefits for seniors and disabled veterans.
“I believe it is imperative that we immediately get vital assistance to those who need it—including the unemployed, seniors and disabled veterans—to boost our weakening economy,” Lieberman said. “This is a time to reject partisan politics and take critical action on behalf of the American people.”
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Washington Catholic Groups Observe Ash Wednesday With White House Protest
CATHOLICS
Norwalk Hour
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
February 6, 2008
WASHINGTON — Members of Washington-area Catholic groups began the Lenten season Wednesday by smearing ashes over walkways in front of the White House as a symbol of what they called repentance for the country’s involvement in the war in Iraq and torture of Guantanamo detainees.
Approximately 30 protestors marched from Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew to the White House, toting plastic sandwich bags filled with ashes and displaying cardboard and cloth banners scrawled with messages such as “War Makes Some Rich and Others Dead” and “Either Jesus was a Liar or War is Never Necessary.”
Though the group read prayers and sang hymns over a megaphone in front of the White House gates, event organizer James Salt said the event was meant to be a symbolic gesture rather than a loud rally.
“Our only hope is that you are a forgiving God and this sign of repentance will stay your hand over an evil empire,” the Rev. Joseph Nangle said as he led the ashes ceremony while policemen on horseback circled the crowd of protestors.
Nangle, who works at an Arlington, Va., parish, said the protest sought to raise awareness for collective repentance for torturing detainees or and engaging in the war in Iraq.
“I think most Catholics are just into personal repentance, but I think it goes way beyond that,” Nangle said. “The social sins of our country need to be addressed.”
The protestors came from groups representing the core of the Catholic left-wing and social justice movement, said Salt, who is a member of Catholics for an End to the War in Iraq.
“I think that it’s important to remember the foundation of most faiths is peace,” said protestor Lorig Charkoudian.
Though Pope John Paul II spoke out against the war in Iraq at its outset, he did not direct Catholic dioceses to officially oppose the war, David Reynolds, legislative liaison for the Connecticut Catholic Conference, said in a telephone interview.
Reynolds said individual Catholic parishioners and groups have the freedom to decide their position on the war.
Judith Kelly, an Arlington, Va. representative of Pace e Bene, a Catholic group that advocates nonviolence, said demonstrations of repentance are central to the Catholic faith. Kelly, who said she has nephews who have served in Iraq, said serving as a public witness against the war makes it more bearable for her.
“This war has broken my heart,” said Kelly, who was arrested at the Supreme Court on Jan. 11 protesting treatment of Guantanamo detainees. “Every time I can stand up and speak up, I can just bear it a bit more.”
Reynolds said that he does not think Connecticut public opinion on the war will be particularly affected by Lent but that other political and social issues such as the economy will garner the attention of Catholic parishioners in the coming months.
“I think you’ll see a lot of Catholics very engaged in issues of the economy where it hurts working people or low-income people,” Reynolds said.
Salt said in the final year of the Bush presidency, there will be a debate about his legacy. “He thinks he’s done well to represent the Catholic concerns,” Salt said. “Now there’s a large cloud hanging over his moral standing in the Catholic community.”
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Dodd Seeks Solutions to Housing Foreclosures
HOUSING
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
January 31, 2008
WASHINGTON – Citing the housing crisis as a driving force behind the economic downturn, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., stressed the urgency Thursday of steps to remedy the effects of sub-prime mortgages and prevent similar future crises.
“The epicenter of this economic crisis is the housing crisis,” Dodd said.
At a hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which he chairs, Dodd and other senators questioned the effectiveness of solutions offered by the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, suggesting that they have not garnered the necessary results to prevent home foreclosures and loan defaults by Americans with sub-prime mortgages.
“This is not the American dream,” Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J, said. “In many respects, it is an American nightmare.”
On Oct. 10, the Bush administration established the Hope Now alliance of lenders, credit counselors and investors to counsel homeowners at risk of foreclosure. To date, 94percent of those with sub-prime loans have used the service, testified Robert Steel, the Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance. Steel said the alliance hotline receives 4,000 calls a day.
FDIC chairman Sheila Bair told the committee her agency has taken time to study the enormity of the housing crisis and hopes to implement systemic solutions.
Dodd expressed disappointment with the current solutions and said the committee held hearings a year ago to examine remedies to sub-prime mortgages, but action in the meantime has lagged. Initially, he said, the committee had hoped the market would correct the housing crisis and legislation would not be necessary.
“It seems to me we’re fiddling around,” he said. “We need to put something out there to freeze this thing so we can get a handle on it….I can’t sit around and watch another year of this and not get the answers we should have had.”
Though committee members and hearing witnesses cited the economic effect of questionable lending practices, they stressed the need to heal the pain and prevent its causes.
“This is about more than economic statistics,” Steel said. “It’s about individuals, families and homeowners.”
Dodd said Bridgeport, with a population of only 100,000, has experienced 6,000 foreclosures.
“It’s not some far-off, esoteric problem, it’s a crisis,” said Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa. “The goal is keeping people in their homes and stabilizing neighborhoods.”
Both the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute and the Center for American Progress, which identifies itself as a progressive think tank, advocated an approach similar to the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, President Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the housing crisis during the Great Depression. That agency issued longer-term, easier loans to replace those on which homeowners had defaulted.
Dodd hailed the two organizations’ similar recommendations as indicative of the broad interest in finding solutions for Americans facing foreclosures.
Dodd said he supported a $10 billion increase in the Community Development Block Grant program, which allows state and local governments to acquire, renovate and resell homes that have been abandoned as a result of foreclosures.
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Senators Defend Importance of LIHEAP Funds to Stimulus Package
LiheapDay
New London Day
Erin Kutz
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 30
WASHINGTON — U.S. senators pushing to add Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds to the economic stimulus plan now before the Senate have rebuffed warnings that their proposal would hinder passage of the plan.
At a press conference Wednesday, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) defended the importance of the additional funds to the stimulus plan’s aims. “It fits with what should be the concept of any stimulus package: it’s timely, targeted and temporary,” he said.
The House passed the $146 billion economic stimulus plan 385-35 on Tuesday. Senators at the press conference said they hoped to vote on the plan by the end of next week.
Studies on the economic effect of the energy assistance program found that every dollar spent on the program returns $5.37 to the economy. And according to a Reed press release, every million dollars spent on it generates an average of 94 jobs nationally.
Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) did not attend the news conference but last week joined 33 other senators in a bipartisan request to add $3.62 billion for low-income home energy aid to the stimulus package.
These funds, Dodd said in a press release, “will be spent immediately to stimulate the economy and provide a vital safety net to families and seniors so they are not forced to choose between paying their energy bills and purchasing needed medicines and food.”
Teresa Carver, a recipient of home heating aid in Arkansas, said at the news conference that the aid was received while she was out of work recovering from heart surgery.
“I applaud their effort to include this,” U.S. Rep. Joseph Courtney (D-Conn.) said of the senators’ proposal. “There is no question in my mind of the struggle people are having paying their bills.”
Courtney said money for programs such as energy assistance, food stamps and workers’ compensation was cut from the original Democratic proposal as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) negotiated the stimulus package with the White House and Republican House leaders. The tradeoff, he said, was to extend the plan’s tax rebate to individuals who earned as little as $3,000 last year.
Courtney said the Senate’s proposal should not prove a barrier to the passage of the stimulus legislation. “Energy assistance is a relatively small piece of the package,” he said. “I hope it will not be viewed as a deal-breaker.”
On Jan 17, President Bush released an additional $450 million of emergency funds for the home energy program, with nearly $13.6 million going to Connecticut. Courtney said Bush is still withholding $150 million of such aid. Though Gov. M. Jodi Rell said the state would cover heating assistance shortfalls, Courtney said state funds should be reserved for other costs in the economic downturn.
“It’s been a long running battle with this administration,” Courtney said. “They really have hostility” toward the home energy aid program.
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