After years of trying to cut Medicare spending, Republican lawmakers are now championing the program, accusing Democrats of trying to steal from the elderly to cover the cost of health reform. The hospital associations, AARP, and other powerful interest groups that usually oppose Medicare cuts have also switched sides. Last week, they stood silent as the Senate Finance Committee debated a plan to slice more than $400 billion over the next decade from Medicare, notes this article from the Washington Post.
The health-system overhaul proposed by Sen. Max Baucus would create millions of new insurance customers without subjecting health insurers to government-run competition. Insurers have argued that the individual mandate is essential to get healthy people paying premiums and balancing out the costs of adding coverage from an influx of sick people. Deliberations on the bill by the Senate Finance Committee have raised the possibility that such an individual mandate could be significantly weakened.
Many employers are considering changes, including raising co-pays on prescription drugs to increase their employees' share of costs in a bid to curb growth in medical plan costs. Such cost-cutting actions should reduce employers' growth in costs next year to just below 6% instead of nearly 9% otherwise, suggest preliminary results of consultant Mercer's annual benefits survey.
Healthcare overhaul legislation moving through the Senate Finance Committee would put crucial rule-making authority in the hands of a private association of state insurance commissioners that consumer advocates fear is too closely tied to the industry. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners currently writes model laws and regulations that individual states are free to accept or discard, reports the Los Angeles Times. Under the bill by Sen. Max Baucus, it would craft a model rule governing "health insurance rating, issuance and marketing requirements" that would become "the new federal minimum standard without any further congressional action."
The cost of medical benefits is projected to increase again in 2010 with premiums and out-of-pocket expenses rising 10%, a study released ahead of open-enrollment season for medical benefits predicts. In 2010, the combined average premium and out-of-pocket costs for healthcare coverage for a worker are projected to climb to $4,023 a year, a 10% increase from this year, according to the annual study by Hewitt Associates.
Public support for Massachusetts' health insurance overhaul has slipped over the past year, a new poll indicates, but residents still support the 2006 law by a 2-to-1 ratio. Amid a severe recession, 59% of those surveyed said they favored the state's multimillion-dollar insurance initiative, down from 69% a year ago. The poll also found that opposition to the law stands at 28%, up slightly from 22% in a June 2008 survey.