Thread: Sen. Kennedy Seeks Universal Health Plan

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070110/D8MILT001.html

Sen. Kennedy Seeks Universal Health Plan

Jan 10, 4:44 PM (ET)

By KEVIN FREKING



WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.

Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Kennedy has his own version of what universal health coverage would look like. He wants to extend Medicare to all. In his first hearing Wednesday as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Massachusetts Democrat called on 10 witnesses from all over the country to talk about how to make health care more affordable.

"Insurance coverage is down. Costs are up. And America is heading to the bottom of the league of major nations in important measures of the quality of care," Kennedy said.

Kennedy emphasized how Democratic legislators in his home state worked last year with Republican Gov. Mitt Romney in crafting universal coverage there. He wants the same spirit of compromise to take hold in Congress.

However, the hearing also showed that finding agreement won't be easy. While all the witnesses agreed that health care is becoming less affordable every year, they often had very different solutions.

For example, the Business Roundtable renewed its calls to change medical liability laws and for the federal government to give consumers more information about the cost and quality of the care they get, two priorities often cited by the Bush administration.

"High health care costs are affecting job creation, and high health care costs are hurting our ability to compete in global markets," said Larry Burton, the roundtable's executive director.

But Andrew Stern, international president of the Service Employees International Union, called for much more dramatic change. He told lawmakers that it's time to recognize that employer-based coverage "is dead." The statement infers a much more active role for the federal government in funding health care.

Karen Davis of the Commonwealth Fund, which conducts health research, told lawmakers to look at Denmark as a model for the U.S. She said that nation's government pays doctors a capped rate for each of their patients, plus additional amounts when they perform a service. Each doctor handles about 1,500 patients, and they can handle walk-ins and same-day appointments. And Denmark residents love their health care system, she said.

Most of the witnesses agreed on two points:

First, Congress should expand funding for a health insurance program that now provides health insurance to about 5 million children. The children live in families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford the monthly health insurance premiums offered through the private sector.

Second, Congress should not get in the way of states trying to grow the number of residents who have health insurance.

The state of Massachusetts employs a combination of subsidies and penalties to make insurance more affordable and to force people to buy it. The law requires employers with 11 or more full-time employees to offer health coverage or be subject to a $295 fee for each employee, as well as face being billed for services their uninsured employees get.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week proposed a plan that would extend health care to 6.5 million uninsured Californians. Under the proposal, all Californians must have insurance, although the poorest would be subsidized.

Some of the committee's Republicans would like the committee to renew its attention to help for small businesses. They support a plan that would let businesses buy insurance through regional or national trade associations. The insurance would be free of many state mandates. That could make it a cheaper alternative, but would also provide scaled-back coverage in some instances.

"My primary interest is to provide health insurance reform for small businesses and working families, and I believe that 1 million more people will be insured if we enacted the (small business health plans)," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

Also, Wednesday, the Children's Defense Fund called on Congress to provide health insurance for all children in the U.S. About nine million live in families without insurance. The organization said all children in Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program should be automatically enrolled in one program that provides all medically necessary care.

Children in families with incomes over 300 percent of poverty could also pay premiums that would allow them to participate.

"A child's chance to survive and thrive should not depend on the lottery of geography," the organization said.

I really doubt Senator Kennedy's concern for the children of this country, esp. after he refused to vote yes to a bill that would create a national data base for information about former convicted child predators that would allow states instant access to information across our nation to help in putting these predators away for further offenses against our innocent little children!

You're on the money, Nitty. I'm sure that one or another of his trusts is heavily invested with the healthcare corporations that would administer a nationalized plan.

If you look at any socialized medical scheme in the world, you'll see that it's inferior to what we currently have, but the power elite don't care because they can always fly to to a private clinic if they need care.

Originally Posted by CrocketsGhost

You're on the money, Nitty. I'm sure that one or another of his trusts is heavily invested with the healthcare corporations that would administer a nationalized plan.

If you look at any socialized medical scheme in the world, you'll see that it's inferior to what we currently have, but the power elite don't care because they can always fly to to a private clinic if they need care.

You are right Crocket, and I personally have seen what Gov. subsidized health care is really about. for years, as a Choctaw Indian, we get "free" health care from the government.I remember when our health care was still under the control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it was terrible, we were treated like cattle, herded in and out, yet it would be an all day nightmare with little children crying, old people getting to tired to sit upright in their chairs, inadequate doctors furnished by the government those who were to lazy or totally inadequate with their medical care to go anywhere else but to the Indians. Dentist for the children who gave very little to none pain med. before pulling or drilling in to our childrens teeth with the children screaming the whole time. We had high incidents of deaths a lot of them attributed to diabetes which goes through our tribe like the wind. Surgery, that was a very painful laughable experience with the most ancient of equipment, until the last few years our hospital still had oxygen in bottles for our patients no piped in stuff for the Indians lol. Finally when our tribe became affluent enough to take over the health care of their people, and kicked out the BIA, we have a beautiful new hospital, excellent doctors and state of the art medical equipment, with our wait to see the doctor on average with any clinic, probably faster then some! We have 11 beautiful new clinics in that many counties in Okla, to serve our people. What I am trying to tell you, do not want gov. medicine if you can get a around it in any other way, it is a nightmare. long waits for surgery, unless life threatening. I talked with a friend on the net who lives in Australia, she has been waiting over 2 years for a knee replacement can barely get around now. This is not the way to go, what would help immensely would be to send all the illegals home who are breaking our health care system, one of the best in the world!