Briefing: National Health Care Reform
The Senate recently passed landmark health care legislation, but that hardly marks the end of the work required to reform the country’s health care industry.
The real challenge rests in coming to a compromise between that bill and the one passed by the House of Representatives.
What does the Senate’s bill provide?
The most recent bill would extend coverage to 31 million Americans who currently don’t have health insurance.
It requires all legal residents to buy insurance and offers hundreds of billions of dollars in federal subsidies to offset the cost.
How is the House bill different?
The House bill is expected to offer coverage to 5 million more Americans, but it will also cost more than $1 trillion compared to the $871 billion senate package.
How are the two plans paid for?
The Senate bill creates fees for insurance companies, drug-makers and medical device manufacturers and would include a 2.35 percent Medicare payroll tax on those earning more than $200,000 a year or $250,000 a year for couples. The House bill would raise $460 billion over the next decade from new income taxes on those earning more than $500,000 or $1 million as a couple. Medicare and Medicaid cuts also would amount to $400 billion.
How are businesses affected?
Under the Senate bill, employers are not mandated to offer coverage, but businesses with more than 50 employees that do not offer coverage would face a $750 fee per employee subsidized by the government. The House bill would require employers to provide insurance or pay a penalty equivalent to 8 percent of payroll (companies with payrolls less than $500,000 are exempt and the penalty will be phased in for companies with payrolls that fall between $500,000 and $750,000).
Are there other ideas in play?
A possible measure proposed by the Senate (outside of the bill) and endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would create at least two nationwide insurances plans run by private companies. The plans would be overseen by the same federal agency that is responsible for the health insurance of congressmen.
Click here to learn more about the two health care reform bills.
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