Health Insurance Reform: Truth or Dare!

A very interesting article was published in the September 7th issue of Newsweek on health care and health insurance reform. The article entitled “The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate” reviewed five lies that have been circulating the internet on Health care reform. Written by Sharon Begley, it speaks directly to some of the more troubling issues that as a self employed individual or small business owner we need to be familiar. The five issues raised are below.

1. You’ll Have No Choice in what Health Benefits you receive
Apparently the House Bill has a provision for a health care exchange. Basically this exchange is a list of private insurers and one government plan, where people without health insurance through their employers or other sources such as small businesses, can shop for a plan. This is similar to how seniors shop for a drug plan under Medicare Part D.

2. No Chemo for older Medicare Patients
This issue goes to the heart of, what people are calling the rationing scare. The problem stems from the fact that since no plan currently covers everything, the way in which insurance companies make coverage decisions is opaque. Making or calling for cost-effectiveness research, in which Medicare decides on whether or not a 70 year old cancer patient will receive “only end-of-life counseling and not chemotherapy” is not a part of the House Bill and particularly the word ration is not used.

3. Illegal Immigrants will get free Health Insurance
The House Bill states that “individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States will not be allowed to receive subsidies”

4. Death Panel’s will decide who lives
There is a provision in the House Bill that allows Medicare to make available resources to cover “optional counseling on end-of-life care for any senior who requests it”. This suggests that individuals would not be forced to make that decision thus expanding the current scope of current Medicare support to seniors.

5. The Government will set doctor’s wages
In a nutshell, “Nobody is saying we want the doctors working for the Government; that’s completely false”. Response given by Amitabh Chandra, professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to the claim that Government will set doctor’s wages. There is however a provision on page 127 of the House Bill that says that physicians who choose to accept patients in the public insurance plan would receive 5% more for than Medicare pays for a given service, but doctor’s have the option to refuse those patients. More important though is the fact that although doctor’s can participate in the public health insurance plans, they are not salaried employees to these plans.

You can find more information on this article by clicking here Five Biggest Lies

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