Republicans Introduce Health Care Reform Plan

Congressional Republicans unveiled a health care reform plan they hope will compete with what Democrats are planning to offer.

U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn, M.D., of Oklahoma, and Richard Burr of North Carolina, along with U.S. Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California, introduced legislation that shares the goal of the opposite party: the promotion of universal access to quality, affordable health care.

But the Republican plan promises to achieve this universal access without creating any new government-sponsored insurance plan, an idea that many Democrats support, and without raising taxes.

The public option has been opposed by health insurers, agents and conservative groups.

Democrats have not yet unveiled a final plan, although many features including a public option and an individual mandate have been discussed in hearings over the past few months.

Some of the other features discussed by Democrats are adopted in the Republican plan, such as the concept of a health insurance exchange, assistance for low income insureds and building on the existing employer-based system.

In its major features, the Republican bill, dubbed The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009, would:

• Create state health insurance exchanges to compare different private market health insurance policies.
• Guarantee the same standard health benefits and choices as members of Congress now enjoy.
• Ensure no individual would be turned down by an exchange insurer based on age or health.
• Create a non-profit, independent board to risk adjust among participating insurers to penalize companies that “cherry pick” health patients and reward insurers that encourage prevention-wellness and cover patients with preexisting conditions.
• Gives states the ability to band together in regional pooling arrangements, as well as risk pools, reinsurance markets, or risk adjustment mechanisms to cover those deemed uninsurable.

Republicans said their Patients’ Choice Act of 2009 would utilize the tax code to give every American, regardless of employment status, the ability to purchase health insurance by providing an advanceable and refundable tax credit of $2,300 per individual or $5,700 per family.

It would also seek to improve the operation of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) by allowing health insurance premiums to be paid with HSAs without a tax penalty and raising the amount of money HSA owners may annually contribute to their account.

Topics Politics