Arizona Republican Urges Democrats To Reverse Key Provision In Healthcare Bills

By Meagan Wiseley - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to exclude a provision that exempts insurance companies from tort claims from the proposed health care bills in the House and the Senate.

Section 514 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) states, among other things, that if an insurance company improperly denies benefits to an individual, it cannot be sued for any resulting injury or wrongful death, regardless of whether it acted in bad faith in denying benefits.

“Why does a health care reform bill continue immunity to insurance companies so they can injure and kill people?” Shadegg asked during a press conference Wednesday.

The intent of the ERISA provision is to prevent the misuse and loss of pension funds to protect American retirees. Section 514 of ERISA contains a preemption that does not allow civil courts to sue insurance companies for injury or wrongful death, because 514 is a federal statute.

Standing alongside Shadegg was Florence Corcoran, who suffered the loss of her unborn baby in 1989. Corcoran took to the podium and explained that she was diagnosed with Toxemia during her 36th week of pregnancy. Her doctor had requested that she be admitted to the hospital for further monitoring of her unborn child, but her insurance company, United Health Care Inc., maintained that she would be adequately cared for while on bed rest at home. Corcoran left the hospital, and the next week her baby went into distress and died.

“Insurance companies, all they look out for is money. That’s all, it’s not the patients health that they are concerned about,” said Corcoran.

Shadegg offered an amendment to strip the immunity in section 514 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but said the amendment was rejected by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) The Arizona Republican said that he will offer an amendment to remove this language in the House Rules Committee.

“I hope...that the American people will rise up and demand that Nancy Pelosi fix this bill before it’s voted on in the House...or that in the conference committee it be fixed.”

Senate Democrats Say Prevention Essential For Health Care Reform

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Tom Udall (D-NM) said Wednesday that health care reform legislation must include extensive measures to promote wellness and prevention.

“As I have said many times... we currently do not have a health care system in America, we have a sick care system,” Harkin said.

The Iowa Senator explained that simply treating illness after diagnosis is much more costly than using the same money to promote preventative treatment.

“Our aim is to recreate America as a genuine wellness society, a society focused on healthy lifestyle and preventing the chronic diseases that take suck a toll on our bodies and our budgets,” Harkin said.

Both Harkin and Udall have been long time advocates of promoting prevention, claiming that for every dollar invested in wellness, several dollars used for expensive treatments are saved.

“Our current system is clearly broken and unsustainable. We really have a disease management system,” Udall said. “We really must get out in front of these diseases.”

Harkin maintained during the press conference that both the Senate and House bills will be done and in conference by Christmas.

Joe Wilson Announces Amendment To Force Congress To Use Public Option

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

If the public option on health care is viable and sustainable for the American people, then members of Congress and the Senate should sacrifice their own federal health benefits and use it themselves, said Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and other House Republicans Wednesday.

“If this government-run plan is so good, why don’t members of Congress take the plan?” asked Wilson, during a press conference promoting an amendment to the Affordable Health Care For All Americans Act requiring all members of the House and Senate subscribe to the public insurance option offered by the legislation.

While Wilson admittedly does not support the public option, the proposed amendment is being interpreted as a way to make a point to Wilson's Democratic colleagues.

“We know why the majority of the 'Pelosi takeover bill' does not provide this,” Wilson continued. “They do know that the government-run option will not be in the interest of the American people, either individually or for the American citizens at large. I’m just very hopeful that they’ll reconsider, that they will understand if it’s good enough for the American people, it’s good enough for Congress.”

Wilson added that the House is “shoving this bill through.”

Wilson went on to say that the House is “shoving this bill through.”

“Speaker Pelosi still has not informed us about what the amendment process will be for this bill,” Wilson said in a statement released Wednesday. “An issue as important as a health care overhaul that will impact every American is much too important through rush through without transparency or a democratic amendment process.”

Wilson garnered controversy when he shouted the phrase "you lie" during President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress in September.

Small Business Owners Make Case For Insurance Reform Before Senate HELP Committee

By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service

Small business owners testified in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday in an attempt by the committee to find methods for reducing the ever-increasing health insurance costs facing small businesses.

“Today, I’m announcing my own investigation into the pricing practices of health insurance companies that sell policies to small businesses,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), HELP Committee Chairman. “Health insurance companies should open their books, explain to the American people why they support a health insurance market for small businesses that is so dysfunctional and so lacking in transparency.”

Harkin argued that the legislation presented by the Senate would create health insurance exchanges that pool small business together and increase competition, also making health insurance more transparent.

“Small businesses pay 18 percent more then large businesses for exactly same insurance plan and coverage. The [exact] same policy,” he said.

Art Cullen, editor of the Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, accepted a $5,000 deductible on services provided by a hospital in order to keep costs manageable for his small business. The deductible forces cancer patients covered by the policy to pay $2,500 out-of-pocket for a shot at a local hospital - or to drive to the next town in order to pay $25 for the same shot at a clinic. The insurance prices, he said, drive down the potential revenue that the town could have earned from treating the patient at the local hospital.

“We need more insurance competition in the rural marketplace by knocking down state cartels,” he said. “We need to know that a single health catastrophe will not bankrupt us and bring down everything we have worked for over the past 20 years.”

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Chair of the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, said that the cost of health care is rising rapidly and that insurance companies have little ability to address the issues.

“The challenge moving forward will be to overhaul the delivery system to promote prevention, quality and results-based care to encourage healthy lifestyles and to eliminate waste and fraud in the system,” said Praeger. “The difficulties in the small group market, as in the individual market, are ultimately the result of medical spending that has outstripped the ability of most Americans to pay for it.”

Former CBO Director: House Health Care Bill Will Add To Deficit

By Leah Valencia - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said Monday that the House health care legislation is not deficit neutral and will not be fiscally sustainable over time.

“The heart of this bill is to repeat two of the greatest policy errors this country has made: To create large unfunded entitlement spending programs and to have a tax law that is not politically viable over the long haul,” said Holtz-Eakin.

Holtz-Eakin said the bill is on track to produce over one trillion dollars of debt in the first ten years. He argued that Democrats are using gimmicks to balance the bill in the eyes of the Congressional Budget Office.

“The best we could do with the health care reform is break even,” said Holtz-Eakin “Genuinely be honest about how much new spending they are proposing and genuinely be honest about raising the revenue to cover it. [Democrats] are doing neither of those things.”

He said the actual gross cost to expand Medicaid would be $1.055 trillion, and other spending provisions in the bill would add up to a gross figure of $230 billion, totaling well over the $900 billion promised by House leaders.

“I think as a result, that these are reforms that are not durable in any deep sense and are not desirable from the point of view of policy.”