New data out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that some 44.9 million Americans of all ages were uninsured in the quarter of January through March. Roughly 63.5 percent of unemployed adults aged 18 to 64 and 21.5 percent of employed adults in the same age group had been uninsured at some point in the past year. The new report highlights a trend in Census data that private coverage is declining while coverage in public health programs is on the rise.
The numbers also underscore what Stuart Butler has called a “catastrophe of small-business health care coverage in America.” Since the majority of Americans get their health coverage through their workplace, increasing costs have pressured more companies to reduce or drop benefits, with most small businesses opting to not cover employees because of the skyrocketing costs. The result — as shown in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s recently released annual survey on employer-sponsored benefits — is a relentless drop in small business coverage. Moreover, employer-sponsored health insurance rose to an average annual rate of $13,375 for family coverage this year.
However, Butler and other health policy experts argue Congress is going about the wrong way in trying to promote greater health insurance coverage. Measures like employer mandates to provide health care coverage to workers or pay a fine, requirements that all Americans buy insurance or pay a tax, expansions of nearly bankrupt public health programs and greater regulation of health insurance threaten to push premiums even higher and lop more taxes on American families. All of the provisions would exacerbate the decline of private employer coverage.
In particular, the higher taxes that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) proposed in the framework of the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill (a full bill has not been released) would make the uninsured problem worse for low-income workers, Butler told a health care forum sponsored by the Alliance for Health Care Reform.
The Congressional Budget Office noted this week that taxes levied on drug companies, medical device manufacturers, health insurers and clinical laboratories as proposed by Baucus’ chairman mark would be passed onto consumers through higher insurance rates.
“This will further squeeze workers’ cash earnings,” Butler said. Instead of pushing through highly contentious health bills, Congress needs to hit the reset button and focus on reform that garners broad support, Butler said. He noted that tax experts across the ideological spectrum have called for changing the tax treatment of health care coverage to make it more equitable for consumers who buy it on their own in the individual insurance market.
“Plus, let’s build up momentum in a different direction when it comes to businesses providing health care benefits. Let’s make it more like retirement savings, where employees often do their paperwork through their employer but own their 401(k) or pension,” Butler said, stressing that a basic reform of the tax treatment of health insurance is necessary to make that happen.
When health policy experts, journalists and those in the health care system gathered at the National Press Club this week to discuss the facts and fiction behind health care reform, they glossed over one key issue, and dismissed three others that people at town halls across the country keep bringing up.
First the issue the Press Club event deemphasized: cost. Many voters (55 percent) say they’re more worried Congress will spend too much money and add to the federal deficit with health reform than they are that Congress won’t pass reform system, according to a new study released by Quinnipiac University.
Worse, when many in the press, do address some of the other concerns Americans have about Obamacare (concerns that the Obama-approved health care reform will infringe on individuals’ freedom, allow for illegal immigrants to receive health benefits and fund abortion services with taxpayer dollars) they are unquestionably dismissive. Commenting on a recent NBC poll, MSNBC’s Mark Murray asserts:
Majorities in the poll believe the plans would give health insurance coverage to illegal immigrants; would lead to a government takeover of the health system; and would use taxpayer dollars to pay for women to have abortions — all claims that nonpartisan fact-checkers say are untrue about the legislation that has emerged so far from Congress.
President Barack Obama brought up these same concerns in an online health care forum with his advocacy group, Organizing for America. “Now, c’mon,” he told a cheering crowd of liberal community organizers. “We can have a real debate because health care is hard and there are some legitimate issues out there to be worked through. But we have to cut through the noise and misinformation.”
But the President, MSNBC’s “nonpartisan fact-checkers,” and other policy experts don’t seem to understand the facts.
The Heritage Foundation has shown why Americans should be asking their representatives about these issues:
- Taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants: The House bill, as currently structured, does not offer clear guidelines to ensure that illegal immigrants cannot access taxpayer-funded health care benefits. An amendment to safeguard so only U.S. citizens could access federal health care benefits failed on a straight party-line vote.
- Government takeover of health care system: Whether it’s a public health insurance plan, government-run cartel (which is being dubbed a “co-op”), individual mandate or employer mandate, the provisions in the health bills being pushed by the Obama administration call for more government regulation and intrusion in the American health care system. Even the mainstream media is calling President Obama to task for his own “misinformation” — that if you like your health insurance you can keep it if a public plan is introduced in the private insurance market. The Lewin Group found an estimated 56 percent of Americans with employer-based coverage would lose their current insurance under the House bill.
- Funding abortions with taxpayer dollars: This concern has been raised in all three House committees and the Senate HELP committee. Based on the passage of an amendment to require at least one insurance plan to cover abortion each geographical region and the failure of several amendments to prohibit federal funds for abortion services, taxpayers could end up financing abortion.
“A serious health reform effort warrants a serious discussion,” Health Affairs Editor Susan Dentzer said at the start of the press club event. She’s absolutely right.
Americans should have the opportunity to voice their concerns (in a civilized tone) at the town halls this month and actually be heard by their representatives. Lawmakers also should deliberate this proposed health care overhaul in a civil and serious way that doesn’t include tactics like reconciliation to ram through health reform that many Americans don’t want.