Max Baucus

Some Basic Info on CBO Scoring of Healthcare Bills

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on October 30, 2009 - 14:58

Via ThinkProgress, both the Baucus Bill and the plan put forward by Pelosi will enroll some more people but most will not be in the Public Option and it will not cover everyone:

CBO: Public Option To Attract Only 6 Million Enrollees & Doesn’t Offer Lower Premiums

The public option would attract about 6 million enrollees by 2019 and charge premiums that are “somewhat higher than the average premiums for the private plans in the exchanges.” This is because the public option would “engage in less management of utilization” by its enrollees and “attract a less healthy pool of enrollees,” the office concludes. Moreover, since the House bill expands Medicaid up to 150% of the federal poverty line, it’s possible that the enrollees that would have enrolled in the public option went into Medicaid instead.

Below is a comparison of the relevant provisions in the House and Senate Finance Committee legislation:

  CBO Score Of House Bill CBO Score Of Baucus Bill
Costs Reduce deficits: $104B/10yrs
Cost: $894B/10yrs
Spends on subsidies: $605B/10yrs
On Medicaid/CHIP: $425B/10yrs
On Small Employer Credit: $25B/10yrs		 Reduce deficits: $81B/10yrs
Cost: $829B/10yrs
Spends on subsidies: $461B/10yrs
On Medicaid/CHIP: $345B/10yrs
On Small Employer Credit: $23B/10yrs
Insured Uninsured reduced by: 36M
Uninsured in 2019: 18M
In Exchanges: 30M | Public Plan: 6M
In Medicaid: 15M		 Uninsured reduced by: 29M
Uninsured in 2019: 25M
In Exchanges: 23M
In Medicaid: 14M
Revenue Mandate penalty: $33B/10yrs
Pay-Play penalty: $135B/10yrs
New taxes: $572B/10yrs		 Mandate penalty: $4B/10yrs
Free rider penalty: $23B/10yrs
New taxes: $196B/10yrs
Medicare
and
Medicaid		 Total savings: 426B/10yrs
Medicare Advantage: $170B/10yrs		 Total savings: 404B/10yrs
Medicare Advantage: $117B/10yrs

With a Single Payer solution it would be everybody in and nobody out - AND it would save a heck of a lot more money for everyone.

The difference is not just everyone being covered but HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of DOLLARS saved every year:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, healthcare reform, Max Baucus, single payer insurance

Give Weiner a Noodge in Battling AHIP Stoopid

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on October 14, 2009 - 13:11

Rep. Anthony Weiner talks about AHIP managing to make the argument for the public option for us with their really stoopid report:

At the website Rep. Weiner mentions in the interview with Dr. Nancy, countdowntohealthcare.com, he is looking for a little help in noodging healthcare reform in the right direction:

A Message From Congressman Anthony Weiner 

Today
was another big day on the road to health care reform.  The Senate
Finance Committee approved Senator Max Baucus’s health care proposal,
bringing a reform bill one step closer to a full vote on the Senate
floor.

I’ve been pretty critical of this proposal in the past.  It doesn’t
include a public option, which is the only way to provide real
competition to big insurance companies and bring down costs so that all
Americans can choose quality, affordable health care.

But this is progress.  Even the insurance lobby isn’t happy that this bill is moving forward.  As I mentioned yesterday,
that’s probably as good a sign as any that we’re taking the right steps
towards a health care system that helps American families instead of
insurance company shareholders.

This slow march won’t be complete without a true public option.  It
may not be center stage today, but like a specter in a Shakespeare
play, it looms large.

Anthony

P.S. New York Magazine calls me the “loudest and noodgiest” supporter of the public option.

Help me “noodge” my colleagues and the White House in the right
direction.

Go here and tweet or Facebook the site to help Noodge the White House in the right direction for Rep. Weiner. :)

White House, healthcare reform, AHIP, Max Baucus, insurance lobby, Anthony Weiner, Senator, Representative, senate finance committee

Baucus loses another Committee Democrat

Submitted by Hello Dolly Llama on September 19, 2009 - 07:16

Promoted. Originally posted 2009-09-19 00:30:51 -0400. -- GH

Right now the Democrats are letting the Baucus train wreck happen. If he actually manages to turn it into a real bill with the help of some grownup Democrats, great, they go for the 60 votes. If not, they do the public option with 50 votes through reconciliation.

But those Democrats are going to be hard to sell. Already Democrats in the Finance Committee are “letting loose” on Baucus for tuning them out and selling out to the Republicans: Baucus spent all summer giving the Republicans one concession after another, and he is extremely unlikely to make the same sorts of concessions to the Democrats. The Democrats could quite easily be just as obstructionist as Grassley has been, and with much better reason. Rockefeller already rejected the Baucus bill, and another committee member, Cantwell, has come out and rejected it too.

With those two defections, Baucus only has a 12-11 score in the committee, counting Snowe who still hasn’t endorsed the bill. So to get the bill out of committee, let alone the Senate, Baucus needs to win over Snowe, without alienating more Democrats. If Rocky persuades Kerry and Schumer to reject the bill also, it’s dead even if Baucus does get Snowe.

Health Care, Max Baucus, compromise

Major Shift on Single Payer in DC?

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on June 4, 2009 - 17:42

It appears kicking in their doors, faxing them out of paper and ringing their phones off of the hook is helping single payer as nyceve was invited to go to Washington. I am hoping that means the CNA, NNM and PNHP might all get their opportunities, as well:

I was asked to come to Washington and I need your help 

by nyceve

Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 12:24:38 PM EDT

Dear Kos Community,

I was asked by Congressman John Conyers, specifically two of his indefatigable staffers, Joel Segal and Jonathan Godfrey (and one other Conyers hero, who I don't know named Dan), to come to Washington to speak to what they tell me is a large gathering of Congressional staffers about healthcare reform. Yeah, I'd prefer not to go. I know I'm probably much better sitting behind my computer.

They want me to give a picture of exactly what Americans are experiencing across the land.  You see, living in Washington, and having access to Rolls Royce healthcare courtesy of the taxpayers and the FEHBP, probably makes many of these good people less aware of the suffering, than we are.

So I will give them a lesson in human suffering, death and misery. I will tell them what ordinary Americans experience day-in and day-out at the merciless hands of the for-profit insurance industry, and due to generations of official indifference from those we elect to do our business.

Read on....

If you haven't seen that diary yet?

And if you hadn't noticed that last diary at dKos by the National Nurses Movement on their meeting with Baucus: Sanders told them that Dodd might be interested in having a committee meeting looking at Single Payer in comparison to the other proposals. Baucus was iffy on it.

He agreed to use the power of his office to have charges dropped against the Baucus 13, nurses, doctors, and activists arrested for raising their voices in the committee hearings.

While Baucus continued to aver that single payer can not pass the legislature, the nurses and doctors pressed him to:
• Hold a hearing in which the merits of single payer can be contrasted with the plans now rapidly advancing in the Senate. While Baucus said the tight timeline made that very difficult, Sanders noted that Sen. Chris Dodd is considering a health committee hearing on single payer, which Baucus could co-sponsor. Baucus said, "let me think about it."


Call, fax, email Dodd and ask him to do this. Here is the phone number: Tel: (202) 224-2823

Chris Dodd, single payer, Universal Healthcare, Max Baucus

Progressive Case to Eliminate Health Insurance Tax Credit

Submitted by DrSteveB on May 31, 2009 - 11:31

Although it has been mostly promoted in the political sphere by right wing free market fundamentalists as part of their proposals to throw everybody into an individual insurance market (a horrible idea), and by some in congress in disingenuous plans (Wyden-Bennett) to save the federal budget part of health care costs (but increasing total costs and costs to both individuals and states; thanks a lot), there is a progressive policy

single payer, Robert Reich, Max Baucus, health insurance, tax, Uwe Reinhardt

Negotiate with AHIP vs. Best We Can Get 51 Senators For?

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on March 9, 2009 - 23:54

Originally posted here at 2009-03-09 16:20:07 -0500; all crossposts of items by Dr. SteveB are done with the good doctor's permission. Even the hijacked ones. :) Many thanks to CTMan for bringing this one over. -- GH


Hijacked in its entirety from DrSteveB at dkos.

Since we all want to get health some (any?) kind of health reform" we are being told by Washington insiders to set aside our advocacy for single payer and join in with the kumbaya negotiations with enemy (AHIP) to get 'er done. Sure, as a matter of policy and economics, single payer is the best way to reduce and control costs, and also get to universal comprehensive coverage. However, as a matter of realistic power politics, I am told by the powers that be that we can't do it this year, so we should settle for what is doable.

Okay. I'll bite. Let’s get the best plan we can get with 50% plus one in each house of Congress. And as usual, that means 51 Senators, since we have a larger and more probably liberal majority there.

But can we please please stop pretending that we can or should "negotiate" with AHIP? This idea that the private insurance companies are compromising is nonsense!

Barack Obama, single payer, John Conyers, Universal Healthcare, H.R. 676, AHIP, CBO, HCAN, Max Baucus, Peter Stark