Barone: A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare

It's highly unusual in a presidential debate for two Republican candidates -- the two leading in current national polls -- to heap praise on a liberal Democratic senator.

But in the Fox News debate in Sioux City, Iowa, Thursday night, both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had very good words to say for Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.

The subject was the Medicare reform plan put forward in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that morning by Wyden and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

"Today is a big day for the country," Romney said. It was "an enormous achievement" for Ryan and Wyden, people on opposite sides of the aisle, to come together.

Gingrich, harshly criticized last May for calling Ryan's earlier Medicare plan "right-wing social engineering," went out of his way to say that Romney had produced "a very good plan" for Medicare and that it was "brave" for Wyden to join Ryan in their bipartisan plan.

Politicians' praise is sometimes bestowed overlavishly, but in this case it was well merited. Ryan-Wyden represents a major step forward in public policy and gives hope that the Medicare entitlement can be rendered sustainable.

The Ryan-Wyden proposal provides for continuation of the current Medicare program for those now over age 55. For those younger, it would introduce in 2022 a "premium-support" system that would allow Medicare recipients to choose between the current program and a Medicare-approved private plan.

Those plans would be presented in competitive bidding and would have to be as comprehensive as traditional Medicare and would have to accept anyone who applied. There would be subsidies for low-income seniors.

Private insurers would thus have an incentive to design plans that would offer more generous benefits and lower costs than current Medicare. This kind of market competition has proved effective in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program enacted in 2003. Costs have been lower than government projections, and beneficiary satisfaction has been high.

Ryan-Wyden differs from the Medicare plan Ryan presented last spring by offering the option of keeping the current Medicare system. That is also a feature of the Medicare proposals of candidates Romney and Gingrich.

Wyden, with a solidly liberal voting record, may seem to be an unlikely partner in this enterprise. But he has consistently favored adding elements of market competition to our health care system.

He was one of the relatively few Democrats who provided necessary support for Part D in 2003. And in 2008, he and Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah put forward a health care proposal based on eliminating the current tax preference for employer-provided health insurance.

That preference creates incentives to increase costs, and health policy experts of both left and right have argued for its elimination. But Barack Obama gave Wyden-Bennett the back of his hand and supported a plan that would centralize control in the federal government.

The Obama White House was quick to reject Ryan-Wyden, as well. While Obama has said on occasion that the current Medicare program is not sustainable in the long term, he is now firmly in campaign mode and uninterested in anything other than bashing Republicans for hurting seniors.

Ryan-Wyden makes this kind of cheap-shot politics more difficult. And it comes when a recent poll showed that only 29 percent of voters -- less than one in three -- support the Obamacare legislation. So it's no surprise that Obama prefers Mediscare tactics to defending his administration's largest legislative accomplishment.

The Republican candidates are united in their determination to repeal Obamacare, and repeal is a realistic possibility if Republicans should sweep the 2012 elections as they did in 2010. Ryan-Wyden also renders long-term Medicare reform a realistic possibility.

Ryan-Wyden helps to frame the health care issue in the presidential election as a choice between big government control and market competition. That does not help Obama.

Gallup reports that 64 percent of Americans regard big government, as opposed to big business or big labor, as "the biggest threat to the country in the future." That's just one point under the all-time high since Gallup began asking the question in 1965.

So it's not surprising that Romney and Gingrich saw fit to praise Wyden and that other Democrats are angry with him. But Wyden shows that at least one Democrat, even in campaign season, is more interested in good public policy than in politics.

---

Michael Barone, senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner (www.washingtonexaminer.com), is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and a co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. COPYRIGHT 2011 THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

Get Medical Coverage for Family with Georgia Health Insurance Plan

Health insurance is a step towards the safety of an individual and if the concern is that of family; then, Georgia health insurance plan for your family is the ultimate choice. After all, no one would like to make any compromises on behalf of their family in terms of health. At this point of time, only quality health insurance plans would be appreciable that provides maximum or coverage to almost all types of medical costs. Some areas that are, generally, covered under family health insurance plans are medical costs for child's check up, maternity costs, hospitalization charges, medications, doctor's visit and also operation costs for certain major health issues. All these aspects are designed to suit the needs of the insurance seeker, so that he may not have to do any kind of personal expenses.

Apart from the above mentioned health coverage areas, Georgia health insurance plan also provide part and full compensation in certain serious conditions. In this regard, if the individual get paralytic stroke or becomes permanently handicapped, the insurance company provides more than 75 percent of the total cost of insurance. On the other hand, if the insurance seeker dies within the duration of insurance service; then, the nominee of that insurance seeker would get the complete insured amount from the insurance company. In fact, Georgia health insurance plan is the best as it helps the aspirant insurance seekers to get compensation for each and every type of possible medical cost.

While selecting the best Georgia health insurance plan for your family, it is essential to consider everyone's requirements and this can be complicated to manage. However it is worth persistent with, as having derisory coverage could be far more costly in the long run. When it comes to taking Georgia health insurance plan, every form of pre-existing health conditions needs to be taken into account, and may subsequently be more intricate to insure. Some insurance plans from the house of Georgia health insurance plan focuses on single health issue, such as hernia, gall bladder stone, maternity and also heart surgeries. Well, in this regard, the insurance seeker gets covered for even the minutest medical charges that are associated with these health issues.

Georgia health insurance plan for your family is the best safety that can be provided to them. After all, health of the family is not a matter to be neglected. Indeed, in this case, every possible best health insurance plan is considered. Generally, family health insurance plans include the couple and two of their kids. This makes it easier for you to use the financial help for any member of the family that might have some health problem. Well, such type of insurance plans is also available over internet. All an aspirant insurance seeker has to do is login to his internet connection and search on the required insurance plan. The Georgia health insurance plan for family also has customized plans that can also include certain medical issues, on the demand of their customer to provide them with best health services.

Georgia health insurance plan has a place for everyone and can be customized according to the insurance seeker's demands too.

The Price We Pay for Medical Care

By REED ABELSON

Americans seem to be paying the price for the unrelenting rise in health care costs in this country, according to several studies being published on Thursday in Health Affairs, an academic journal.

The higher cost of coverage has taken a huge cut in the increase in income earned by the average family, says one study, and lower-income families are particularly hard hit, according to another. Meanwhile, the numbers of people who cannot afford insurance or do not have enough coverage have significantly increased, according to a third study.

In an analysis of just how much of a family’s paycheck is being gobbled up, analysts from Rand looked at how much of the average increase in a family’s gross annual income over the past decade has gone to pay for health care.

While the family saw an increase in income from $76,000 a year in 1999 to $99,000 a year in 2009, the researchers then deducted what they estimated would go to pay for insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments and taxes to support Medicare and Medicaid. By the Rand calculation, if the cost of health care had been in line with overall inflation, the average family would have had nearly $5,400 in additional income a year that they could have spent.

The bottom line: Americans have less and less money to spend “on everything else” because they are forced to devote so much of their income to health care.

The authors conclude: “Given the perilous state of the US economy, the fiscal burdens imposed on ally payers by steadily rising health care costs can no longer be ignored.”

In a second study, researchers make the case that lower-income families are even more burdened by the high cost of medical care than those who are better off. Patricia Ketsche, a researcher from Georgia State University, and others calculated that low-income families pay more than 20 percent of family income toward health care, looking at both private spending and taxes, while other families who make more pay no more than 16 percent of their family income.

A third analysis looks at the unaffordability of health care by estimating how many people were without adequate coverage in 2010. The study, by the Commonwealth Fund, estimates some 29 million Americans were underinsured and about 52 million were or had been recently without coverage. Those 81 million adults compare to an estimated 75 million in 2007 and 61 million in 2003.

While the Commonwealth study suggests the federal health care law has the potential to significantly lower the number of people with insufficient or no coverage, the researchers also emphasize the need to reign in health care costs. “To ensure that premiums and care remain affordable, efforts to slow rising costs of care and reduce waste, duplication, and care of little value must intensify,” they say.

The September issue of Health Affairs is focused on health care costs, and the two studies that look at how American families are affected are available online for a week and afterwards by subscription. The Commonwealth Fund report will remain available on-line without a subscription.

No Job, No Insurance, No Health Care

Workers who lose their jobs in the economic downturn typically suffer a double whammy: they lose not only their incomes but their employer-based health insurance as well. Millions are forced to forgo the medical care that they cannot pay for.

The depressing facts are laid out in the Commonwealth Fund’s latest biennial health insurance survey. An analysis of the data found that nine million working-age adults who lost their jobs between 2008 and 2010 became uninsured. Most of those could not find affordable coverage from insurance companies, and some were turned down when theyapplied.

Of that number, nearly three-quarters delayed needed care because of the cost. They were sick but did not visit a doctor, or chose not to fill a prescription, or skipped a recommended test, treatment or visit to a specialist.

Nearly three-quarters had problems paying medical bills when they did visit a doctor or a hospital. They used up their savings, struggled to pay medical debts over time, took out loans when they could, declared bankruptcy or ended up unable to pay for other basic necessities like food or housing.

Substantial help will not arrive until 2014, when the major provisions of the national health care reforms kick in. The reforms will provide subsidies to help millions of Americans buy insurance on new exchanges and will greatly expand Medicaid coverage for the poor.

In the interim, Congress should extend unemployment benefits to help the jobless pay for health care. It should also re-establish the subsidies provided by the 2009 stimulus package that helped laid-off workers stay on their former employers’ policies while looking for work.

New statement on best practice for critical illness insurance

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has issued a new statement regarding best practice for providers of critical illness insurance, which will have to be implemented by the end of next year at the latest.

The move by the industry body should mean greater clarity for people taking out critical illness cover, as it introduces changes that take into account previous issues regarding the insurance type, especially in terms of total permanent disability cover in critical illness policies .

Although total permanent disability cover is only involved in 3 per cent of all claims under critical illness, according to the ABI, it does present a much higher proportion of claims that have not been accepted in the past.

The statement therefore brings in a new set of standard definitions for total permanent disability cover, as well as replacing the old wording of the terminal illness definition, including changes to definitions for cancer and Parkinsons disease . In addition, the pre-existing conditions exclusion for policies involving children’s critical illness has been standardised.

Nick Kirwan, assistant director of health and protection at the ABI, said "The work on developing standard definitions for TPD and children’s cover will help ensure that critical illness policies are clear and pay out in line with customer expectations."