Image credit: I Has A Hot Dog
Barely had I finished responding to a comment Dana Hunter left here At this point, I just hope we end up with something we can build on., about the chances that something good could come of the current health care bill(s):
I'd call that a fond hope, at best. The effectiveness of the legislation now largely rests on the government's interest in enforcing whatever regulations are in the bill. Considering that Congress and the Obama Administration have been happy to let the insurance industry lead them around by the nose and bitch slap them, I think the chances of that are nil.
Learn To Walk Away: Comment #2
Than I read this via FireDogLake:
A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.
The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.
As currently written, the Senate Democratic health care bill would permit insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care, as long as those limits are not "unreasonable." The bill does not define what level of limits would be allowable, delegating that task to administration officials.
Adding to the puzzle, the new language was quietly tucked away in a clause in the bill still captioned "No lifetime or annual limits."
Health Care Loophole Would Allow Coverage Limits
Everyone seems to be playing the "how did this happen?" game right now. As Jane Hamsher observed:
People are asking who put this in the bill. The only person who could put this in the bill is Harry Reid. As Majority Leader, Reid alone is responsible for combining the bills that came from the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate HELP Committee into the bill that went to the floor of the Senate. But neither of those bills had a lifetime limit on benefits. That was manufactured solely by Reid–in violation of the promise made repeatedly by President Obama.
Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit Into Senate Bill
Either Reid did this, or we are expected to believe that some clerk, aide, or one of the Senators among those in the "team of ten" who worked on the bill unilaterally decided to change the language. Maybe Harry Reid employs the same sort of incompetent subordinates Fox News does? Somehow I doubt it.
You also have to ask yourself how the Associated Press, not noted for their ability to dig into these things lately, found this change in a thousand-plus page bill. They probably had help, and I'd bet that help's name starts with "Senator". One of them probably was pissed off by this subterfuge and sent the AP a hint.
FDL's Jon Walker did a good job of explaining the changes that were made.
This is how they play the game. The language just magically appears in the bill. No one is to blame - it just happened. Now they have to vote on it that way, we're expected to believe. It's why I have absolutely no faith that this government will enforce regulations on the industry. There are all sorts of ways that they can excuse lapses, and there are plenty of reasons to come up with excuses.
UPDATE: Apparently, Reid really did this. There's even an excuse and everything, Ezra Klein reports:
Hill sources explain that this was inserted because CBO said premiums would "go through the roof" if insurers couldn't cap benefits. The official quote from Jim Manley, Harry Reid's spokesperson, says much the same thing. "We are concerned that banning all annual limits, regardless of whether services are voluntary, could lead to higher premiums," he explained. "We continue to work with experts on how best to accomplish our goals of preventing insurance companies from imposing arbitrary coverage limits while providing the premium relief American families need and deserve.”
Senate Bill Allows Insurers To Establish Annual Limits
As Jon Walker notes, fake insurance will always be cheaper than real insurance.
If one takes the Senate's actions as an indication of what they think "American families need and deserve", we deserve crappy, yet overly expensive, health insurance that has little chance of keeping us healthy.
I'm really starting to despise these people, and the folks who continually enable them.
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