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Budget: Government Priority On Health Supported, New Zealand Medical Association
The New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) welcomed today"s Budget which reaffirms the Government"s commitment to solving our long term health workforce problems.
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This Time Around, Debate Much Different
Insurance companies, "the industry that gets credit for helping to kill the Clinton administration"s health care overhaul 15 years ago," are now "striking a conciliatory tone as it faces the most serious attempt to overhaul the system since that effort collapsed," CQ Politics reports. With low favorability ratings and Democrats in control of the federal government, "insurers know they aren"t in a good bargaining position" this time around. They have already offered concessions, including providing "insurance in the individual markets to everyone, without regard to who is sick," and not "charging people who are ill higher rates and cut health care costs." But they"ve also been ""careful to structure their offers in such a way that appears significant but does not overpromise." An individual mandate for all Americans and an end to health screening for applicants could offer "a win-win outcome, one that will benefit not just patients but potentially the profits of the industry as well." But "perhaps the biggest motivation for insurers to deal now is that they fear what might happen if they don"t" - the "creation of a government-run plan that would be more attractive to the public and siphon off customers" (Adams, 6/1).
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Health Care Reform: What Small Business Wants
"As Congress prepares to do battle over health reform, a parallel dispute is shaping up among small-business groups that are staking out opposing positions on a key element of reform proposals: whether Uncle Sam will take on a bigger role in offering insurance coverage or leave the field to the private market," CNN Money reports. A fierce critic of the Clinton administration"s health care reform efforts a decade ago, the [National Federation of Independent Business] now considers universal health care to be one of its top legislative priorities. But it wants to see that care and coverage come from the private sector." The NFIB supports "a reform plan that would provide universal coverage and cut costs by increasing competition among private insurers, likely through the creation of government-mediated insurance pools." But "the Main Street Alliance, founded last year to lobby on behalf of small-business owners around health reform, says its survey of 1,200 small business operators and self-employed entrepreneurs in the 12 states where it operates found that 59% prefer a public option, with only 26% wanting more private plan choices alone" (deMaus, 7/2).
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Senate Finance Committee Releases Policy Paper Describing Options To Pay For Health Overhaul

Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Monday released a 41-page document outlining policy options for financing health care reform, The Hill reports (Young, The Hill, 5/18). The paper is the third and final to be released before the senators draft health reform legislation. The document says Baucus and Grassley do not support all the proposals included in the paper, but does not indicate which are backed by the senators (Wayne, CQ Today, 5/18). The options, which will be discussed at a closed-door committee meeting on Wednesday, include a number of proposed spending cuts and new or revised taxes (Drucker, Roll Call, 5/18). The report outlines several ways to gain revenue by re-evaluating the tax exemption for employer-sponsored health care benefits, which cost the government $194.2 billion in revenue in 2008, according to the report. The options include: *Capping the amount of health benefits that can qualify for the exemption; *Taxing benefits for higher-income residents; *A combination of the two previous options, in which tax-exempt benefits are capped only for higher-income residents (Adamy, Wall Street Journal, 5/19); or *Eliminating the exemption and creating a system based on deductions or tax credits (Edney, CongressDaily, 5/18). The document suggests that the cost of living in different areas of the country and inflation would be taken into account to determine who would qualify for the exemption (CQ Today, 5/18). In addition, the report suggests modifying or eliminating tax exemptions for itemized deductions for medical expenses, health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts (CongressDaily, 5/18). The paper also calls for levying new taxes on not-for-profit hospitals that do not provide enough charity care or meet other requirements (Wall Street Journal, 5/19). One proposal would cut or reduce a special deduction for BlueCross and BlueShield companies (Cohn et al., CongressDaily, 5/19). The document also proposes new taxes on alcohol and for the first time "sugar-sweetened drinks." Sugary drinks would include nondiet sodas, fruit and vegetable drinks, energy and sports drinks, iced teas, iced coffees, and flavored milk and dairy drinks (Budoff Brown, Politico, 5/18). Medicare, Medicaid Changes The policy option paper also examines changes in the Medicare and Medicaid programs as a means to finance health care overhaul, CQ HealthBeat reports. The report suggests making Medicare Payment Advisory Commission-recommended changes to the payment system by reducing, eliminating or creating standards for annual increases for certain treatments and fee-for-service providers. The paper also proposes reducing Medicare spending by adjusting the payment formula for home health care, medical imaging and durable medical equipment. In addition, the document calls for spending adjustments be made in Medicare Part A and Part B based on geographic variations (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 5/18). The paper is available online (.pdf). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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