Under the Microscope

REPORT: Will a “Play-or-Pay” Policy for Health Care Cause Job Losses?
This report estimates the effects on employment of adopting a “play‐or‐pay” employer contribution policy for health care. Its findings show concerns about significant job losses resulting from such a policy are unfounded. Most likely there will be significant job gains.
[Institute for America’s Future and the Economic Policy Institute, June 2009]

POLICY BRIEF: How to Structure a “Play-or-Pay” Requirement on Employers: Lessons from California for National Health Reform
This policy brief examines the policy design, economic effects, and political ramifications of employer requirements. We focus in particular on what Congress can learn from the California experience, as well as from an independent cost and coverage analysis of a national play-or-pay plan proposal resembling current legislative initiatives. [UC Berkeley, June 2009]

Health Care Headlines

• Obama Steps Up Push for Healthcare Reform This Year
  President Barack Obama stepped up pressure on Congress on Wednesday to pass healthcare reform this year, staging a daylong media blitz that ended with a televised town hall-style meeting at the White House to rally public support. [Reuters, 6/24/2009] Read about the latest push by Michelle Obama.
• Obama Backers Hope 'Story Bank' Aids Health Reform
  A group that helped elect President Barack Obama is building a database of complaints from Americans about health care to help him push through an overhaul. [Wall Street Journal, 6/25/2009] Read a related story about Members sharing health care stories.
• Health Care Reform Bill Price Tag Goes Down
  A group of key Senate negotiators has found a way to further reduce the price tag of the health care reform bill, bringing it in line with a $1 trillion target and moving the Senate Finance Committee closer to a deal, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday. [Politico, 6/25/09]
• Rangel Pledges Overhaul Will Be Fully Offset
  House Democrats are still waiting for CBO scores for their draft healthcare overhaul plan, but whatever cost is assigned will be fully offset, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel said today. [CongressDaily, 6/24/09]
• Obama Challenges Health Insurance Industry Arguments
  In an effort to maintain control of the healthcare debate, President Obama on Tuesday ridiculed critics of his government-run insurance proposal, saying private insurers have nothing to fear if they are efficient and consumer-friendly. [L.A. Times, 6/24/2009]
• Senators Worry That Health Overhaul Could Erode Employer Insurance Plans
  Senators struggled Wednesday with the possibility that in offering subsidized health insurance to millions of individuals and families, they could inadvertently speed the erosion of employer-provided coverage, which they want to preserve. [New York Times, 6/24/2009]
• Key Democratic Caucuses Demand Competitive Public Health Plan
  Leaders of four Democratic caucuses representing more than 120 members of Congress said Wednesday that they would vote against any health overhaul legislation without a “robust” government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. [CQ Today, 6/24/2009]
• Health Suffers in Recession; Preventive Care Often Cut First
  After her husband died in 2004, Gayla Moeckel decided to give up teaching and take over the family farm near Plevna, Kan. The land had been in her and her husband's families for more than a century.
  [USA Today, 6/24/2009]
• Big Health Firms Underpay Claims
  Congressional investigators have discovered that large health insurers in every region of the country are relying on faulty databases to underpay millions of valid insurance claims. [Wall Street Journal, 6/25/2009]
• HHS, Attorney General Announce 53 Providers Indicted on Medicare Fraud
  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric H. Holder announced Wednesday that 53 people in U.S. metro areas, including medical doctors, have been indicted for submission of some $50 million in false Medicare claims.
  [CQ Today, 6/24/2009]
• Elmendorf: Employer Mandate Needed
  CBO Director Elmendorf Wednesday told senators negotiating a bipartisan healthcare overhaul bill that an employer mandate of some sort would be necessary to keep costs down. [CongressDaily, 6/25/2009]
  Read about three proposals CBO is examining now.
• OPINION: Not In My Health Plan
  By Amy Walter
  While the health care debate in Washington is consumed with CBO estimates and co-ops, regular people are concerned with one simple thing: What will this mean for me? [National Journal, 6/24/2009]