The heads of the three committees with jurisdiction over health care policy − Charles Rangel of Ways & Means, Henry Waxman of Energy & Commerce, and George Miller of Education & Labor − have been working tirelessly to draft up consensus legislation that reforms our health care system.
Here it is, all 852 pages of it.
A four-page, digest summary of the bill can be found here.
A series of one-pagers dissecting the legislation follow:
The Public Option
Health Insurance Exchange
What's in this Bill for You?
The Committee chairmen have emphasized that the draft bill is open to revision and feedback from all parties in the upcoming hearings and mark-ups throughout the summer.
Congressman Rangel: "President Obama issued a call to action to reform our nation’s health care system and the House Committees have answered in an unprecedented way, working as one to produce a draft that will help control costs, preserve and expand coverage and strengthen Medicare and Medicaid. In the coming weeks, we will continue working with our colleagues and stakeholders to move this draft forward so we can create a new day in American health care that will benefit our nation for generations to come."
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Hello, I want to drw your attention to www.fountainhouse.org it is one of several hundred clubs for people with psychiatric illnesses. These clubs provide paid jobs for people...no better rehabilitation method, no better humane movement. Imagine people working and paying taxes and liking it (!?). Sure does lower the cost. Of course SSA takes its cut, for every two dolars you amke they take one...a disincentive, but people want to work at real jobs that do not remind them of their illness. You do not need to be a rockrt scientists to see inexpensive clubs without Ph.Ds wasring time talking about dreams when people want paid jobs.
Good work, Congressman. Our country needs health care reform. Please do not forget to push your Second Chance for Ex-Offender's bill H.R. 1529, and get it passed this session. Without a second chance to gain employment or enjoy other rights of full citizenship, health care is beyond our reach, even with your recent improvements.
Mel Steinberg
Miami, Florida 33011
Dear Congressman Rangel,
Thank you for your visionary leadership on health care reform. Please consider cosponsoring The Healthy Schools Act (S1034/HR 2840)which would support school based health centers (SBHC) that provide critically needed primary health, mental health, and dental services in our most underserved communities. The centers provide services to children where they are located - inside schools. Vulnerable children have the opportunity to access quality comprehensive health care regardless of insurance and immigration status. Please support children's access to health care by stabilizing SBHC funding through Medicaid and SCHIP reimbursement. Please support The Healthy Schools Act of 2009.
Dear Congressman Rangell
Thank you for your leadership on health care reform, but I respectfully submit to you that the draft legislation from the House tri committee does not go far enough to ensure universality, equity or accountability.
The House plan is primarily driven by a sense of economic necessity, based on cost concerns and only hints at the understanding of health as a social goal. Your proposal falls short in it's assumption that these social and financial goals can be realized as by-products of fragmented, market based services.
Health care is a human right. This should be the over riding principle of legislative reform. The goal of a healthy society is at the core of human rights principles, which places a duty on government to protect everyone's health. A society disposed to protect the bodily and financial health requires the collective provision of health care on a guaranteed and sustainable basis. In such a society, health care is treated as a public good, rather than as a commodity sold in the marketplace dominated by private interests. Indeed, as a market good, health care is by definition exclusionary, sold only to those who can pay, and readily exhaustible, depleted by private interests that literally "take their cut" from available resources through profit, leaving less for the public at large.
Please stand up for the civil rights of the people.
As a former health care giver, I am sad to see what has become of health care in America. Clearly Profit Care comes ahead of Patient Care. We must have public option, so what if it puts the greedy bastards out of business. www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62
1) I ask that the CBO score and cost out single payer legislation (HR 676; S 703) and compare it to their scoring and costing of the new legislation now coming out of these committees; and
(2) I ask that single payer experts be included in all Committee hearings on health care reform.
"of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
Dr. Martin Luther King
There is already a healthcare plan that would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy.
Under this plan a family of three making $40,000 per year would spend approximately $1600 per year ($133.33/month) for health care coverage and the average costs to employers for an employee making $30,000 per year will be reduced to $1,155 per year; less than $100 per month.
In the interest of fairness and full public disclosure I understand every plan should be scored by the CBO.
We are not afraid of the truth anymore, in fact we require it to make informed decisions in the future. Therefore, an unbiased CBO investigation should be conducted on HR-676.
I believe that health care should be a right in a country as rich as this country is, we can not continue the run up on cost in health care that has been way out of line, we can't keep this up we need to have a single payer plan or at least a real good public option if we have to we need to use the nuclear option. If we can't get people like Ben Nelson(NE) to see the light.
I'm getting pretty tired of this bipartisanship standing in the way of progress and real reform.
I think if we can't do real health care reform like HR-676 then we better reform politics with public financed elections, to many representative are beholding to special interests.
Well public financed elections is the way to go any way.
Dear Rep. Charlie Rangel,
Support HR-676.
You don't have to break with Obama to make him do better. He will not veto what even he knows to be better than he believed we could get. Polling data repeatedly shows that over 67% of the American people support an expanded government role in health care that would guarantee coverage for every American. Support the plan that is cost efficient and outcome effective, not "affordable" (Isn't this a presumption of the privileged ignorant of their privilege?) and "quality" which lacks substantive definition. These are PR ploys and bureaucratic double speak that mask your deficiency thus far to provide comparison with the half-way measure (albeit in the right direction) currently articulated by President Obama. Stand behind him, and push! He must be of little faith to prefer legislation that
* Wont guarantee access to health care for everyone in the United States.
* Wont stop thousands from dying every year because they didnt get care they needed.
* Wont end insurance company denials of needed care, and profiteering from health care.
* Wont end medical-related bankruptcy.
* Wont contain the skyrocketing costs of health care.
Insist on Congressional Budget Office costing and scoring Conyer's Bill.
I'm told your personal view is that you know his Bill is the best so far, but you think you can be a better ally if you appear to be neutral. You're wrong. Your lack of leadership has caused such disappointment among the constituency of your well wishers and hopeful benefactors of your position of power across America, and across your diverse constituency in our 15th District.
Health is a Right not a commodity. Come out of the closet and ACT like you know this; your constituents do and have told you so.
Most sincerely behind you, pushing,
Shoshannah
Ps. Rep. Rush Holt is offering an amendment to H.R. 2647 (the FY 2010 National Defense Authorization Act) that would require the Department of Defense to videotape interrogations of detainees in its custody. Please vote in favor of the Holt amendment. Stop all officially sanctioned torture!
Support the McGovern amendment for exit dates from Afghanistan/Pakistan and stop funding our occupation of Iraq too. MLK would be ashamed of you. I'm just disgusted, but still trying to get you to improve your performance.
Vote 'yes' on American Clean Energy and Security Act and oppose amendments that would exempt fossil fuel filth, endanger our water supply, permit mountaintop removal and valley burying, or uranium mining.
Dear, Congressman Rangel
For the money we spend as a nation on health care, one would think that we would be at the top of the list for ranking of the world’s health care systems, INSTEAD OF BEING NO.37. Our system of health care clearly is not working for many of our citizens. Even if you are fortunate enough to have “health insurance,” in very many cases legitimate claims are routinely denied by insurance companies in their greed and quest to maximize profits. The biggest sin is that healthy people, even if they are “covered” by insurance, are living with a false sense of security and are often one major illness away from losing everything and being forced into bankruptcy.
If our health care system is lacking (and it clearly is), the sensible thing to do is to look at what is working in the highest ranked countries and follow their model. A less radical approach would be to look inward and view a system that is already working and works well. We can easily expand our Medicare system to include all citizens. The machinery is already in place.
PLEASE SUPPORT A SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM FOR AMERICA
Thank you,
Gerald N. King
Go with the best. Go with HR 676.
1) Send HR 676 to the CBO for scoring
2) Allow an honest open debate on ALL health care reform options.
Insure everyone. Don't spend a trillion or two. Keep it simple. Build on Medicare. Cut out the 30% admin waste.
There is no reform with the for-profits still sucking on our wallets/purses.
I am an avid supporter of you Rep. Charles Rangel. You have been a champion of the ordinary people for many decades now, and we THANK you. However, your Bill# H.R. 1529 - The Second Chance for Ex-Offenders Act of 2009 is currently languishing in the House Judiciary Sub-Committee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. There have been no co-sponsors since you introduced it on March 16, 2009. Please do not let this Bill die once again. We need Federal Expungement in order to have careers, and help our children fulfill their dreams. We have paid our debt to society in full and deserve this chance to lead productive lives once again.
Sincerely,
Mercy
Harlem, NY
Honorable Congressman Rangel:
Your healthcare proposal goes a long way toward meeting the goals of universality, affordability, and equity.
Please insist on 1) Public Option available to everyone
2) from Day One and be
3) Directly Accountable to Voters & Congress, not some co-op of regional insurers, or hollow oversight group. The people, the congress.
Single Payer is what we want, we want to pay for it, we do not want a "compromise" with a trigger, a co-op, or any other corporate or insurance welfare program.
The Public Option with the 3 points above IS THE COMPROMISE! There can be no reform without these points in the Public Option. Please commit to voting against any reform bill with a public option that is not available to everyone on day 1 and controlled by Congress and the voters.
Why can't we pay for our own healthcare, by ourselves, through the instrument of our own government, without the interference of and support for profiteering 3rd parties? This isn't the twenties anymore.
We need real change, not compromise, going forward.
Dear Rep. Rangel: Thank you for your leadership on health care reform. I urge you to make sure that as healthcare reform moves forward the needs of amputees are not left behind. Assistive devices are essential to ensure that people with limb loss are contributing members of society instead of dependent on it. True healthcare reform must include specific language providing access to assistive devices such as wheelchairs, prosthetics and orthotics! I also want to make sure state benefit requirements are protected. Many states have passed laws to ensure that gaps are not left in the coverage for people with disabilities by using their longstanding regulatory authority over health plans in the non-group and small group markets to enact critically needed benefit laws to protect their residents. I urge you to oppose any amendment that would preempt or roll-back these state benefit laws. Such an amendment could lead to a reduction in coverage. By protecting access to assistive devices through specific language in healthcare reform statutes and continued enforcement of state benefit requirements, the moves to reform our healthcare system will continue to ensure that people with limb loss receive the care they need to be independent and productive citizens.
Kathryn, you do not have a right to healthcare as per our Constitution. You do have a right to liberty and pursuit of happiness. The rest is up to you. You sound like you want the 'nanny' state where everything is equal and provided. That is not what this great country is about. Please read up on your history. And with all the current debt filled programs run by the government, what makes you think they can take on yet another bureaucracy? And with what money? And where does all the money magically come from? From you? Me? The printing presses? China? Think about it!
All employers must be mandated to provide some type of health insurance for their employees. The small employers should be able to apply for a grant to aid them through the federal govt.
They same thing should apply for people on un-employement. Federal govt. shoud provide temporary insurance for these folks until they find employement.
This proposal that you currently endorse is the good enough for the House and Senate? If it is so wonderful why is this not mandated for Senator's or Representatives?
Dear Mr. Rangel,
The government can not try to pay for health care by taxing small business's payrolls without taking into consideration the net profit on our businesses. If this happens you have effectively put my business which employs 40 out of business.
If I could afford to pay for healthcare--I would provide it. It is a simple fact that there is just no way I can. For my family we carry a high deductible insurance policy (10,000 deductible) and we utilize a HSA.
My business (3 convenience stores) is already challenged with out of control credit card processing fees (interchange--which Congress refuses to help us with) which this year will rise to almost $200,000. The increases we had at the federal and state on cigarettes and tobacco have already crimped my cash flow just stocking my inventory. I have the Federal and State floor tax forms on my desk now trying to figure out a way to pay that bill by the July 31st due date. I worry about cap & trade which will add $1.40 additional tax on gasoline and then on top of that Transportation wants to add another 40c per gallon to pay for the roads. Those 2 additional taxes alone will effectively put me out of business because it leaves me no operating capital. It also increases my credit card processing by 6 cents per gallon----which is $120,000 on my combined 2,000,000 gallons of gasoline I sell.
The House and Senate need to think about us small business owners--we are already dying out here and you all just keep trying to squeeze us more and more. I encourage you and your fellow members to come out of your offices and the fairy tale land that you are living in and talk to us----the small business owners BEFORE you pass legislation that will be our death sentence. Our government is leaving us no choices except
1. Reduce our work staff
2. Lower our rate of pay to minimum wage
3. Close our doors
Respectively,
Paula Bader
Dear Congressman,
You have been saluted as a Most Impressive Democrat of the Week for your committee leadership (see http://www.chrisweigant.com/index.php, also posted at http://journals.democraticunderground.com/ChrisWeigant/53).
Congratulations!
1) Please ask the CBO to score and cost out single-payer legislation (HR 676; S 703) and compare it to their scoring and costing of the new healthcare legislation now coming out of the House Committee on Education and Labor, House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Banking Committee, and Senate Finance Committee; and
2) Include single-payer experts in all Committee hearings on health care reform.
Dear Rep. Rangel,
I am one of your constituents and just want to thank you for all of the hard work you have been doing concerning health care reform. I support the president's health insurance guarantees and appreciate when you have made strong statements in support of patient care over profit.
It has been heart breaking to see how many folks in New York and across the country have lost their healthcare coverage because of lost jobs and continually raising costs or have not had any health care coverage because they could never afford it.
We need to have universal health coverage for everyone in the US, a system where insurance companies are not profiteering at the expense of the patient.
I have seen families who have gone bankrupt because of one major illness and individuals refused needed care by insurance companies. Decisions should be made by doctors, not insurance representatives.
Please stay strong and help push this bill through. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lorri Cramer, Upper Westside