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...Bigger Medicaid Tab Of the 31 million uninsured people who would gain coverage under a revamped health system, about half would do so through a vast expansion of Medicaid - the state-and-federal health care program for the poor. The Senate bill would make eligible anyone earning up to 133% of the federal poverty level (for a family of four, an income of about $29,300 a year); the House bill would lift that threshold to 150% of poverty (or about $33,000 for a family of four...
...Both House and Senate bills would pay the states' share of the cost of the new patients over the first two years and up to 95% after that. But states would still face an enormous new financial obligation. There is also the question of finding enough providers to care for 15 million new patients. "It is a huge load on the states at a time when we are still climbing out of the recession," Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen said this week in Nashville. His state - already facing $1.5 billion in budget cuts this year and next - has estimated that...
...Insurance Exchanges Perhaps the least understood aspect of federal health reform is how private insurance would be sold on the open market if and when the legislation becomes law. Under the Senate bill, states would be responsible for creating and running new insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges. There, individuals and small businesses would purchase private health insurance, receiving federal subsidies if they qualified. The House bill would establish a national exchange, which states could opt out of if they had the capacity to run their...
...Fight for Federal Aid Around the capital, the special deal that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson got to secure his vital, filibuster-breaking 60th vote for the health care bill is now known as the Cornhusker Kickback. Even as political favors go, it's a whopper: if reform passes, the Federal Government will pay all of Nebraska's new Medicaid costs forever. And it's fueling envy and outrage in the other 49 states. Led by South Carolina's Henry McMaster, the attorneys general of 13 states - 12 Republicans and one Democrat - have signed on to a letter contending the Nelson...
...resulted, retailers have lashed out at the banks for failing to spot the problem earlier. "We have angry customers and lost revenues and it's simply not our fault," Stefan Genth, the head of HDE, told the German daily Bild. Genth says retailers already have to foot an annual bill of more than $150 million in charges to banks when credit and debit cards don't work in store machines. This new problem will only add to their losses...