Word: health
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Tucked deep inside the Senate health reform bill - beginning on page 1,926 - is a plan for a new federal insurance program. Average premiums could be as high as $180 per month and could be automatically deducted from the paychecks of some American workers. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts this new program would "add to budget deficits ... by amounts on the order of tens of billions of dollars." This is not, however, the so-called public option that is the focus of much heated debate on Capitol Hill. It's an entirely different Democratic plan...
...Senate floor. To supporters, it's the fulfillment of a long-deferred dream of Senator Ted Kennedy, a chance to improve the current options available to the elderly and disabled who need care (Medicare does not cover long-term nursing-home stays, and Medicare funding for home health care would be cut under health reform); to critics, it's a fiscally unsound budget gimmick, "a classic definition of a Ponzi scheme," as Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota described it late last week. (See 10 players in health care reform...
...would sign up their employees, who would then have the ability to opt out. The cash benefits could be applied to nursing-home care, but in an effort to encourage enrollees to stay in their own homes, payouts could cover such things as wheelchair ramps and wages for home health care aides...
...about $200 per day. Yet millions of Americans who need long-term care but can't afford to pay for it have to "spend down" all their assets, become poor enough to qualify for Medicaid and then move to nursing homes, which the program covers. (Medicaid coverage for home health services varies from state to state.) This does not come cheap for the government, which pays about 60% of all long-term-care costs in the U.S.; only about 5% of Americans currently have private long-term-care insurance. "Medicaid is invaluable," says Judy Feder, a health policy expert...
While everyone agrees that allowing elderly and disabled Americans to stay in their homes is better from a fiscal standpoint, certain details of the CLASS Act have made it an easy target for critics. Examining the merits of these criticisms provides a window to understanding both the complexity of health care reform and why it's so ripe for mischaracterization. For instance, to prevent people from purchasing long-term-care coverage when they are already in need, the CLASS Act requires that enrollees be employed and pay into the system for five years before becoming eligible to collect benefits...