Word: plan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller gave his closing argument on Sept. 29 to the Senate Finance Committee in support of his amendment to create a new government-run health-insurance plan, he sounded amply frustrated. Describing the people of his state, he said they were "out in the cold" and "helpless" against faceless insurance bureaucrats who treat them unfairly. A public health-insurance plan, he said, would create competition for private insurers and could put patients, not profits, first. "These are people," he said, banging the table more than once. "Eleven-year-old kids. These are families...
...Government money and lower costs for consumers, nonetheless believes that a bill with such an option will not garner enough support to overcome the threat of a filibuster and make it for a vote on the Senate floor; almost all Republicans and many moderate Democrats believe that such a plan would force private insurance companies out of business and eventually lead to a single-payer system, with the government as the only viable entity selling insurance. "My first job is to get this bill across the finish line," Baucus said during the committee's fifth day of debate. "Rome...
...most likely way that a public option could end up part of the finished product is as a backup plan. Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who has been publicly courted by the White House as the most probable member of her party who might vote for reform, has offered an amendment that calls for a public option to kick in down the line only if private insurers don't do enough to offer affordable health-insurance choices. According to the text of her amendment, a public option would be offered if at least two private insurers didn't offer plans that...
Much to the dismay of liberal critics and some health-policy experts, this so-called trigger plan would be offered state by state rather than on a nationwide basis. If insurers were determined not to offer an affordable choice in a given state, they would still have a second chance to meet affordability standards before the public option would kick in. Snowe, in her amendment, refers to the public option as a "safety net" plan, without specifying whether such a plan would have to meet the minimum standards for adequate insurance coverage defined elsewhere in health-reform legislation. She also...
...said they will not vote for a bill that contains a public option, wrangling over the proposal is not quite so public. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in the process of merging bills from the three committees there with jurisdiction over health care, and the design of the public plan is one of the sticking points. The original version of the House bill contained a public option that would have set its reimbursement rates above, but still tied to, Medicare rates. But an amendment that passed in the House Energy Committee would have a public option with negotiated rates, roughly...