Word: plan
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SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE In a June 9 legislative draft, space designated for details of a public plan just read "policy under discussion." Dodd and Kennedy favor a public-insurance plan...
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE No formal draft has been released, but a 10-page outline leaked on June 18 included consumer-run insurance "cooperatives" as a public-plan alternative...
TRIGGERED A public plan would kick in at a future date if private insurers did not sufficiently expand coverage and lower costs to certain mandated levels...
Sources: Number of uninsured: CDC, 2006 data; poll data: ABC News/Washington Post, June 18-21, 2009; potential enrollees to a public plan: the Lewin Group, April 2009; insurance-company market share: National Association of Insurance Commissioners
Still, overhauling the current health-payment system has other pitfalls. Back in 1983, Medicare initiated a similar plan, bundling payments for hospital stays, but the program acquired the unfortunate label "quicker but sicker." Since hospitals were paid a certain amount of money for each patient no matter how long they stayed, many patients were discharged sooner than was prudent, which transferred the burden of care onto nursing homes and created a "mini-industry of readmissions," according to Gail Wilensky, a former head of Medicare. "Redesigning the reimbursement system is not for the faint of heart," says Wilensky. "This...