President Obama participated in a telecom yesterday with the religious community urging them not to believe reports that health reform would cover foreigners in the U.S. illegally. Obama said America, as the world’s richest nation, had a moral duty to offer health care to everyone. He bemoaned those who bear false witness against his plans and then made a claim of his own that has been widely shown to be false.
The president said he wanted to correct the idea that the proposed overhaul would force some people into different health care plans. “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” However, according to Fact Check.org, an independent truth squad run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, that statement is incorrect. FactCheck’s analysis was one of several that point out that “the Democrats’ health care plan could lead to employers switching plans, and thus forcing their employees into different plans and perhaps to different doctors.”
Today, Thursday, August 20, Obama will host Philadelphia-based conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish to broadcast his program directly from the White House, interview the president, and take phone calls on health care. Smerconish calls himself a conservative, but he endorsed Obama in last year’s election.
As has been widely reported in the press over the past two days, there are varied interpretations in the media of what the new White House health care reform strategy is or what it seeks to accomplish. News outlets are reporting that despite public rhetoric to the contrary, the White House has concluded that a bipartisan deal on healthcare reform is now very unlikely, and will instead seek to pass healthcare reforms on a party-line vote. The White House appears to have now recognized that the chances of getting a bipartisan bill are very low, so the strategy has shifted to how to work towards a bill with Democrats only in both the House and the Senate. The one-party legislative push is expected to come when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after Labor Day.
Reconciliation will allow senators to get around a bill-killing filibuster without mustering the 60 votes usually needed. While Senate leaders say they prefer to advance a bipartisan bill through the Senate, it appears they will instead force it through using special budgetary rules, and the White House has said for months they will go down the road that gets them a deal even if it means just Democrats voting for it. Obama made clear this week they will move ahead with legislation in the fall with or without Republican support.
Under the new plan which emerged this week, Senate Democrats would split the measure into two parts. The first part, for which some Republican support is expected, would cover new insurance industry regulations. Democrats would pass the second part, which could include provision for a public option or other expensive proposals, under the budget reconciliation procedure which would require only 51 votes.
Senate negotiators from the Senate Finance Committee are scheduled to meet today by teleconference to discuss prospects for keeping a bipartisan health plan alive, which could hinge on the acceptability of co-ops to both sides. However, the Senate negotiators are already encountering opposition to co-ops, with some lawmakers saying co-ops would be no different than a government plan, criticizing the concept and saying they would require billions of dollars in start-up costs and would likely be supported by significant subsidies from the government that would permit them to undercut private insurers, eventually driving them from the market.
HAI has learned that an official letter from House Democrats to 52 insurance companies, sent by Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is demanding extensive documents for an examination of extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry. The letter, according to media sources, raises the “intimidation” stakes, offering no explanation of what is being investigated or why, seeking sensitive information and casting a wide net.
Meanwhile, a study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies found illegal immigration will make lowering healthcare costs harder. The study found that immigrants, legal and illegal, are almost three times as likely to be uninsured than native-born Americans, and immigrants account for 27 percent of the total uninsured population. The Center estimated the cost of insuring all immigrants could cost the government $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. The study was based on data from the 2008 Current Population Survey, which is conducted by the Census Bureau.
The question of how illegal immigrants should be handled in health reform has already been raised in committee meetings on Capitol Hill and in town hall meetings across the country. House Democrats have merged three versions of the legislation, but the Senate Finance Committee has yet to release their bipartisan bill. Congressional Republicans have warned that Democratic proposals to create a public option would allow illegal immigrants to receive health care.
At a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee just prior to the August Congressional Recess, Congressman Nathan Deal (R-Georgia) offered an amendment that would have required people to prove their citizenship status before receiving publicly funded care. That amendment was defeated. Chairman Waxman argued the provision could harm low-income Americans who do not have citizenship documentation readily available or deny people care at the emergency room.