You had to wonder what they were thinking the first place, setting up any healthcare reforms to start in 2013, while the economy is still in the tank and unemployment is still in the rise, and, of course, after the next two critical elections. Some Dems have come to the realization that they need to fix that:
Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year.
The most significant changes to the health care system wouldn’t kick in until 2013 — two election cycles away. With Republicans expected to make next year a referendum on health care reform, Democrats are quietly lobbying to push up the effective dates on popular programs, so they'll have something to run on in the congressional midterm elections.
Democrats are anxious to mix the good with the bad since some of the pain would be phased in early, including more than $100 billion in industry fees that critics say could be passed on to consumers.
“We want to be able, within the cost framework and the implementation framework, to have as much start as early as possible, even though we know all of it can’t,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), a Finance Committee member who is working with other senators on the effort. “And the White House wants to have as much as possible to start.”
Under the Democratic wish list, senior citizens would receive discounts on brand-name drugs next year. Small businesses that provide insurance would see tax credits. And a $5 billion high-risk pool would cover people with preexisting conditions....
Stabenow said she is working with other senators to influence the closed-door negotiations among Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is representing the HELP committee. In several cases, the HELP bill offers earlier effective dates on key provisions — and Stabenow and others are pressing Reid to go with the more immediate approach.
“We want to have as much front-ended as possible,” Stabenow said.
The Senate HELP bill would immediately require family policies to cover young adults until age 26, while the Finance bill sets up a “young invincible” policy beginning in 2013.
That high-risk pool might actually be better served by adapting an idea from Howard Dean and allow those high-risk people into Medicare, as they have with younger disabled people and those in end stage renal disease. That would provide the highest level of health security for those people.
At any rate, this is an encouraging development that we'll be keeping an eye on as the amendment process heats up when the two chambers take up reform.