Length of Health Care Reform Bills Silliness

It is both amusing and disappointing to see the silliness that surrounds the serious issue of health care reform.  Examples abound: calls for keeping the government out of Medicare (a government-run health plan, for those keeping score at home); claims that a government-run plan will usher in an era of lower medical premiums buying better coverage; promises of death panels; and the list goes on.

The foolishness that seems to crop up most often are criticizing the bill for being too long. Some opponents of the bill have taken to printing out the 2,074 page Senate Health Care Reform bill (even longer than the House health care reform legislation which came in at 1,990 pages) and lugging it around on their shoulder. Or taping the pages together and rolling the result down the Capitol steps. The theory, apparently, is that health care reform is such a simple problem, it should be easy to accomplish in just a few pages.

I wrote about the importance of looking at what the bill does, rather than how long it takes to do it, in a previous post. But now the Associated Press has actually put things into (numerological) perspective. Here’s what the AP reports concerning the literal size of the health care reform bills being considered by Congress.

• The House health care reform legislation, HR 3962, is 319,145 words.
• The Senate health care reform bill, HR 3590, is 318,512
• The No Child Left Behind Act (supported by many of those criticizing the health care reform bills) was over 280,000 words.
• English translations of War and Peace, which some critics has claimed is shorter than the Democratic health care reform bills, are 560,000-to-670,000 words.
• When published in a more normal fashion than formal bills are (single spaced, normal font, regular margins) the bill comes to 209 pages.

Here’s some other meaningless statistics:

The Harry Potter series totaled 1,090,739 words. The longest: Order of the Phoenix at 257,045 words.

The Old Testament has 593,493 words; (No idea which English translation the source used).

How many words would it take to legislate the status quo? Considering the need to create Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans health care, regulate the private market, etc. etc., my guess is we’re talking about reams of paper.

Let’s focus on what matters – what the legislation does – not how many words it takes to do it. There’s plenty of substantive issues to debate. And now’s the time to do it.

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Health Care Reform’s Likely Outcome: Worse Than Promised; Not as Bad as Feared

As the Senate begins their effort to pass health care reform anxiety levels are, quite naturally and rightly rising. Health care is highly personal. For those of us working within the current framework, having politicians mess with our livelihood is a stressful to say the least. That these politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) seem to care less about the substance of the reform and more about how they appeal to their electoral base does nothing to reduce that stress.

Of course, what we’re reacting to at this stage is not the final reform legislation. The House and Senate proposals foreshadow what Congress will eventually pass (if it passes anything). The actual legislation is still to come. Put another way, we know the basic outline, but the devil resides in a suburb of the details. As I pointed out in my previous post, however, the real drafting of health care reform legislation hasn’t started yet. With the Senate taking up the issue we’re seeing the end of the legislative phase in which the parameters are defined. It’s in the upcoming conference committee that will define health care reform 2009-style (or, more likely, early 2010).

Concerning that prior post, Ron Masters, a friend and frequent reader/commenter of this blog, took me to task for writing too kindly about the current House and Senate versions of health care reform. “I’m surprised that you seem to feel that either of these bills are any good,” he write. This after a litany of shortcomings concerning the current administration, the ability of government to deliver much of anything, and the foolishness of imposing taxes and creating new entitlements in the midst of the current economic mess. And he makes some fair points.

He’s not alone. I’ve heard from a lot of brokers, readers and others who are convinced the coming health care reform will be a disaster leading to ruin and damnation for the country. I disagree. Here’s why.

As any reader of this blog knows, I don’t buy into the premises of those at the extreme. Not all government programs are good, but some are. Not all taxes are bad, but some are. Change is important, but getting change right is more important. Defending the status quo just because it is the status quo is indefensible. In other words, I’m comfortable with the gray shades of reality and uncomfortable with the black-and-whites of true believers.

I’m also comfortable with the government doing stupid things now and then. No party and no administration has a monopoly on such foolishness. (Nor has any party or administration failed to achieve some truly noble accomplishments). What’s more, no administration lasts forever. Whatever health care reform passes in the next few months will be administered by a parade of future administrations and modified by Congresses yet to-be-elected. Many people have a tendency to believe whatever Congress passes and how the current administration implements it will remain unchanged forever. It won’t. Medicare was vilified as socialistic and a fast slide toward America’s ruin when it was being created. Things didn’t work out that way. The program has survived for nearly 45 years under the administrations of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush-the-first, Clinton and Bush-the-second. Yes, it is a far from perfect program and faces significant challenges. Still, it works, it’s evolved and it will continue to do so. And the country has survived.

Another reason I’m not outright opposed to health care reform is because I believe expanding access to health insurance is critically important. It is well understood that everyone in America has access to health care. But it is also well documented that people with health insurance live healthier, longer lives. A recent study by researchers at Harvard Medical School confirmed an earlier study from the 1980’s that “uninsurance is associated with mortality.” That’s an awkward way of stating a well-accepted truism: being uninsured can be hazardous to your health.

Expanding coverage, however, is expensive. The more people who have coverage the more people who will incur medical expenses. That is after all, the whole idea and a desirable outcome. It’s also an expensive outcome. In my mind, it’s a price worth paying. Especially considering the potential return on this investment.

Those with insurance are already making heavy payments to pay for care received by the uninsured according to a study by Families USA. In 2008, the study reports, nearly $43 billion of health care the uninsured received from hospitals, doctors and other providers went unpaid. This uncompensated care results in higher premiums for those with coverage. In 2008 this hidden tax increased premiums $368 for single coverage and $1,017 for family coverage. Given the recession, this amount has no doubt gone up. Increasing the number of Americans with insurance should reduce this burden.

Early identification of potential health conditions before they blossom into serious diseases can generate tremendous economic benefits, although these savings are rarely considered in a cost-benefit analysis. Every dollar invested in preventing and treating heart attacks generates $7 in increased productivity, according to a study by United BioSource Corporation.

In other words, it’s not just the reform bills being considered in Washington that are expensive. So is the status quo. Health care costs are crippling businesses, bankrupting families and state governments, enabling fraud and abuse, increasing taxes, and failing to deliver on many of its promises. Change is inevitable – and it’s coming.

Too many in Washington believe (or at least claim to believe) that reforming the health insurance industry will reduce the cost of coverage. Far from it. The bills being considered in Congress will cause premiums to increase. Until Congress tackles the underlying causes of skyrocketing medical costs, health insurance coverage will become increasingly unaffordable. The House and Senate health care reform bills do have more cost containment provisions than is generally acknowledged. Could they be stronger and more ambitious? Yes. Are obvious cost containment opportunities missing (e.g., malpractice reform?) Yes. But they’re there. And future efforts to restrain medical costs will benefit from the seeds planted in the current reform debate.

Which brings us, I suppose, to the key question: are the House and Senate health care reform bills good? No, not really. They’re too heavy handed, using an axe when a scalpel is required. As noted, their cost containment provisions are weaker than the American people deserve. The bills reflect a misunderstanding of how health insurance works and about what drives premiums. The costs for the program are no doubt understated (few initiatives of this magnitude, whether attempted by government or business, come in under budget).

If either the House or Senate bills were the final legislation I’d be more concerned than I am now (and, for the record, I am concerned). But neither HR 3962 nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s proposal are going to be enacted, not as currently written. I believe the conference committee will need to make significant changes in order to get the votes needed for passage – if that’s even possible.

There are plenty of substantive problems with these health care reform proposals. To make matters worse, their backers and opponents are knowingly overpromising or attempting to frighten the public. Democrats claim their reforms will reduce overall health care costs, lower premiums and reduce the deficit. Wrong on all counts. Republicans claim it will destroy American businesses, annihilate Medicare, create death panels and bankrupt the country. Just as wrong.

We’ve seen this script before concerning Medicare, Iraq, and a host of other issues. Partisans on one side over promise, their opponents dredge up scenarios of doom. That both sides are equally guilty makes it no more acceptable or welcome. But it is what it is.

The main point of my previous post, and of this one, is that if reform passes, it will not be as bad as feared nor as good as promised. It will be refined sooner (by regulation) and later (by future legislation). The fight for a better health care system will continue. Only the status quo will have changed. The need to improve on it will remain.

Liberal’s Approach to Health Care Reform Made Abortion Controversy Inevitable

Democrats paid a heavy toll to keep health care reform moving forward. They were forced to accept substantial and virtually unprecedented limits on abortion coverage in order to get the Affordable Health Care for America Act through the House of Representatives. This result should awaken them to the need to rethink their approach, but it assumes they learned the key lesson: where government goes, ideology follows.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi needed 218 votes to make history: passage by the House of the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Liberals got her most of the way there, but to get across the finish line Speaker Pelosi needed support from moderates and conservatives. This meant cutting a deal with the pro-life caucus. The result: HR 3962 prohibits the government-run medical plan and coverage offered through the health insurance exchanges the bill would create from covering elective abortion procedures. Liberals are furious, but to pass health care reform they had to accept this restriction as part of the package.

This post is not about the politics or morality of abortions. Readers of this blog are on both sides of this issue. This blog is about health care reform and what happened to HR 3962 concerning abortion highlights one of the greatest pitfalls in Democrats approach to reform. If they continue down the road they are on, increasing the amount of America’s health care system government directly controls and manages, the party is guaranteeing that similar defeats on similar public policy issues is all but a certainty. The issue today is abortion. In the future it could be access to birth control. Or making coverage available to domestic partners. The fact is, government-run health care does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. Politics and ideology inevitably come along for the ride.

The final health care reform bill may loosen the prohibition on abortion coverage contained in the House bill. But if the restrictions are diminished, it will be because Democrats led by Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are in control of Congress and President Barack Obama occupies the Oval Office.

For now.

Eventually conservatives will be in power again. No party or ideology dominates America’s politics forever. And a conservative government will not hesitate to use the tools given to it by Democrats to push forward their agenda merely because those tools were created by liberals. 

No one should be surprised about this political reality. In a post back in August 2007 I warned single payer advocates that a government takeover of health insurance would open the door to ideology meddling by conservatives. And in August of this year I reminded liberals that while Democrats are ascendant today, politics, like a pendulum, eventually changes direction. “In 2001 the President was George W. Bush, the Senate Majority Leader was Trent Lott and the House Speaker was Dennis Hastert (just two years earlier it had been Newt Gingrich). Their view of how a public health plan should work – what it covers and who it benefits – varies considerably from the Obama/Reid/Pelosi view. Yet the greater the role liberals give the government over health care, the more control over issues like abortion conservatives like Bush/Lott/Hastert will have when they take power again – and eventually, they will.”  And I’m hardly the only observer to state this reality.

So Democrats face a critical choice. They can pursue their health care reform goals care by increasing government’s direct participation in the market or by looking to the regulations the government imposes on the market.  One opens the door wide to groups of lawmakers holding health care reform hostage to unrelated public policy issues; the other narrows this opening.

For example, lawmakers want to prohibit carriers from denying consumers coverage because of their current or previous health conditions. Creating a health insurance exchange is one method of achieving this goal, but it is not the only way. And alternatives limit the opportunity for ideological meddling in Americans’ lives.

Yes, a public plan would increase competition in the market (a primary justification for a government-run plan), but so would health insurance co-operatives. And as non-government entities, co-operatives would be less susceptible to partisan interference.

By focusing on their goals and being careful of their methodology for achieving them, Democrats can have their health care reform and limit the price they’ll pay on other issues. Or they can continue down a road in which accepting limits on abortion coverage is merely the first of many heavy and painful tolls they will pay.

House Health Care Reform Passes, But It’s Far From the Last Word

History was made on November 7th when the House of Representatives passed HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Yes, it was a close vote (220 in favor versus 215 opposed). Yes, only one Republican voted for the bill. Yes, the legislation leaves a lot to be desired. At the end of the day, all that matters is that the legislation passed. President Barack Obama’s health care reform initiative remains alive and is closer to reality than the efforts of his predecessors. Given the complexity and controversy surrounding the issue, not to mention the competing demands of numerous, powerful stakeholders, this is a remarkable achievement.

While historic and remarkable, however, it’s important not to read too much, or too little, into what happened. Consider:

House Passage of Health Care Reform Puts Pressure on the Senate: It’s probably hard for Republicans to understand the importance of health care reform to Democrats. I suppose it’s the equivalent of a tax decrease to the GOP. It’s a defining issue, in the sense that the issue differentiates themselves from the other side. When Republicans controlled the White House and Congress they lowered taxes. They could have made a major push behind health care reform during their years in power, but that’s not where Republicans were willing to invest the political capital in health care reform, not when it could be put behind cutting taxes. Democrats now control the Executive and Legislative branches. And they are investing their political capital where their heart is: health care reform.

Which means if you’re a Democratic Senator you do not want to be the reason health care reform fails. No doubt some members of the Senate were quietly hoping the vote in the House would fall short, letting them off the hook. No such luck. Now it’s up to Senate Democrats to keep the dream of health care reform alive.

HR 3962 is Not on the President’s Desk: Nor is it likely to ever get there.  What the Senate will pass is not likely to look a lot like the Affordable Health Care for America Act, either. The politics in the Senate are far different from that in the House. Consider the idea of the government creating – and maintaining – a health plan to compete with private carriers. Senator Joe Lieberman reiterated his threat to vote against allowing a reform bill containing a government-run plan to come to a vote on the Senate floor, according to the Associated Press. Unless his 60th vote is replaced by a Republican (think Senator Olympia Snowe) Democrats will be unable to overcome a GOP filibuster with Senator Lieberman’s vote.

Of course, as noted in an earlier post, Senator Roland Burris is threatening to prevent a bill without a public insurance plan to come to a vote. So Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has to craft a package that satisfies a diverse and divided caucus (Senator Lieberman is an Independent, but he caucuses with Democrats in order to hold on to his committee chairmanship). Senator Reid has already submitted a proposal to the Congressional Budget Office for review. (That the CBO has yet to issue an analysis is widely taken as evidence the cost of the legislation is higher than Senator Reid is counting on, meaning adjustments will be required). Meaning …

The Senate Will Pass a More Moderate Bill. Whatever Senator Reid puts before the Senate, it will be more moderate than HR 3962. Moderates hold more power in the Senate than they do in the House. Leaving aside Senator Lieberman, passage of health care reform in the Senate will need to satisfy 17 moderate and conservative Democrats. While several of these Senators have already pledged their support to the legislation outlined (but not published yet) by Senator Reid, there’s enough hold-outs to force concessions that will disappoint liberals. Yet those liberals are unlikely to vote against health care reform and accept blame for defeating this core Democratic issue. (Senator Burris is an exception for reasons discussed in the previous post).

When the Senate Acts Will Be When Democrats Have 60 Votes:  Warner Pacific, a general agency based in California, held a series of town hall meetings last week featuring former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. John Nelson, co-CEO of Warner Pacific, interviewed Senator Daschle for roughly 90 minutes and the result were numerous, meaningful insights which I’ll try to write about in future posts. But one observation Senator Daschle offered is relevant here. When it comes to passing legislation, the Senator described the role of the Majority Leader and House Speaker as shoveling frogs onto a wheelbarrow. Why did the House vote on health care reform now instead of waiting to learn more details concerning the Senate legislation? Because Speaker Nancy Pelosi had finally managed to fill the wheelbarrow with at least 218 votes and the longer she waited the more likely it was one of them would jump out.

Speaker Pelosi had a somewhat easier task than the one facing Senator Reid’s. She needed to muster a simple majority and the rules of the House gives her more power than Senator Reid enjoys in the upper house. Plus he needs to shovel a super-majority of 60 frogs into his wheelbarrow.  Once he marshals the votes, however, expect the Senate to act relatively quickly. And don’t expect a vote to be scheduled until Senator Reid is reasonably confident he will prevail. Once that happens, however, the Senate will likely pass their health care reform legislation. Then …

It’s the Conference Committee That Matters: Getting health care reform this far has required a Herculean effort by lawmakers and the White House. And it’s all aimed at getting two bills to a Senate-House conference committee. That’s where the final deals will be struck, losers and winners defined, and the political calculation made as to what single bill can be passed by both chambers of Congress.

For brokers, one of the issues to watch will be related to the health insurance exchange reform will create. In the Senate bill, at least for now, there’s a provision to require those selling products in the exchange to be licensed by their state; the House bill permits unlicensed entities to sell the products. (Ironically, the House approach, which would let DMV clerks sell health insurance in the exchange is supported by some Republicans in the Senate).

The conference committee will determine the taxes implemented to finance reform, what mandates are in place and how they’re enforced, whether there’s a government-run health plan, what cost containment provisions are included, and whether reform addresses malpractice – among other items. In other words, while everything leading to the conference committee is important, it has all been prelude.

To use a baseball analogy, think of the general discussions and hearings earlier this year as Spring Training. The committee votes were the regular season. The vote in the House was a league playoff and now we await the outcome of one more playoff series. All of this leads to the World Series, known as the conference committee. So there’s still more to come. It’s what comes out of the conference committee that, if approved by both the Senate and House, will be signed into law by President Obama. And, assuming something is passed …

Health Care Reform Will Be Worse Than Hoped For, But Better Than Feared:  A  friend from college went to the same law school I did, but a year earlier. As I approached my first day of classes I asked him what to expect. “Worse than you hope it is; better than you fear it will be,” was his reply. (And he was right). Well, the same applies to health care reform.

For example, there’s far less medical cost containment in either the House or Senate bills than most observers believe is necessary to make coverage affordable. But as Senator Daschle noted at the Warner Pacific town hall meeting – and as reader JimK has pointed out – there are some potentially significant cost containment provisions tucked away in the bills. Yes, they call for studies and regulations as opposed to describing details, but perhaps that’s the only way cost containment can make it through the political labyrinth that is Congress. They hold the potential, however, to lead to a significant bending of the cost curve. Of course, for now, it’s only a potential, but still, it’s there.

Consider: When California passed its small group reforms in the early 1990s many brokers and industry insiders feared it would harm the market. Instead that legislation, AB 1672, has been a stabilizing influence that eliminated harmful industry practices without destroying the industry in the process. Yes, there were winners and losers (the dominance of Multiple Employer Trusts in the small group market soon ended), but most brokers and their clients will agree it was a net win.

I watched some of the debate on the Affordable Health Care for America Act on C-Span Saturday. To over-generalize, Democrats made the Superman argument: the status quo was leading the country to ruin and only HR 3926 could save the day. Republicans countered with the Hell and damnation offensive: passage of the Democrat’s health care reform legislation would lead to the destruction of all America stands for.

The reality is, the Democrats are overselling what the bill does. And Republicans are exaggerating the negatives. Many of the charges leveled against HR 3962 by GOP members were similar to those their counterparts made against Medicare 45 years ago. Now the GOP positions itself as the protector of Medicare. Apparently not all slippery slopes lead to damnation after all.

What the House accomplished on November 7th is historic. It is neither all good nor all bad. Nor, significantly, is it the final word.