Health Insurance Debate Rages On

Not since Bill Clinton's first term as President of the United States has the nation's chief executive, Congress and indeed the American people focused so much attention on health care, health insurance and reforming both of these interrelated systems. The debate over what can and should be done – and what cannot and should not be done – in regard to health care deliver and payment for services in the United States has intensified in recent days as both the House and Senate approach their summer recess. President Obama initially established the House recess date of August 3 as the deadline for which he actually wanted to see health care and health insurance legislation on his desk in the Oval Office.

HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM ATTEMPTS:

Presently, there are several different bills in committee (or on the brink of being introduced into a committee) in both the House and the Senate. These pieces of legislation are sponsored by Democratic members of the House and Senate and each bill purports to carry out the goals of the President when it comes to health care – health insurance reform. Over the course of the past couple of weeks it was a House bill, pending before the House Commerce and Energy Committee that has garnered most of the attention both on Capitol Hill and across the country.

That particular piece of legislation appeared to have stalled due to opposition from a group of fiscally conservative Democrats who are members of what is known as the Blue Dog Coalition. Seven of these Blue Dog Democrats actually are members of the House Commerce and Energy Committee, a significant and decisive voting block on that panel.

On July 29, four of those Blue Dog committee members entered into an agreement with the other Democrats on the panel which allowed the bill to be placed in a position to move forward. As part of agreement, $100 billion was removed from the overall cost of the reform legislation and an exemption for certain tax increases was made for businesses with revenues under $500,000 per year.

Even though this immediate logjam has been resolved, health care and health insurance reform legislation is far from becoming the law of the land. Indeed, a majority of the Blue Dog Coalition in the House is opposed to the legislation, even with the tweaking that allowed the bill to move forward in committee. Moreover, when adding up votes, most analysts are forgetting that in addition to the actual Blue Dog Democrats there is a handful of between five to seven other House members who are serving in fairly solid to heavily registered Republican districts.

Because of the nature of their constituencies, these Democrats simply cannot be counted on by the majority party and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate President Harry Reid to vote in favor of this or any of the other pieces of reform legislation being touted by the Democrats in Congress. As it stands, if the vote were held today in the House and Senate on any of the pending bills, passage of health care reform – group health insurance reform legislation would be doubtful.

Unlike President Clinton in the mid-1990s, President Obama did not formulate a specific legislative scheme in preparing for health care – health insurance reform. Rather, President Obama simply outlined a set of his basic goals (which had included a public health “insurance” option) and left it up to the Congressional Democratic leadership to develop the actual legislation.

The public option does represent one of the most controversial aspects of the bills the Democrats have introduced thus far – seemingly opposed at this time by all Republican Senators and House Members and somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 Democratic House Members and perhaps a few Democratic Senators. In short, by “doing the math” this aspect of health care – health insurance reform may not make it off the runway.

With Members of Congress from both Houses and both parties returning to their districts and their constituents in August, it is presumed that the bulk of what they will hear from voters will center on health care, health insurance and the different proposals that are floating around pertaining to these issues.

No matter the state of the current debate in Washington amongst lawmakers and across the country amongst the American people, thousands of individuals find themselves on the market each and every day seeking affordable and appropriate health insurance coverage. The Internet and websites like Health Insurance Broker Online are invaluable resources when it comes to obtaining health insurance quotes and additional information about health insurance policies that are available to consumers at this point in time.