Baucus' Landmark Health Care Reform Legislation Marked for Senate Finance Committee

Strategic Insights -

Senator Max Baucus has begun to mark up his health care reform legislation, aiming to lower costs and provide quality, affordable health care coverage to all Montanans. The bill, which is being considered by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, has several key provisions aimed at improving the health care system. These include ending insurance company discrimination, lowering costs, ensuring quality health care coverage, improving quality, strengthening and improving Medicare, cutting down on fraud, waste and abuse, improving choice and competition, and modernizing the health care system.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Baucus bill will stop insurance companies from denying coverage to Montanans with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes.
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Baucus bill will reduce the rate at which premiums in the individual and small group market are growing.
  • The bill effectively slows the growth of federal health care spending over the long term.
  • The bill will provide access to quality health care coverage for 36 million Americans, significantly reducing the cost of uncompensated care and resulting in lower costs for everyone and savings to the economy.
  • The bill includes numerous provisions to improve the way medical care is delivered, such as creating quality and efficiency incentives to cut down on waste and unnecessary hospital readmissions.
  • The bill will not cut benefits in the Medicare program and will increase benefits, with key provisions such as free preventive care and wellness check-ups with doctors.
  • The bill will provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs for seniors in the "doughnut hole," a gap in coverage in the Medicare prescription drug program.
  • The bill strengthens Medicare to ensure the program's sustainability.
  • The bill will strengthen oversight and enforcement measures to cut down on fraud, waste and abuse in the health care system, estimated to cost more than $60 billion every year.
  • The bill will create a competitive and transparent market with meaningful benefit packages for consumers to choose from.
  • The bill will increase efficiency in the health system by standardizing electronic transactions among insurers and health care providers, lowering premiums, and allowing doctors to spend less time filling out paperwork and more time treating patients.

Statistics:

  • 36 million Americans will gain access to quality health care coverage through the Baucus bill.
  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the Baucus bill will reduce the rate at which premiums in the individual and small group market are growing.
  • The bill effectively slows the growth of federal health care spending over the long term.
  • $60 billion is estimated to be spent every year on fraud, waste and abuse in the health care system, which the Baucus bill aims to cut down on.

Sources:

  • Montana Senator Max Baucus' press release
  • Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates
  • Finance Committee website at www.finance.senate.gov.