Day 4 of 206- reading the Senate Health Care Bill
January 29, 2010 by davidfisher · Leave a Comment
In other words, people who stop working at age 55 can receive Medicare-type coverage, but not exactly. You must have a job that provides health insurance, and then if you retire at 55, you can keep your insurance, and the Federal government will pay for 80% of your expenses between $15,000 and $90,000 per year. The money will be paid to the insurance company, and the bill states that the money is to be used to lower premiums, deductibles, and copays. You will still be receiving health insurance through your previous company, but the government will essentially make it easier for the company to keep you on even after you stop working. The bill gives this program $5 billion.
When you hear people talking about the Senate bill lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55, I think this is the section they are talking about. I don’t think this is a horrible idea, except that the amount of money contributed by the government will probably not be enough to offset the cost to insurance companies for keeping people on the plan who are no longer contributing to the plan through their employment. This would mean that insurance companies would have to raise premiums on everyone else in order to stay in business. Section 1102 Immediate Information that Allows Consumers to Identify Affordable Coverage Options Establishes an internet site where consumers can “identify affordable health insurance coverage options in that State” and compare them based on percentage of money spent on administrative costs, premium rates, eligibility criteria, etc. Seems helpful. There is no mention of how much this would cost or the amount of funds being given to this project. Section 1104 Administrative Simplification Gives the HHS department the authority to standardize a set of “operating rules” for the management of the financial and administrative transactions that will occur as a results of this bill. Also gives authority to the federal government to contract with a non-profit organization to develop these rules. What a sweet contract for the business that gets that project! The section continues several more pages… more tomorrow. Today’s bone: Left frontal
