Proposed Health Reform

Monday, August 17th, 2009

With all U.S. economy problems -surging bank failures, rising foreclosures, and high unemployment, you would think that the resolution for these crises would be focused on by Congress.  The legislators may have believed in a spin because they started new initiatives like cap-and-trade bill.  Now, they passed the health care reform (H.R. 3200).

Under the proposed law, there is a requirement for employers to offer a health plan and pay the premium (at least 72.5%) for their workers.  In addition, those citizens without insurance will be penalized by 2.5% tax.  Rich people will be punished further with surcharge - they wouldn’t be able to deduct the fee.

However, some bill critics claim that this will deny medical treatment that’s supposedly for the elderly and disabled.  When you look at pages 425-432, the bill authorizes conference payments between health care providers and patients to create “advanced care directive.”  Physicians will receive higher reimbursement rate when they participate, although this is not a mandatory plan.  This medical order may include hospice care, health care proxies, living wills, and other intervention details that the patient wants before the end of his life.

For most health care providers, they want to comply and boost revenue.  Incentive payments require data sharing with government under Physician’s Quality Reporting Initiative.

Tags: bill, Congress, crises, foreclosures, health care reform, health plan, high unemployment, legislators, living will, medical treatment, physicians
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