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September 2011 Archives
This week's question comes from one of our newest experts, Cindy Gillespie. Gillespie served as an adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during the state's health reform efforts, and now leads the health care policy team at McKenna Long & Aldridge.
"In addition to the individual and small business exchanges mandated under PPACA, private exchanges are emerging as potential vehicles for innovation in the way employers offer coverage to their workforce.
For example, WellPoint recently announced the acquisition of Bloom Health, through which 20,000 employees at 50 companies purchase coverage using pre-tax dollars and a defined contribution from their employers.
What impact do you think that exchanges, public and private, will have on the employer-sponsored insurance marketplace?"
-- Cindy Gillespie
And to add an additional question of my own: How will private exchanges affect state and federal exchanges set to be up and running in 2014?
President Obama's latest plan to reduce federal health costs kept true to his call for "modest" adjustments to Medicare. Obama didn't go for any big reforms--like increasing the Medicare eligibility age to 67--but his proposal does go after a few Democratic sacred cows, namely by asking seniors to pay more for their care.
The plan is full of policy proposals that have been around for months, wringing $248 billion in savings from Medicare and $73 billion in savings from Medicaid and other health programs.
They are also items that every lobby can love to hate. The savings come from hits to pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and beneficiaries -- a combination that will be a tough vote for politicians in either party. Democrats loathe asking seniors to pay more for their care, and cuts to hometown hospitals are hard for any member of Congress to support, regardless of party. Republicans will especially oppose charging pharmaceutical companies more.
What do you think of the president's plan for Medicare? Does it stand a chance of passing, even with the deficit super committee's "fast-track" procedure that can protect it from the usual congressional obstacles? Would President Obama's plan shore-up the Medicare program for future generations?
