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Yesterday marked a historic vote - the passage of the Senate Finance committee bill on health reform - health care reform legislation that's survived five committees, unmatched my any other attempt. Now the real game begins and the work gets just a little bit grittier. But the question remains. When it's all over, will it help Montanans?
Here's a simple comparison of the two senate bills. For an average family of four, earning $55,125 a year (250% of the Federal Poverty Level), premiums under the Kennedy Senate bill would cost a family $3,087 a year, which is 21 percent of their income. Under the Baucus bill, it would cost the same family $5,237 a year, or 45 percent of their income. (The Health Reform Subsidy Calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation is a helpful tool: you can see side by side the difference in payments of all five bills.)
Without a public option to effectively control costs, the current plan isn't affordable for working Montanans.
What happened to the employer mandate? What happened to a real choice and competition in the marketplace - a chance to buy into a robust public health insurance plan? And why so many penalties, on those who can least afford it?
Did Max ever have faith in his own product?
We'll need the extra boost of the Kennedy bill to survive the harsh weather of this merger process, working the nutrients back into the soil of an historic jump-start to health reform: an employer mandate, substantial subsidies, a choice of a public option - whether that's Schumer's amendment or a little of Schumer and Rockefeller.
Who knows what will transpire? Regardless, Montanans are in need of a hefty proposal to get them through the winter.
Take for instance, Patricia:
Patricia DeJong and her late husband, Dan, used to own a cattle ranch in Lincoln County, Montana, before losing it all to medical debt. Health insurance was unaffordable, and in 2000, while uninsured, Dan was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Over the course of five years, their medical debt spiraled out of control and they made the heartbreaking decision to sell their family's fourth generation ranch. Dan died in 2006 with all of his medical bills paid, but with no land to pass on to his family.
That's why the choice of a public health insurance plan option is so important. The Center for Rural Affairs explains why a public health insurance plan "would help address rural insurance instability" (pdf), pointing out that "public health insurance premiums would cost up to 30% less than private plans."
Max has been a careful farmer, planting the seeds early with his heatlcare reform white paper. Hell, he wrote the book on health reform! So why did he give up all the editorial rights so soon?
After many twists and turns through grassy fields, grasshoppers, corporate farmers and the like, Max sold his own little farm short: under the current Baucus bill, health care premiums are not affordable for individuals and families.
Let's hope the boost of Kennedy's bill will nourish the current Senate Finance bill in the merger process. It's a real victory to have received a good score from CBO and to witness a successful vote out of committee - that's a giant step - but we're only halfway there. If the barren landscape remains void of the Kennedy nutrients, Montana will be the small local farm sold willingly and without regard to the giant factory farm.
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