Scott Horsley, NPR News, Author at �鶹Ů�� Health News

Current, Former Presidents Promote Enrollment In Marketplaces

Scott Horsley, NPR News — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 12:49:52 +0000

(Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)

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President Obama’s health care law has so far survived challenges in Congress and the courts. But its biggest test could begin next week. That’s when the online marketplaces offering health care coverage to the uninsured are set to start signing people up. The question is, will they come?

Of the uninsured surveyed by NBC and the Wall Street Journal this month, only said they’re likely to use the exchanges. Obama is trying to make the argument that signing up is a good deal: “In many states across the country, if you’re say a 27-year-old young woman, don’t have health insurance, you get on that exchange, you’re going to be able to purchase high-quality health insurance for less than the cost of your cell phone bill.”

The White House is enlisting nurses, ministers, celebrities, even radio DJs to help spread that message. On Tuesday, Obama got some help from former President Bill Clinton. The two leaders

target=”_blank”>sat side by side

in a pair of overstuffed armchairs at the Clinton Global Initiative for a televised — if somewhat wonky — conversation about health care economics.

It’s the nature of insurance, Obama said, for healthy people to subsidize those who need more care. Clinton says that’s why it’s important to get healthy young people enrolled in the insurance exchanges.

“This only works, for example, if young people show up,” said Clinton. “We’ve got to have them in the pools. Because otherwise all these projected low costs cannot be held if older people with pre-existing conditions are disproportionately represented in any given state.”

Clinton understands those economics, having launched his own, unsuccessful push for universal coverage 20 years ago this week. Obama got further, pushing his bill through Congress, but he notes the battle to implement the law is far from over: “Let’s face it, it’s been a little political, this whole Obamacare thing.”

The administration is now using social media and other tactics honed during the president’s re-election campaign to promote enrollment in the health care exchanges. Obama acknowledges they’re battling a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz mounted by the president’s critics.

“Those who have opposed the idea of universal health care in the first place and have fought this thing tooth and nail through Congress and through the courts and so forth, have been trying to scare and discourage people from getting a good deal,” said Obama.

Congressional Republicans also continue to challenge the law, which was passed over their unanimous opposition in 2010. Despite the battle being waged within the Republican ranks right now over tactics like the filibuster and a threatened government shutdown, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell says his party is united in its opposition to the health care overhaul.

“Obamacare hasn’t even been fully implemented yet but we can already see the train wreck headed our way,” said McConnell. “Major companies have been dropping the health care plans their employees have and like. And every week it seems there are new reports about glitches that will hurt families, compromise personal information, or expose the American people to fraud.”

The administration has been forced to delay some elements of the law, including a requirement that large employers provide health care coverage or pay a penalty.

On the plus side, Clinton noted Tuesday the growth in health care costs has slowed dramatically in recent years, though analysts are unsure what’s behind the change. Obama says if U.S. health care costs could be brought in line with other countries, it would largely fix the federal deficit and make U.S. employers more competitive.

“This has everything to do with the economy, in addition to what I consider to be the moral imperative that a mom should not have to go bankrupt if her son or daughter gets sick,” said Obama.

Obama plans to deliver another health care speech Thursday, as the countdown to enrollment continues.

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Health Bill Opponents Mount Full-Court Press

Scott Horsley, NPR News — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:20:11 +0000

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President Obama and the Democrats have decided to try to pass their version of health care legislation on a simple majority vote. But maintaining even a narrow majority won’t be simple in the House, where many members are already looking ahead to tough re-election battles in November.

In the next few weeks, lawmakers will be under intense pressure from both sides in the health care debate – and voters will be witness to the crossfire.

An anti-overhaul group called the has begun running TV ads in 11 congressional districts, in hopes of persuading lawmakers to vote against what the ads call, “a last-minute deal to take over your health care.” A spokesman says the group spent $250,000 on the ads in its first week.

Voters in swing districts should also brace themselves for a wave of dinnertime telemarketing calls, sponsored by the House Republicans’ campaign committee.

Obama Mobilizes Troops

In an effort to reassure nervous House members and shore up support for his health care plan, Obama hosted more than a dozen members of Congress during back-to-back meetings at the White House on Thursday. Next week, the president will take his campaign on the road, with health care events in Philadelphia and St. Louis.

“The president will describe the benefits of the legislation, why this is important for our country and why it’s important for them,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. “Again reiterating what happens if we walk away from reform, what happens if everyone just takes their toys and goes home.”

Obama is also hoping to mobilize the network of grass-roots supporters that helped to elect him – this time in service of his legislative agenda. volunteers have promised to spend millions of hours this year working for lawmakers who support the health care proposal.

“You can bet that you’re going to be seeing OFA people on the phones, on the doors and on the streets in the coming weeks,” said spokeswoman Lynda Trann.

Fear, A Rallying Cry

But Obama and his supporters have already been making their case for almost a year. And while polls show voters support many of the provisions included in the health care bill, they’re still uncomfortable with the overall package. Political analyst Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report is skeptical that Democrats can suddenly start winning the messaging war they’ve been losing so far.

“Republicans have done a very effective job raising anxieties, raising questions about this, increasing doubt to the point that people just sort of pull back,” Cook said.

Democrats may have gotten a helping hand in recent weeks from an unlikely source: insurance companies. News that a California insurer tried to raise premiums by up to 39 percent has become a rallying cry at the White House, and a reminder that even those who have insurance are at risk in the current system.

“People across America are really frightened that they’re being priced out of the market. They’re terrified that they’re next,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, during a White House meeting with insurance executives.

Gibbs said that anxiety has helped to crystallize people’s concerns about the existing health care system. At a time when many Americans are focused on their pocketbooks, runaway insurance bills underscore the idea that health care is an economic issue.

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Obama, Democrats Compromise On ‘Cadillac’ Tax, Eager To Move Past Health Bill

Scott Horsley, NPR News — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:26:00 +0000

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A push to overhaul the nation’s health care system has cleared another hurdle.

Leaders of organized labor say they’ll go along with a plan to tax so-called “Cadillac” health care policies, after winning concessions designed to shield middle-class families.

The breakthrough came just as President Obama was preparing to address House Democrats, many of whom were skeptical of the Cadillac tax.

“Today we’re on the doorstep of accomplishing something that Washington has been talking about since Teddy Roosevelt was president. And that is reforming health care and health insurance here in America,” Obama said.

The president and his negotiating team have been working long hours, trying to bridge differences between the House and Senate versions of the health care bill. Obama endorsed the Senate’s idea of taxing high-cost policies, as a way to rein in costs and help pay for expanded health care coverage.

Labor leaders threatened to oppose the entire health care bill if such a tax were included – a potentially embarrassing setback for the president.

Union leaders dropped their opposition under a compromise that raises the price tag at which an insurance plan would be subject to the tax – from $23,000 to $24,000 for a family policy, for example.

The deal also provides a grace period for insurance plans that are part of collective bargaining agreements, and protections for workers whose insurance costs more because of their age, sex or high-risk professions.

All those adjustments mean the tax would raise less money for expanding health care coverage. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was happy that a deal was made.

“It just says that we are making progress to get closer to reconciling the House and Senate bills,” Pelosi said.

Negotiators hope to have at least a framework of a House-Senate compromise by this weekend, so budget analysts can go to work on a cost estimate. For all the progress they’ve made, though, Democrats are not exactly in a celebratory mood.

“Believe me. I know how big a lift this has been,” Obama told House Democrats.

Obama says he reads the polls, and catches the occasional story on cable TV showing sinking public support for the health care plan. He promised to stand behind his fellow Democrats, in the same way they’ve stood behind him.

“The reality is they have a shared political fate,” said congressional scholar Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution. “And Obama has to make the case that they’ve got to stick together. Because divided they will all almost certainly fail.”

Obama expressed confidence that voters will like the health care plan better once it’s signed into law, and they can see for themselves what it does – and doesn’t do.

“If the Republicans want to campaign against what we’ve done by standing up for the status quo and for insurance companies over American families and businesses, that is a fight I want to have,” he said.

But many Democrats in the House and Senate are eager to put the health care fight behind them, and go to work on the issue that’s uppermost in voters’ minds: jobs.

Obama agreed: “We are going to have a sustained and relentless focus over the next several months on accelerating the pace of job creation because that’s priority number one.”

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Could Lawsuit Curbs Pave Way For Health Care Deal?

Scott Horsley, NPR News — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:15:53 +0000

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In the Republicans’ most recent weekly radio address, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi offered several of what he called “common sense reforms” aimed at curbing health care costs: more competitive insurance plans, better information for health care shoppers, and that old GOP chestnut – cutting down on frivolous lawsuits.

“We need to reform our flawed medical liability system and eliminate junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals,” Enzi said. “Unnecessary lawsuits cause extra costs and drive up health care costs.”

Democrats, who get significant backing from trial lawyers, have generally resisted efforts to curb lawsuits. But former Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley suggests a grand bipartisan trade-off: Give the GOP the relief from lawsuits they want in exchange for the universal health insurance that Democrats want, he wrote in a .

Dr. Nancy Nielsen, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, loves the idea.

“I read the op-ed piece and all I could think was from his lips to God’s ears. I mean, it would be a wonderful thing if it were that simple,” she said.

Fear Of Liability

AMA members stood and applauded back in June when President Obama promised to let them be “healers,” not “bean counters.” But the doctors’ loudest applause came when the president said he would consider steps to shield them from malpractice lawsuits.

Obama didn’t go as far as doctors would like, though.

“Just hold on to your horses here, guys,” he said, drawing a mixture of laughter and boos. “I’m not advocating caps on malpractice awards.”

In general, doctors really like caps on malpractice awards – like the one that Texas imposed six years ago. It limits pain and suffering awards to $250,000. The cap has made it cheaper for doctors in Texas to buy malpractice insurance, and it’s encouraged more doctors to set up shop in the state. But a review by the The Dallas Morning News found no evidence the malpractice savings had been passed on to consumers. And parts of Texas still have some of the nation’s highest medical bills. The Congressional Budget Office concluded that fear of liability is only one reason doctors sometimes perform unnecessary procedures. Their own income is also a factor.

Limiting lawsuits by itself won’t change a system that gives doctors a financial incentive to do more and more. But liability reform could still be useful, if it helps win doctors’ trust.

“Health policy experts almost all agree that the most important thing for overall health reform is changing the way medicine is practiced and health care is delivered in this country,” said Bill Sage, a doctor and law professor who studies medical liability at the University of Texas. “And if one of the things perpetuating the current system is fear of malpractice liability, I’m certainly willing to consider dramatic changes to the malpractice system.”

A Bipartisan Compromise?

So far there are no dramatic changes in the offing – although one version of the House bill does include incentives for states to explore alternative liability systems. Obama has said he’s willing to consider “a range of ideas,” short of capping malpractice awards. But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs sounded doubtful this week that medical liability reform could be the basis of any grand bipartisan compromise.

“The president’s willing to consider any number of approaches,” Gibbs said. “But there have to be people on the other side of the table to respond to those gestures. I’m concerned people in those chairs seem to be leaving more rapidly than the American people want them to.”

For his part, Enzi isn’t talking about a grand compromise, either. In his radio address, he called for scrapping the current health care bills, despite months of negotiation in which he’s been a key player.

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