by Elizabeth Galantine, Employee Benefit News, www.benefitnews.com

While the details of legislation from three committees in the House of Representatives and one in the Senate have been released and we await more from the Senate Finance Committee, EBA asked our health reform panelists one question: “What’s the biggest misconception about the legislation that’s flying around D.C. right now?”
Tom Schuetz, co-president of Iowa’s Group Services, sums up the overall sentiment. “That it is going to reduce the cost of health insurance,” he says.
Referencing Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf’s July 16 comments that the reform bills released so far would increase government spending – not reduce it – Paul Dennett, senior vice president, health care reform for the American Benefits Council, echoes Schuetz’s sentiment “that health care reform will result in lower health care costs and make health care more affordable” is a big misconception.

Dennett adds that the notion that the House of Representatives is carefully considering reform legislation is also dubious, considering that two of the three committees of jurisdiction “gave the legislation a total of two days of review and amendment.”

Additionally, he says talk that Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) will not be able to reach a bipartisan agreement is also a misconception and disagrees “with the assumption that the better approach would be for the Finance Committee to produce a bill with only Democratic support if necessary.”

Diane Boyle, executive vice president of the Association of Health Insurance Advisors, says “without a doubt the biggest misconception is that a government-run plan can exist on an even playing field.”

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Health Care Legislation, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.