Legal Commentary

Further Details On The New Health Insurance Premium Assistance Bill

By Big Tent Democrat

One of the changes being pushed by the liberals would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare to 55, from 65. Another would expand Medicaid to cover people with incomes up to 150 percent of the poverty level (up to $33,075 for a family of four). The Senate bill, as it now stands, would expand Medicaid to cover people up to 133 percent of the poverty level ($29,327 for a family of four.)

A third liberal proposal would require insurers to spend a specified share of premiums — about 90 percent — on clinical services and activities that improve the quality of care. This would, in effect, limit the profits that insurers could make. [ . . .] Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, is taking the lead in drafting the proposal to let people 55 to 64 “buy into” Medicare. In May, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, introduced a bill to provide access to Medicare for people in that age group. “I’ve been for that since 2001,” he said.

(Emphasis supplied.) I hope Senators Brown and Rockefeller are writing a provision that states that anyone of any age subject to the mandate (which means everyone who goes into the Exchange) will have the Medicare buy-in option. Otherwise, the mandate should be scrapped. Another possibility, it seems to me, would be to allow states to opt out of allowing their residents to buy in to Medicare. I'm sure North Dakotans will appreciate that.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).