As the Finance Committee continues to consider amendments to Senator Baucus’ health reform bill, the debate during day two focused on reductions in Medicare/Medicare Advantage spending to pay for health reform and the impact, if any, such reductions may have on quality of care. The Washington Post writes:
“The Baucus bill relies on more than $400 billion in reductions to the growth in federal health programs over the next decade to help cover the cost of covering nearly 30 million uninsured people. The bulk of the reductions would be achieved by lowering payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other providers by about $200 billion.”
See the Washington Post article.
Senators are also debating whether to include provisions in the health reform bill that would repeal antitrust exemptions for the health insurance industry. TheHill.com writes: “So far the powerful insurance industry has held back waging a full-out battle against Democratic health reform proposals because companies stand to gain tens of millions of new customers. But adding language that would open health insurance companies to prosecution by the Justice Department would provoke a strong counterattack from the industry.” See the article from TheHill.com.
