While most of today’s news stories about the House’s landmark health care bill focus on paying for health reform, there’s a lot of significant stuff in the 1,000-page bill that should not be overlooked.

First, the big stuff. The House bill (read it here) will make sure “virtually every American will always have dependable, affordable, comprehensive health care,” says DeAnn Friedholm, who manages Consumers Union’s health reform effort and, like so many others, has spent the better part of her career trying to achieve just that.

To help expand coverage to the more than 46 million uninsured Americans, and make health care more affordable for everyone, the bill will:

*Put in place measures to slow the meteoric rise in health costs, and beef up programs to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid programs.

*Create a national health insurance exchange where those offering health coverage have to follow tough rules – including not denying people insurance for a pre-existing condition, or picking only the healthiest Americans to cover. The exchange would make pricing transparent, so you will know exactly what will be covered, and what you will be paying for it.

*Give Americans the choice of a publicly run insurance plan, starting in 2013, that will compete with policies offered by private companies – a new burst of competition that will help drive down costs.

*Helps those who can’t afford coverage with ‘affordability credits,’ that basically buy down the price of a policy based on income. The lowest-income households (about $24,000 for a family of three) will get the maximum amount of help, while households with incomes approaching 400 percent of the Federal poverty level (about $73,000 for a family of three) receive very limited assistance.

“This bill goes a long way toward addressing consumers’ fear of bankruptcy from high health care costs,” Friedholm says.

But also in the bill – which starts getting picked apart and added to Wednesday in the House Education and Labor Committee – are major improvements that Consumers Union and our activists have been working on for years to improve the quality of our care, as well as the quality of information about that care:

*All hospitals will be required to publicly report on their rates of hospital-acquired infections. Each year these preventable infections kill nearly 100,000 Americans and cost us up to $45 billion in extra health care costs. Public reporting of infection rates encourage healthcare facilities to clean up their acts – and Consumers Union has worked to pass reporting laws in 26 states. This bill will make sure every American has that added protection – and information.

“At long last, this bill offers a national response to this deadly problem, by providing public information on what each local hospital is doing to stop these unnecessary deaths,” Friedholm says. “The light of publicity will enable consumers -- and dedicated medical staffs -- to insist on major quality reforms.”

*Funding unbiased, scientific research to determine which medications and treatments work best, and getting that information out to patients and doctors so we don’t rely on TV ads and drug company marketing campaigns. The House bill creates a commission to direct this work, and the the majority of members will be doctors, health care practitioners, consumers and patients, as well as someone with expertise in health disparities. Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs project puts this research into practical, easy-to-understand language so you and your doctor can discuss the best treatments options.

The bill includes a raft of other reforms that we will keep you updated on. And the political process ahead in Congress will be no doubt be one E-ticket ride. But in the meantime, we just passed a major milestone on the long and bumpy road to getting more affordable health care for all.

comments (11)

Comments

1 Posted by elmo at 07/15/09 01:15 PM

Nobody knows what an E-ticket ride is anymore....

2 Posted by Ken Bragg at 07/16/09 01:38 AM

Great news and thanks to all of you at Consumers Union.
Yes we are on a bumpy long road and we absolutely must continue this fight and we must fight harder now than we ever have by making repeated phone calls which carry more clout than e-mails that end up in a junk mail folder or letters that get opened and rarely read by some.
I sell Health Insurance and I can tell you that the lobbyists for the Insurance Industry are trying their best to water down a Public Option to the point that it will be of little benefit to anyone.
Lastly this is not a Republican or Democratic issue but instead a issue of human decency and if you consider yourself a Conservative let those on the media networks like Fox news know how you feel.
I had to tell someone last week who had a heart bypass 11 years ago with absolutely no other health issues that of the 5 carriers i broker for that none of them would sell this otherwise healthy middle age man that these carriers would not issue him coverage at any price.
Please do not wait on someone else to call you legislators,make a difference and do it yourselves because one day you may be in the same situation as this man.

3 Posted by Paul Roden at 07/22/09 10:37 PM

Why has single payer, universal healthcare been taken "off the table"? Let the CBO, or the Congressional Budget Office, the GAO or the Government Accounting Office, update an economic studies done in 1991 on HR 676 and SB 703, National Healthcare Reform Act or expanded and improved Medicare for all. Why pay money to the for profit health insurance companies who are killing people by denying care, canceling coverage because of "preexisting conditions" or "exceeding lifetime coverage amounts. "The Public Option" will be all the poor, sick and old citizens will end up, because the for profit health insurance plans will only take young and healthy patients. The only part of healthcare reform that the for profit health insurance companies like is forcing everybody to buy their for profit health insurance. "Health Savings Accounts" and "Health Insurance Coop's are a joke. If your are poor or unemployed, how are you going to save money for healthcare? What insurance provider, hospital or doctor will joig of forma a coop? The only cost effective and moral solution to the healthcare problem is single payer universal health care, not health insurance. The Medical, healthcare, Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex has bought the Congress, hook, line and sinker. The status quo is not acceptable. Any politician who blocks the bill or votes against it, or waters it down, should targeted for defeat at the next election.

4 Posted by Kay at 07/23/09 08:32 AM

We need to expand insurance coverage across state lines to allow for more competition as well.

5 Posted by Jackye Stephens at 07/23/09 11:40 AM

Government mandated health care will not work. The whole purpose of government is to protect our life, liberty, and property. Laws are created to protect us from injustice and to include education, health care, etc. To focus on "false philanthropy aka socialism" just takes government away from their main purpose; to protect our lives, liberties, and properties.

Why should a select few choose what is best for us? If they think they are capable of choosing what's best for everyone then everyone else is just as capable to decide for themselves. Once you decide for others and create laws to justify it then you have taken liberty away from another person; you have taken away their right to decide what's best for their life.

Government health care will not work because of the natural rule of law; to include something as vague as socialism to take care of all our needs goes against this natural law that all persons have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness aka property. You cannot have one without the other two.

6 Posted by Glen Fotre at 07/23/09 12:12 PM

"Scary Barry's" health care plan SUCKS! He needs to take it back with him to Kenya!! Has he recruited Dr. Kovorkian as he counscellor?? And he wants to screw up my Medicare which I have paid into since it began. This guy is NUTS!!

7 Posted by PC Bob at 07/23/09 02:15 PM

Here we go again on another fire drill! We absolutely MUST (According to Obama) pass this unprecedented health car package, and we MUST pass it NOW, if not sooner! Or else the earth will stop spinning, or something like that. Didn't we just go throught this same smatlzy seceario with the so-called 'Stimulous' plan? And exactly what has that done for us, so far?

Rushing into socialized medicine (and that is EXACTLY what it is, folks) is not something we should be doing right now. This is going to cost us. Big time. What makes anyone think that Medicare is a good model for anything other than governmental and bureaucratic bungling and waste? You think you have lousy health care now, just wait until the feds get their hands on it.

We need to take time, a LOT of time, to think this proposition over. Yeah, yeah, the 47 million uninsured Americans, yadda yadda. Check the facts, the truth is there MIGHT be as many as 10-15 million who actually want insurance and can't get it. The others are all wealthy enough to buy their own or young people who don't want/need it or just bums who don't care. Is that any reason to jam it down everyone else's throats? And when (or if) it goes into effect, watch all the big companies start canceling their health plans and telling the workers to join the ObamaCare plan!

The plan is currently over 1,000 pages long, has not been read by more than a handfull of people (including President Obama!) Just TRY to find a copy to read for yourself! Yet we are expected to swallow it, hook, line and sinker. At a cost of AT LEAST a trillion dollars a page. Now, doesn't that sound like a sweet deal? For who?

America ALREADY has the best health care in the entire world! Check it out. Why would anyone in their right mind even consider throwing it away for the same lousy care the rest of the world already has? Let's help those who are struggling, but let's NOT lock everyone else (except for our elected officials, of course; they don't want it!) into this ponzy scheme being marketed as a 'health care' plan. The only 'plan' is to bankrupt this great nation, STILL the greatest nation on the face of the earth, despite recent apologies to our sworn enemies.

Do NOT support the passage of this stinking piece of legislation.

8 Posted by Bruce Marshall at 07/23/09 07:13 PM

I disagree with the position of CU entirely.... Every proposal that congress has brought forth, and everything the government has always done has always cost
more, has less options, and is a total disaster!!!!

Show me a government health care plan that works and I might believe you.

I CANNOT BELIEVE that Consumers Union thinks the government is the answer to
this problem!!! What happened to the American entrepreneurial prowess??

I am unsubscribing from all CU pubs and online access until you people come to
your senses. This is insane!

9 Posted by Donald Strei at 07/23/09 08:01 PM

The CU email that urged me to share with friends the content and contact our Congressional people was confusing to them. It appeared to some that CU is opposed to the President's position on health care reform. Please be more forthright on the material you folks at CU disseminate.
Thank you!

10 Posted by lre at 07/28/09 11:02 PM

It is sad that an organization that has a long history of evaluating products for quality and safety is supporting/a part of this organization that is so far left that they ignor the history of countries that have permitted their government to dictate/run health care. The indications are that senior citizens are expendable, hence to provide the funding for the "working class", the seniors will be rationed health care as decided by some governmenbt office that has their own health care program. At the other end of the spectrum, abortion will be funded by this bill - - have you not seen the research that an unborn child has memory going back weeks if not many weeks prior to birth - - hence aborition is murder of an individual. Stop and think just who is REALLY being helped - - a few special interest groups while the rest will wish this never happened if it is passed. Anything that is a thousand pages in lenght and must be passed yesterday is a VERY RED signal that something is not right.

11 Posted by M Clark at 11/04/09 10:37 AM

I cant believe CU would back a So called public option,
We are so far over the line on our idebtedness our children and theirs will have nothing for their future.
Plus the extreme left has no concept of finances.