Health Care Reform Enters a Critical Stage
Health care reform enters a critical phase in the U.S. Senate this coming
week as the Senate Finance Committee is preparing for a final vote on the
overall package. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) appears be the only Republican
on the Committee even contemplating voting for the package after the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) certified that the bill would cost $829
billion over 10 years. However, due to the inclusion of a number of policies
that offset the cost of the bill, the CBO reported the bill is expected to
reduce the federal debt by about $40 billion over the next decade. It is
expected to cover 94% of the U.S. population with some form of health
insurance.
Still, major questions remain on significant issues in the bill, namely the
fate of the public option, the ability of states to cover far more Medicaid
beneficiaries than they do now, whether federal subsidies will be sufficient
to cover the cost of insurance for low income individuals and families, and
whether it is possible to squeeze over $400 billion over the next ten years
out of the Medicare program without impacting the quality of care and
without destabilizing the program from a provider perspective.
NAAOP continues its active involvement with the Senate and House health care
reform process, focusing our resources on the goal of securing explicit
recognition in the final bill that orthotics and prosthetics are included in
the standard benefits package that all private health insurance plans must
cover. This has been accomplished in the House bill to date but there is
still work to be done in the Senate.
The Senate bill also includes an amendment offered by Senator Rockefeller
that requires the HHS Secretary to develop, through regulation, standard
definitions of many terms including “durable medical equipment” (DME) for
purposes of comparing benefit categories from one private health plan to
another. This is a completely reasonable amendment. However, NAAOP is
concerned that if the Secretary defines DME to include O&P, many of the same
problems that impact the O&P field under the Medicare program will occur in
the private market. NAAOP has raised with key staff the importance of
separating DME from O&P for purposes of these definitions in private
insurance and is seeking clarification in the bill that “orthotics and
prosthetics” will be defined separately from DME. NAAOP has enlisted the
help of other disability groups to help make this case.
Once the Finance Committee votes on the health reform bill, the Senate
leadership will meld this bill with the bill produced earlier this summer by
the Senate HELP Committee and bring to the Senate floor one piece of
legislation. This bill is expected to be debated for weeks on the floor,
with a long list of amendments to be considered. The process is likely to
start within the next two weeks. NAAOP will continue to work independently,
with the O&P Alliance, and with disability organizations to advance the
interests of O&P patients and the providers who serve them.
Please visit our website at: www.naaop.org
NAAOP
1501 M Street, NW
7th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-1700
e-mail: [email protected]
(800) 622-6740
(202) 624-0064 Phone
(202) 785-1756 Fax
www.naaop.org
