News of the Day: Mandates, Affordability and Immediate Benefits

The New York Times ran an editorial on Saturday discussing individual mandates and affordability. It covers the key areas of:

• Why is a mandate necessary? [Those without coverage drive up costs for those with coverage]
  
• Will premiums go up or down? [They would go down]
  
• Will there be help? [Yes]
  
• What's affordable? [The House bill provides affordability tax credits for families of 4 up to $88,000]
• Has it been tried? [Yes, successfully]
  
• Which version is more affordable? [The House bill]
  

See the editorial for a complete explanation of how this would work and how it would improve access to quality, stable, affordable health care.

In another column today, E.J. Dionne correctly points out that, while the mandates and subsidies don't start until 2013, there are 14 benefits that start immediately.

That's why the most important document House Democrats released when they unveiled their bill last week was a list of 14 benefits that would be created immediately.

These include insurance reforms to ban lifetime limits on coverage and an end to "rescissions," under which insurers abruptly nullify patients' policies after they file claims. One of the most popular reforms in the bill -- barring insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions -- wouldn't take effect until later. So the House bill creates an interim high-risk pool to help those who need coverage in the meantime.

There are also particular benefits for Medicare recipients, including an immediate reduction in drug costs, and a very popular provision that would allow parents to keep their children on the family health plan through age 26.

Especially important are new investments in community health centers and in efforts to increase the number of primary care doctors. As millions more people get access to decent care, the system will have to provide more doctors, nurses and facilities to treat them.

"People will be excited about 2013," said Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, which shares jurisdiction on the health-care bill. "But there are enough benefits between now and then to keep them engaged and to keep them favorably disposed."

Learn more about the Affordable Health Care for America Act [H.R. 3962] and how reform will slow the growth in out-of-control costs, introduce competition into the health care marketplace to keep coverage affordable and insurers honest, protect people’s choices of doctors and health plans, and assure all Americans access to quality, stable, affordable health care.