For years, the Chinese government has intervened in world markets, causing its currency (the renminbi – “RMB” or “yuan”) to be undervalued by as much as 25 to 40 percent.  This unfair trade practice translates into a significant subsidy, artificially making Chinese imports into the United States much cheaper and U.S. exports to China much more expensive.

What does this mean for the United States? 

China’s currency manipulation reduces American exports, causes the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, and contributes to our large trade deficit with China. 

Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, estimates that China’s exchange rate policy reduces U.S. GDP by 1.4 to 1.5 percentage points annually and reduces U.S. employment by 1.4 or 1.5 million jobs. 

“[China] follows a mercantilist policy, keeping its trade surplus artificially high. And in today’s depressed world, that policy is, to put it bluntly, predatory.”  (See his New York Times piece and comments at an Economic Policy Institute Forum)

So what is the U.S. government doing about this?

The Bush Administration, the Obama Administration, and Members of Congress have tried to persuade the Chinese government to allow its currency to respond to market forces but no significant progress has been made.  This month however, the House of Representatives has taken unprecedented steps to address the issue. 

Last night the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the legislation with a vote of 348-79 signaling a mounting concern among U.S. lawmakers regarding China’s violation of its international obligations.

Upon passage, Chairman Levin stated:

“This is an important moment for this Congress and for the American people.  China’s persistent manipulation of its currency contributes to the outsourcing of American jobs and poses a very serious problem that requires real action.  Under our leadership, real action is now being taken in Congress to stand up for American workers and businesses. 

“China clearly has an economic strategy to bolster its businesses and workers.  Our nation needs to implement an active economic strategy to enforce the rules of trade and allow our businesses and workers to compete and win in the international marketplace.  This bill is consistent with America’s international obligations and is a significant step to bring about China’s compliance with theirs.”

The bill makes clear that additional tariffs can be imposed to offset the effects of a “fundamentally undervalued” currency under U.S. trade remedy laws (known as the countervailing duty laws). The bill contains two key provisions:

• reverses a current Commerce Department practice that has precluded it from treating foreign government currency practices as an export subsidy;

•  directs Commerce on how to measure the subsidy provided to foreign producers through currency undervaluation. 

The bill’s original sponsor Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) emphasized the importance of the legislation on American families on the House Floor:

Click here for more information about H.R. 2378

-by Lauren Bloomberg

Healthcare Reform Strengthens Middle Class
by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin

A few months ago, on the eve of Congress's vote on healthcare reform, I received a letter that summed up what this is all about: strengthening the basic economic security of the middle class.

The letter's writer, a woman from Warren, is a teacher whose daughter was born with a serious medical condition requiring surgery when she was just eight days old. That necessary surgery left the newborn with what will be a lifelong ailment.

Because of healthcare reform, that little girl, who is now three, will never be denied insurance because of her pre-existing condition. Her mother wrote: "Every parent should have peace of mind to know everything with their child is going to be okay."

That's what healthcare reform is about: the middle class's economic security.

Though much of the new law will be gradually phased in, last week, on September 23, a slate of new consumer protections began to take effect for the next plan year.

Starting Thursday, rescissions -- the practice of dropping coverage from paying customers when they get sick and need it most -- became a thing of the past. No child can be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. And adult children are allowed to remain on their parents' insurance plans up until their 26th birthday.

All insurers are prohibited from imposing lifetime caps on coverage -- enabling people to receive the treatment they need without having to worry about reaching a limit or facing financial ruin from medical bills. And every new plan must have an effective and efficient external appeals process, so that if you want to appeal a decision your insurer makes, your concerns aren't lost in corporate bureaucracy.

So many hard-working American families are struggling. Over the last two years, we've been trying to right the ship, and we've made some progress, reforming Wall Street and ending taxpayer bailouts, supporting a "Make It In America" manufacturing strategy, and enacting healthcare reform.

Opponents of health care reform would take away consumer protections -- siding with the insurance industry instead of the middle class. We can't afford that.

These reforms -- the Patients' Bill of Rights chief among them -- are vital for working Americans. Starting next year, insurance companies will be required to put more of your premium dollars into providing health care, instead of spending it on exorbitant CEO pay. In 2014, once the health insurance exchanges (where consumers can comparison shop for coverage) come into operation, no American will be denied coverage, as insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against adults with pre-existing conditions. To see how healthcare reform will impact you directly, visit www.healthcare.gov.

We need for America to get back to basics and focus on the middle class's quality of life. Healthcare reform is vital to restoring that standard of living.

Only then -- only by siding with the middle class in action, not just word -- will our country truly be healthy.

Cross-linked from the Huffington Post

Originally appeared in Sunday's Macomb Daily. 

 In case you missed HHS Secretary Sebelius's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday...

Health Insurers Finally Get Some Oversight

In the past, these companies ran wild with no accountability

By KATHLEEN SEBELIUS

In the last two weeks, my department has been accused of "thuggery" (this editorial page) and "Soviet tyranny" (Newt Gingrich). What prompted these accusations? The fact that we told health-insurance companies that, as required by law, we will review large premium increases and identify those that are unreasonable.

There's a long history of special interests using similar attacks to oppose change. In the mid-1960s, for example, some claimed Medicare would put our country on the path to socialism.

But what is really objectionable about these comments is not who they're attacking, but what they're defending. These critics seem to believe that any oversight of the insurance industry is too much, and that consumers would be better off in a system where they have few rights or protections.

Over the past decade, Americans have seen what happens when insurance companies have free rein. The cost of health insurance has more than doubled, while millions of hard-working Americans lost their coverage or drained their savings to keep up with premiums. Employers—big and small—have struggled mightily to absorb these cost increases and have been losing the fight.

As insurance commissioner and governor of Kansas, I saw firsthand how these rate hikes burdened people. I spoke with families who watched their insurance go up 20%, 30%, even 40% a year without explanation. I met with small business owners who had stopped offering health insurance to their employees because they couldn't afford the annual double-digit premium increases.

A woman who wrote to me recently summed up the frustration that many feel. "As a self-employed, hard-working person," she wrote, "I have no good options for health coverage."

Yet even as our insurance markets have failed Americans time and time again, special interests successfully blocked reform.

That's changing with enactment of the new health insurance law. Under the Affordable Care Act, 46 states have already received grants to beef up their premium-review and oversight capabilities. And additional funding is on the way.

The law also gives clear instructions to the new state-based health insurance marketplaces called exchanges that will be created in 2014. As the exchanges decide what plans to include, they must incorporate recommendations from states about whether particular health insurance issuers should be excluded based on a pattern of excessive or unjustified premium increases.

We are already seeing this new level of accountability pay off. Last week, North Carolina's largest insurer announced a "one-time refund that will return $155.8 million to more than 215,000 individual Blue Cross Blue Shield customers as a result of the Affordable Care Act." This rebate will put an average of $720 back into the pockets of each of those policyholders. In addition, thanks to diligent work by North Carolina's insurance commissioner, they'll see their premiums rise by less than 6% in 2011—the smallest rate increase in four years.

A day after Blue Cross Blue Shield's announcement, seniors with private Medicare plans got some news that most Americans haven't heard in years: Their premiums will actually go down 1% next year, even as many of them enjoy better benefits.

The Affordable Care Act is bringing some basic fairness to our health insurance market. So when I learned that a handful of insurers around the country are blaming their significant rate increases on the new law—even though the facts show that the impact of the law on premiums is small, just 1% to 2% declining over time—I let them know that we'd be closely reviewing their rate hikes.

It's understandable that some insurance companies and their allies don't welcome this change. They've made large profits from the status quo. And it's not surprising—though still disappointing—that House Republicans have recently pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act and get rid of these new consumer protections.

If critics really want to go back to the days when insurance companies ran wild with no accountability, they should have the courage to say so openly instead of hiding behind distracting attacks. In the meantime, we're going to keep standing up for American families and small business owners who deserve a system that works for them.

 

 

 

FamiliesUSA released a report today examining who will be eligible for help from the premium assistance tax credits.

• Nationally, 28.6 million Americans will be eligible for these new premium tax credits in 2014.
• 95 percent of those eligible for the premium tax credit will be in families with a worker who is employed full- or part-time (27.2 million).
• Of those eligible, 48 percent will have previously been uninsured (13.7 million).
• 65.6 percent of those who will be eligible for the premium tax credit (18.8 million) are from families with annual incomes at or above 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($44,100 for a family of four in 2010).
• Over 50 percent of those who will be eligible for the premium tax credit will work for small businesses with fewer than 100 workers (15.1 million).
  
   

Committee Members return to Washington this week, and to a busy hearing schedule beginning on Wednesday with a full committee hearing on China’s Exchange Rate Policy.  The purpose of the hearing is to consider whether China has made material progress in allowing appreciation of the exchange rate and what action Congress and the Administration may need to take to address China’s exchange rate policy and its effect on the U.S. and global economic recoveries and on U.S. job creation.

On Thursday the Committee will meet again for a second full committee hearing on China’s Exchange Rate Policy, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as the Committee’s witness.  Upon announcing the hearing, Chairman Levin explained that “The issue of China’s persistent exchange rate program must be resolved as we seek to address these imbalances.  Despite the Administration’s success in placing global imbalances, including our imbalance with China, on the G-20 agenda, China’s currency remains substantially undervalued.  It is vital that we hear Secretary Geithner’s views about U.S. policy and how best to proceed.”

- by Cameron Brenchley

In today’s Washington Post, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick explains how under the Affordable Care Act, “Medicare is stronger than it has been in years, and seniors will get new benefits.”

The Medicare Board of Trustees estimated last month that the Affordable Care Act produces savings that extend the life of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for 12 years, to 2029. The actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an independent office, reached the same conclusion. And the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the law will reduce the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the following decade. Those are real savings that help today's and tomorrow's Medicare beneficiaries.

Berwick also notes that the Affordable Care Act will improve delivery systems that previously focused rewards on quantity of services, and instead “will help us pay for quality and outcomes, not volume.”

The act encourages some of the most comprehensive payment and delivery system reforms in Medicare's 45-year history. It establishes a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within CMS to help find ways to modernize our health-care system to make it safe, patient-centered, reliable, sustainable and efficient. These approaches, endorsed by health-care organizations, employers and economists, will help make the health-care system of higher quality and more affordable for America's families and businesses.

Click here for more information on the Affordable Care Act and how it is providing better care and lower costs for America’s seniors.

- by Cameron Brenchley