Health Care Law Reform : Health Care Lawyer & Attorney : McDermott Will & Emery Law Firm : Managed Care, Product Regulations

The Facts

After seven hours of extraordinary political theater at the White House health care summit on February 25, 2010, President Obama is no closer to winning Republican support for his reform plan. Click here for summit transcripts. Indeed, Republicans claim a majority of the public opposes the Democrats’ health overhaul plan and have called for “starting from scratch.” Although the summit was unsuccessful in resolving the bipartisan split, it effectively restored health reform to center stage, and Democrats are forging ahead with new vigor. 

Because the January election of Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) deprived Democrats of a filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate, Democrats are expected to use an expedited budget reconciliation process to move reform legislation. While the precise details will be determined by both parliamentary requirements and political considerations, it is expected that the House—once assured that specific changes are forthcoming—will approve the Senate-passed health reform bill (HR 3590). The Senate will then pass a “side-car” health reform bill through the reconciliation process, which requires only a simple 51-vote majority. This “side-car” will make changes to HR 3590 designed to be responsive to the concerns of House Democrats. These changes will likely include increased subsidies to assist lower income Americans to purchase health insurance and changes to minimize the impact of the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost insurance plans. The House would also approve the reconciliation bill. The president would then need to sign into law both the Senate-passed health reform bill and the reconciliation bill that amends it. 

What’s at Stake

The president and congressional leaders do not currently have the Democratic votes needed to pass health reform legislation without any Republican support, but the campaign to find those votes is in full swing. If the votes are secured, massive health overhaul could be enacted in the near-term. 

Steps to Consider

The president will likely issue revisions to his reform plan, which may reflect incorporation of some Republican ideas. Despite this, no Republican support is expected. All in the health sector, including health care consumers, should analyze any revisions to the president’s proposal and continue to monitor the progress of the health reform debate.

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The Facts

In preparation for the bipartisan White House health care summit on February 25, 2010, President Obama unveiled on February 22 his own health care reform proposal. The president's plan largely tracks the health reform bill passed by the Senate in December 2009. The proposal, estimated to cost $950 billion over 10 years, would cover an additional 31 million people and is intended to serve as a springboard for bipartisan discussion at the summit. It is unlikely, however, that the proposal will draw bipartisan support given that the proposal appears to have been crafted to attract additional support from liberal Democratic members of the House of Representatives. Already, the early read from the Congressional Progressive Caucus is positive. The president and Democratic leaders are hopeful that this new proposal, along with the high-profile White House summit and recently announced double-digit premium increases by some insurers, will help produce health reform legislation soon. 

Like the December Senate bill, the president’s proposal does not include a public option or the more restrictive abortion language passed by the House. Some key differences made to provisions in the Senate bill include the following:

• Delaying enactment of the "Cadillac" tax on high-cost insurance plans to 2018
• Including strengthened measures to address Medicare fraud, abuse and waste
• Eliminating the “cornhusker kickback” that would have directed extra Medicaid monies solely to Nebraska, and instead increasing the federal share of Medicaid costs for newly eligible beneficiaries in all states
• Providing additional tax credits to certain U.S. residents to purchase insurance
• Eliminating the Medicare prescription drug benefit “doughnut hole” by 2020
• Extending the 2.9 percent Medicare payroll income tax to unearned income for couples earning more than $250,000
• Including a provision that would give the HHS Secretary—in conjunction with a Health Insurance Rate Authority board—the power to review and determine whether proposed insurance rate increases are “reasonable and justifiable”

What’s at Stake

If the current gridlock over health care reform cannot be resolved in a bipartisan manner, Democrats will likely attempt to use the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate, to pass health reform legislation.

Steps to Consider

All in the health sector, including health care consumers, should evaluate the president’s proposal and continue to monitor the progress of the health reform debate.

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The Facts

On January 14, 2010, congressional leaders and the White House announced that they had reached a compromise with labor unions to proceed with the excise tax on so-called Cadillac, or high-cost, health plans. The excise tax was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) passed by the Senate. The provisions of that bill called for a 40 percent excise tax on insurance companies and plan administrators for any employer-sponsored health coverage whose value exceeded $8,500 per year for individuals and $23,000 for families. The tax was to take effect in 2013.

The compromise reached last week with the labor unions dictates that the thresholds for the tax will be slightly higher than in the Senate bill—$8,900 for individuals and $24,000 for families. These threshold levels would be increased based upon age, gender and geography to prevent the tax from disproportionately affecting people in high-cost groups. Additionally, starting in 2015, dental and vision coverage will not contribute to the thresholds. Most importantly for the labor unions and their employers, the new compromise exempts collectively bargained health plans and state and local government employees from the tax until 2018. This exception was made to accommodate for the fact that many unions negotiated better health benefits for their members at the expense of wage increases.

The tax is expected to raise $90 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. By contrast, the original Senate bill would have raised $149 billion over 10 years.

What’s at Stake

Businesses with high-cost health care plans hiring non-union employees would feel the effects as early as 2013 under this compromise proposal. Businesses with collectively bargained health care plans are likely to benefit from the exemption from the excise tax until 2018, which gives unions time to renegotiate their agreements with employers.

Steps to Consider

Businesses should evaluate their health care plans to determine to what extent they will be affected by this tax. Insurers should assess the impact of the tax on the coverage they offer.

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