The time is ripe for a major reform of our current health care system. With the passage of McCain-Feingold, ending the corrupting soft money influence on Congress, and the now desperate situation too many businesses and families face with the continued rising cost of health care, we now have a fighting chance for significant change.

To date, Congressional Leadership has been unwilling to take up the issue in order to have a real debate about how to provide all Americans with affordable health care. It is a debate that we must have.

A number of health care proposals have been offered that get to the very heart of the problem, but there is no mechanism to force Congress to take up this much needed legislation.

Senator Feingold proposes a two pronged approach to ensure that all Americans have health care coverage. First, he proposes a major overhaul of the current system, which would require states to submit a plan to move toward health care coverage for all Americans, coverage that must be as good as the health care Members of Congress receive. States would have great flexibility as to how they provide coverage, and the federal government would provide significant financial and technical assistance as well as oversight. (See details)

In addition, Feingold has introduced a bill, which would create a process to force the Congressional Leadership to bring up the issue in a timely matter (See details). Without forcing such a debate, there will be no serious opportunity for change.

In order to achieve health coverage for all Americans, the federal government would provide states with the financial help, technical assistance and oversight needed to provide all residents with health care coverage. In order to qualify as having health coverage, an individual must have coverage at least as good as what is offered in Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), in other words, at least as good as what members of Congress have.

Every state would be required to submit a plan to Congress that details how they will obtain comprehensive health coverage. At the option of the state, this could be done in phases, possibly with a first phase of strengthening and expanding coverage and a second phase of going that last stretch to coverage for all citizens. States would be offered a number of federal tools to choose from in order to help them achieve full coverage. States could use any number of these tools, or none of them, instead opting for a federal contribution to a single-payer system. In addition to the actual design and implementation of a plan to achieve comprehensive care, states would also be required to provide partial funding of these plans.

The federal government would provide necessary resources to states to achieve the goal of full coverage for all Americans. Resources include funding, tools for states to use to expand coverage and technical assistance in implementing policy changes. The federal government would approve each state plan, and would conduct oversight of the implementation of these plans.

A number of federal tools would be made available to states. States could choose any number of the following options to help achieve complete coverage:

* Enhanced Medicaid/SCHIP federal match rates for expanding coverage to currently uninsured individuals (i.e. parents of enrolled children, poor childless adults, etc.).

* Refundable, advanceable tax credits for individuals for the purchase of health insurance (or a health insurance voucher that mimics a tax credit).

* Refundable, advanceable tax credits for businesses to help with the cost of providing health care to employees.

* The establishment of a community rated-FEHBP like health pool to provide affordable health coverage and choices for those who enroll (i.e. small businesses, larger businesses, farmers, individuals).

*Assistance with catastrophic care costs. The federal government would help with costs of those individuals with heath care expenditures of $50,000 or more. The government could help businesses that are in an FEHBP-like pool with these costs and/or help states with their Medicaid costs. If states choose this option, they would have to make sure that any savings are used to help with the costs of expanding health care.

A state could also choose its own state-based tools to achieve comprehensive coverage. Some of these could include:

* Mandates - 1) Personal mandate: A state could make it mandatory that every resident have some form of health insurance, creating a mechanism to monitor and enforce this mandate. 2) Employer mandate: A state could make it mandatory that every employer offer health care. They could tailor this to only large businesses, only to full-time employees, etc.

* State tax incentives - Those states that have state income tax could also provide state tax refunds or incentives to encourage the purchasing of health care, or to help offset the costs of expanding coverage.

* State pooling: Two or more states in a region could pool together to offer a multi-state or regional plan.

* Single-payer system: A state could provide a single-payer system for their residents, with some funding provided by the federal government.

Both President Bush and Senator Feingold’s potential opponents would keep the health care system essentially where it is today. All of them refuse to take the necessary steps to fundamentally change the system. Below is the second part of Senator Feingold’s plan, which requires Congress to take up and debate this issue in order to force change.

Expediting Health Care Reform
Summary

* Within a month (30 calendar-days) after the beginning of the first session of a Congress, the two chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the Senate Majority Leader of the Senate, and the Senate Minority Leader shall each introduce legislation to provide health care coverage for all Americans. If the two committee chairs fail to introduce a bill within the first month, then the ranking minority party member of the respective committee may introduce a measure that qualifies for the expedited treatment described below.

* The measures introduced by the Majority Leader and Minority Leader will be placed directly on the Senate Calendar. The measures introduced by the two Committee chairs (or ranking minority members) will be referred to their respective committees.

* The committees have two months (60-calendar days not including recesses of 3 days or more) to review the legislation. At the end of that time, if either committee fails to report a measure, the bills will be placed directly on the legislative calendar.

* If the Majority Leader fails to move to one of the bills, any Member may move to proceed to any qualifying measure. The motion is not debatable or amendable. In other words, it could not be filibustered.

* If the motion to proceed is adopted, the chamber will immediately proceed to the consideration of a measure without intervening motion, order, or other business, and the measure remains the unfinished business of the Senate until disposed of, or until the conclusion of a predetermined length of time.

* All amendments to the measure must be relevant.

* Similar expedited procedures would also apply to consideration in the House.

Read More

Feingold announces re-election plans during stop here Tuesday afternoon, (Hudson Star-Observer, May 26, 2004)

Feingold focuses on jobs and health care, (Wisconsin Radio Network, May 25, 2004)

Feingold Campaign Focus: Universal Health Care, (WISC-TV, Madison, May 24, 2004)

Feingold pushes universal health coverage at campaign kickoff, (Capital Times, May 24, 2004)

Feingold cites budget votes, health care in announcement, (Green Bay News-Chronicle, May 24, 2004)