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Introducing: The Senate Bill

Posted by: Erin Kelly on Nov 20, 2009

We now present to you the new and improved, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And it looks pretty good.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (a non-partisan agency that provides economic data to Congress), the Senate health bill will cost $849 billion, cut the deficit by $127 billion, and 31 million more Americans will be insured.

Some of the early deliverables include:

• Immediately providing $5 billion in support for a new program to provide affordable coverage to uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions.

• Ending the practice of denying coverage based on domestic violence

• Eliminating unfair rescissions of policies by insurance companies

• Establishing new processes in the states to review premiums charged by insurance companies

• Reducing the size of the Medicare drug benefit's "doughnut hole."

• Offering tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable.

• Requiring that insurers permit children to stay on family policies until they reach the age of 26.

• Requiring coverage of prevention and wellness benefits and exempting these benefits from deductibles and other cost-sharing requirements in public and private insurance coverage.

So how do we pay for all of this? According to the Wonkroom:

The bill increases the threshold for the so-called Cadillac tax, raises the payroll tax by 0.5% on individuals who earn more than $200,000 and families earning more than $250,000 a year, and cuts waste from Medicare. The payroll tax increase would only apply to employees (not employers) and generate $54 billion.

Speaking about the bill Wednesday morning, Sen. Reid said,

Of all the bills we've seen, it'll be the best: saves more money, is more protective of Medicare, is a bill that's good for the American people.

The next step involves the Senate voting on "cloture," which will then lead to debate on the bill. There has been a lot of talk lately on what health reform's opponents may do to block, or simply delay, the bill once it's up for debate. It will be up to Sen. Reid to usher this bill through the Senate and move the process along.