Health Information Compliance Alert

Published on Fri May 01, 2009 PDF

• President Obama is trying to get two senators to work out their differences regarding healthcare policy.

The two main architects of healthcare reform legislation in Congress, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), don't see eye to eye on all issues. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama told them to find common ground, the Boston Globe reported.

The main issue: Whether to create a Medicare-style public insurance option to compete with commercial insurers for currently uninsured Americans. Kennedy, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, leans toward public insurance.

But Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, favors a bipartisan solution -- and Republicans consider a new, public insurance plan threat to private insurance.

The White House has disagreed with Baucus on how healthcare reform should be paid for. Baucus wants to tax part of healthcare benefits provided by employers, the Times reported. Obama campaigned against a tax on health coverage.

Leaders of the largest left-wing groups in the country announced Monday they were prepared to spend $82 million to build support for a public insurance option, the Globe reported. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has offered a compromise.

A new public health plan should have to

• abide by the same regulations as private plans;

• be financially self-sufficient and not rely on taxpayers;

• pay doctors and hospitals more than Medicare; and

• not require providers to participate as a condition of accepting Medicare.