Health Insurance Quotes

Some time ago the Republican ldrsho had already decided that they would oppose the requests being made by President Barack Obama for health care reform, requests that were being accepted by the Democrats. The issue of health care reform is expected to be a major factor in next year's congressional election campaigns.

Referencing a new health care that the Democrats have just gotten out of committee in the House, the Democrats issued a statement in which they say that this legislation would lower the medical expenses of every health care patient while not adding any to the federal deficits. According to them cost of health coverage for those in need of health benefits would not exceed $900 billion over a period of 10 years. This amount however, excludes several items intended to improve health care benefits for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and providers, and disregards public health programs.

Although it is expected that the Republicans will oppose this new measure completely, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and those working with her labored for weeks so as to resolve differences among the Democratic rank and file.

The major difference was in reference to the terms by which the government insurance option would operate. The more liberal members of Congress in general wanted the government to be able to set the rates to be paid to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. These fee levels were linked to Medicare.

At the same time the moderate Democrats feared the effect it would have on their local hospitals, and argued for negotiated rates between the government and the private insurers. Their position won out.

Not all of the liberals were able to support the outcome. Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona said that he would not support it. He is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Representative Grijalva agreed that one could argue for a progressive vote of support. He said it is important to keep up the momentum.

Already controlling 256 seats in the House, the Democrats are overwhelmingly favored to come out on top at at least one special election next week and to put up a good fight at another. This allows them to have as many as 30 not give their support with regard to the legislation and still win out.

The campaign arm of the House Democrats did not hesitate to use the release of the bill to raise funds for the elections. Democratic supporters received emails from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asking them to help in raising $50,000 to have the resources to fight back against the Republican attacks and gain the support of Democrats to stand together for health insurance reform with a significant public option.

The plan is to finance the legislation through a combination of cut-backs in planned Medicare spending in addition to an income tax surcharge amounting to 5.4 percent on individuals who earn at least $500,000 annually and for couples who are earning at least $1 million.