9/10/2009
Health Care Reform at the Top of Congress’ Agenda after Contentious August Recess
Raucous town hall meetings throughout the month of August set the stage as Congress returned from the August congressional recess this week, and health care reform was at the top of the agenda. In the days since Labor Day, Senator Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who has been working all summer with two other Democrats and three Republicans on his committee to reach agreement on a bipartisan health care reform plan—released a detailed outline of his proposal. Republicans on his committee who may support reform in the end have not yet indicated support or opposition but are expected to offer counter proposals throughout the next few days. Chairman Baucus then announced that his committee would mark-up a health reform package within the next two weeks.
The Baucus plan was largely adopted by President Obama when he spoke to a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday night. The President outlined the broad details of what he would like to see Congress pass before the end of the year. This includes a dramatic expansion of coverage of the uninsured coupled with a complete rewrite of the rules governing private health insurance plans to eliminate pre-existing conditions and other practices by insurers that tend to deny people affordable coverage. The plan would create a Health Insurance Exchange where individuals and small businesses would be pooled and be able to choose between competing private health plans, but people with existing coverage would be able to keep the insurance they have.
The President did not reject one of the most controversial aspects of health care reform, namely, the creation of a public plan that would compete with private insurers in the Exchange. Addressing strong criticism of this proposal, the President asserted that he views it as a safety net for consumers who cannot otherwise find affordable coverage in their area. It would not be open to people who have insurance coverage and would not be subsidized by the federal government. Instead, it would be supported only by premiums, which would largely level the playing field between it and private health plans. The President estimated that approximately 5% of the uninsured would eventually be covered under the public plan.
It remains to be seen whether his address, coupled with the fifth congressional committee of five to announce a mark-up of a bill, will build support for a plan that was battered during the August recess. The impact on O&P however, is beginning to emerge. While four of the bills that have already been marked-up include references to orthotics and prosthetics and “rehabilitation services and devices” in the essential package of benefits that all health plans must contain, the Finance Committee package is silent on coverage of O&P care. Unless the O&P and disability groups mount a strong effort to include O&P coverage in health care reform legislation, there is a real possibility that O&P care may not be considered an essential benefit.
NAAOP continues to work with the O&P Alliance organizations, as well as a broader coalition of disability organizations including ACA, to advocate for inclusion of O&P care in the essential benefits package of the health care reform bill and encourages all O&P practitioners to support these efforts.
