TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Wed, 09/09/2009 - 00:00

Your questions about the health care debate answered.

There are two proposals being debated, one in the Senate and one in the House. They differ in many ways, but both include a “health care insurance exchange.” Some want this exchange to include a public option. Some want the public exchange to include a co-op. Today, the big negotiating factor appears to be a “trigger” meaning, that if the government cannot get the cost of premiums down by competition in the open market, it will introduce a public option at a later time.

Who will reform benefit? The uninsured, the poor, and consequently — minority families.

According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Health News and previously undisclosed documents from the House of Representatives, if your family makes roughly $55,000 per year—about the median income for American families—you're currently spending about 18 percent of your income on health care or $827 per month. Under the House proposal, the maximum you would pay is $322, roughly seven percent of your income. 

If you are at the lower end of that income range, let’s say earning about $30,000 per year, you are now paying $827 per month, but under the House reform you would pay $37 per month, roughly 1.5 percent of your income. 

If you are on the higher end of that income, earning roughly 90,000 per year, you are now paying about $827 per month. Under the House proposal you would pay $809. 

So, clearly low-income families are the great benefactors in this proposal. The Senate plan is very close, for specifics check out the link.

The big unknown: How this will affect wealthy Americans? They might be taxed for the overhaul. They might see an increase in premiums on so-called “cadillac health insurance” plans. But those details, as of yet, have not been worked out.

What is the negative? It will increase the deficit. There really is no way around that one. Whether there is a public option or not, the fact that the government would subsidize the cost of health care insurance for low-income Americans will add about one trillion to the existing budget. The other potential negative is that it might, if there is a public option, limit the choice of plans. 

The White House has advanced the notion that spending on reform will work itself out in the end as it will increase access to care and more preventative measures. The thinking is that this will make us more healthy and that will prevent many more serious health illnesses. But that's anecdotal at best. There really is no imperical evidence or quantitative studies to prove it— just common sense. Common sense is good assuming that with better access people will become more pro-active about their health care and make the necessary lifestyle changes to prevent disease.

What does health care reform mean to minorities?

Clearly, African-Americans and Hispanic families currently experience a wide-range of health care disparities that are largely due to lack of access to care. For instance, Blacks are seven times more likely as whites to have HIV/AIDS, Blacks and Hispanics are twice as likely to have diabetes as whites, and Black men are 50 percent more likely than whites to have prostate cancer, according to the nonpartisan health care facts.  

In Connecticut, for instance, Hispanics represent about 12 percent of the state's population, but account for one quarter of the uninsured. Blacks represent about 10 percent of the population but represent about 16 percent of the uninsured.



"Women of color in every state, including Georgia, generally lag behind their white counterparts when it comes to health and access to care," according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, based on Kaiser Health News findings. 

What about the Uninsured?

At present about 17 million Americans buy their own policies. It can be quite costly and sometime hard to get if they have pre-existing conditions. Both proposals would end the practice of disqualifying people with pre-existing conditions. It would also reduce the cost for many.

Both proposals also include mandates, meaning that you will likely be forced to have health insurance, if you refuse you'd pay a tax.

And both plans, with or without the public option, will greatly change the industry.

"This will fundamentally change the insurance industry everywhere in the U.S.,” says Mila Kofman, superintendant of insurance in Maine. 

But even if reform is passed, it won’t solve all the health care issues. Premiums will likely continue to rise. There will need to be additional government-backed incentives to make it work. 

Devona Walker is TheLoop21.com's senior financial/political reporter and blogger. She can be reached at devona@theloop21.com.

Are Republicans partly to blame for post-health care reform violence?

Yes, the comments incited violence

Maybe, they aren't stopping it

No, it was inevitable

I don't know