Public Plan Defeated in Senate Vote

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee twice defeated amendments adding a government run health insurance plan to the Senate Health Care bill. Although these votes do not bode well for the inclusion of a public plan, supporters of the option plan to reintroduce the option when the full Senate votes on the bill.

For more details click here.

Senate Finance Committee Releases Health Care Bill

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D‐Mont.) today introduced the America’s Healthy Future Act, thought by many to be the basis for future negotiations in the health care reform debate.

Provisions in the legislation include:

• Create health care affordability tax credits to help low and middle income families purchase insurance in the private market;
• Provide tax credits for small businesses to help them offer insurance to their employees;
• Allow people who like the coverage they have today the choice to keep it;
• Reform the insurance market to end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and health status;
• Shift incentives in Medicare to reward better care, not just more care;
• Increase the number of primary care doctors in the system;
• Provide annual “wellness visits” for Medicare participants and their doctors to focus on prevention;

Click here for the full text of the Bill.

Click here for Chairman Baucus's Press Release.

Links to Pres. Obama's Remarks to Congress

Pres. Obama outlined a $900 billion-ten year health reform program which includes a limited public option covering less than 5% of Americans, new insurance regulation and limited tort reform to a joint session of Congress last night.

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) delivered the Republican response to the proposal.

To view the speech, click here

To read the remarks, click here

Physicians Foundation Releases New Report

A report commissioned by The Physicians Foundation, a national healthcare organization that represents the interests of physicians, raises new questions about the role of socioeconomic determinants as they relate to access, quality, and cost of medical care in the United States. The report, prepared by a team of noted physicians and economists headed by Richard “Buz” Cooper, MD, Professor of Medicine and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, was sent to the President and Congress today in order to contribute to the national health care debate.

The report, entitled “Physicians and their Practices under Health Care Reform,” highlights several important concerns that the report’s authors believe have been left out of the health care discussion, including: the growing problem of physician shortages, the changes in physicians’ practices that will be necessary in a reformed health care system, and the pervasive effects of poverty and other social determinants which impact variation in access, quality and cost of care.

The full report can be viewed at www.physiciansfoundation.org

IRS Raises Tax Exempt Application Fees

The IRS recently announced that they would be raising tax exempt application fees across the board.

• For associations with less than $10,000 or less in a year over a four-year period, the fee will go from $300 to $400.
  
• For organizations whose feels are more than $10,000 annually over a four-year period, the feel will go from $750 to $850
• For group exemption letters, the fee will be $3000 from $900

A complete list of fees will be available in January, 2010.

To read more, click here.