White House Releases Health Care Reform Proposal

In advance of the planned bipartisan meeting on health care reform, the White House released a health care reform proposal. You can read the proposal here; mcjoan at Daily Kos writes that:

The strong message from the White House is that they are prepared to use reconciliation to pass this bill, with Pfeiffer reiterating their need for an “up or down” vote on reform, breaking a Republican filibuster as needed.

Jason Rosenbaum summarizes the bill at HCAN, while ThinkProgress has a table laying out the key differences between this bill, the Senate bill, and the House bill.

Both point to improved subsidies for lower- and middle-income people; the closing of the Medicare Part D donut hole; an increase in the value of insurance plans that will be exempted from the excise tax, and a delay in when the excise tax starts hitting people’s policies. According to ThinkProgress,

The White House explained that it paid for its changes (which cost approximately $75 billion) by levying higher penalties on individuals and employers that don’t meet the legislation’s requirements, extending the payroll tax to unearned income, $10 billion in fees on branded pharmaceuticals, and increased savings from Medicare Advantage.

The proposal also eliminates the so-called Cornhusker kickback and provides full federal funding for Medicaid expansion for four years starting in 2014. Between 2018 and 2019, the federal government will pay 90% of the cost of the expansion and provide extra funds to states with generous Medicaid programs.

The question, of course, is “will it pass?” If it gets through the Senate using reconciliation to bypass the inevitable Republican filibuster, is it a strong enough bill to pass the House? That we’ll have to wait to see, but after being stalled for months, any movement toward the health care reform this country so badly needs is more than welcome.