The Affordable Healthcare Choices Act

By: Scott Hoffman, CIS Senior Associate
scotthoffman@cis-partners.com

On June 9, 2009 a draft copy of the Affordable Healthcare Choices Act (the Act) was released. The Act was created by Senator Edward Kennedy and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions [1]. The five major elements of the Act are as follows:

Choice: An important foundation of the Act is the principle that if you are content with the coverage you currently have, you keep it. If you don't have health insurance or don't like the insurance you currently have, the Act will give you new, more affordable options.

Cost Reduction: The Act aims to reduce current healthcare costs through stronger prevention, better quality of care and the use of information technology. It will also attempt to root out fraud and abuse, and reduce unnecessary procedures.

Prevention: The best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from ever striking, which is exactly why the Act will give citizens the information they need to take charge of their own health. The bill will make information widely available in medical settings such as schools and communities. It will also promote early screening for heart disease, cancer and depression, while providing citizens with more information on healthy nutrition and the dangers of smoking.

Health System Modernization: The Act will take strong steps to see that America has a 21st-century workforce for a modern and responsive healthcare system. It emphasizes sound investments in training the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who will serve the needs of patients in future years.

Long Term Care and Services: The Act will also help make it possible for the elderly and disabled to live at home and function independently. It would assist them in having wheelchair accessible ramps installed in their homes, hiring a care worker to check in on them regularly, and provide an array of other support fucntions to enable them to stay in their communities instead of moving to nursing homes [2].

At this point in time the Act is only a preliminary draft, and will almost assuredly undergo significant changes before it heads to Congress. The main concern expressed over the Act revolves around how to pay for the proposed system overhaul. Early estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) priced the plan at approximately $1.6 trillion over 10 years, while only covering a third of Americans currently without healthcare [3]. The CBO estimate is a major concern to both Democrats and Republicans, considering there has been no clear cut method identified on how the overhaul will be financed.

Recently, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus suggested a cost cutting plan for the current Medicare program as one potential method; but there are concerns among the public and CBO regarding the Baucus proposal [3]. The public concern centers around the impact that Medicare cuts would impose on their current costs; the CBO is concerned that these proposed cuts would not take place, as Congress has been very hesitant to cut Medicare benefits in the past [3].

Another method was recently implied by President Barack Obama in his announcement of a pact with industry manufactures that would result in approximately $80 billion in savings for Medicare Part D prescriptions, as well as contributions to the health plan overhaul. The only concern is the fact that there was no specific amount attributed to the system overhaul [4]. While these are only two possible methods of paying for the proposal, they illustrate the point that any system overhaul is going to result in significant changes, and costs, to a variety of individuals, from the individual taxpayer all the way to industry manufacturers. With the House set to release its proposal in the very near future, you can expect to hear more about the Affordable Healthcare Choices Act.

Sources:
[1] http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1033-Affordable-Health-Choices-Act
[2] http://www.simplifymd.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/2009_06_09.pdf
[3] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124537120871529803.html
[4] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124567211118336815.html