Rationing in Senate Health Care Restructuring Bill to Intensify Under Amendment
 

An amendment likely to be added to the Senate health care restructuring bill by Majority Leader Harry Reid would empower federal bureaucrats to impose requirements on private insurance plans whose explicit intent is to limit the right of Americans to spend their own money, if they choose, to save their own lives.

Majority Leader Harry Reid

On Wednesday, Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Joseph Lieberman (I-Ct.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced amendment 3240 to the Senate health care restructuring bill. It is widely reported that Reid (D-Nv.) will include it in the mammoth “Manager’s Amendment” introduced in advance of the key “cloture” votes which are designed to end debate preparatory to adopting the bill.

Amendment 3240, which the sponsors went to the Senate floor Thursday to advocate, expands the powers of the Independent Medicare Advisory Board. The Board’s reach will extend not only to Medicare, but also to all the private insurance plans in the “exchanges” the bill establishes for people annually to choose their health insurance from.

Under the sweeping and vague language of amendment 3240, the Board would be directed to make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services which would, in the Board's opinion, promote “integrated care, care coordination, prevention and wellness, and quality and efficiency[,] ... decrease health care spending, and [bring about] other appropriate improvements.” The Secretary could then impose those recommendations.

In addition to the elements that are characteristic of managed care plans, note the explicit directive to “decrease health care spending.” All of the requirements presumably are aimed at forcing the privately insured to spend less on healthcare. The list of requirements is open-ended and plans deemed to spend too much money on health care would be evicted from the exchange.

Instead of allowing Americans themselves to balance cost, benefits, and quality when choosing among competing health plans in the exchanges, their choice would be subject to potentially drastic restrictions. Americans’ choice to spend their own money for health insurance that they judge will be less likely to result in deny treatments and otherwise ration care would be limited.

Part Two