Congress Debates Health Insurance

Posted By Pete Hill
A big challenge facing the White House and Congress is the debate on reforming health insurance. New bills are being addressed in Congress to try to resolve these problems and cover more Americans. The complication is that keeping costs low and improving coverage is just one of many challenges facing Congress in the effort to pass health care legislation.
Under the committee’s bill, there would be four levels of benefits, bronze, silver, gold and platinum, and all insurers would be required to offer, at a minimum, silver and gold. “We have more than 46 million people who are uninsured,” Mr. Bingaman said. “We also have a substantial number who are underinsured. Although they have coverage, it is so bad or so inadequate that if they really get sick, they find they cannot afford the health care they need.”
But policy experts say few lawmakers have yet paid enough attention to what that new marketplace should look like and whether it would actually work as promised. It is an ongoing compromise that the Democrats and Republicans are currently trying to agree on.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/health/policy/06health.html?_r=1&ref=healthhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/06exchange.html?ref=healthhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/health/policy/06cong.html?ref=health