Posted on 11/10/2013 9:23:14 AM PST by kristinn
A former secretary of Health and Human Services under a Republican president supports President Obama's health care reform law, saying it is similar to a Republican-backed plan he helped develop 20 years ago.
Dr. Louis Sullivan, the HHS secretary under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, said Friday during a visit to Anniston that despite its flaws, the Affordable Care Act will benefit millions of uninsured, low-income Americans. Sullivan visited Anniston to tour the Sarrell Dental Center to learn how the facility provides affordable care to low-income children.
Sullivan is CEO and chairman of the Sullivan Alliance, a nonprofit that works to improve health care for low-income and minority Americans. Anniston-based Sarrell Dental has 15 clinics across the state and serves children on Medicaid.
"I'm for the Affordable Care Act -- it's an imperfect build and has a number of things that need to be addressed, but rather than working to try to dismantle it, we should work to improve it," Sullivan said.
SNIP
Sullivan said Bush introduced the similar health reform plan in 1992, but it did not get far in Congress, which was controlled by Democrats at the time.
"The plan had the similar concept of the health insurance exchange, but now the Republican Party is attacking the same concept," Sullivan said. "I'm not for that kind of political one-upmanship."
According to press accounts from 1992, under the Bush plan, low-income Americans not covered by Medicaid would have received tax credits to help pay for insurance. The ACA insurance exchange also offers tax credits to offset insurance costs. Press accounts also noted that other Republicans supported the plan, but it had little chance of becoming law since Democrats controlled Congress and favored more ambitious approaches to health care reform.
(Excerpt) Read more at medcitynews.com ...
bookmark.
Is this another case of “race trumps all?” Just like Colin Powell.
The Dems to a man, pick people ideologically in lock step with them. They advocate as a solid block.
The Reps to a man, pick people ideologically in lock step with the Dems. They advocate as a solid block.
Stragglers? Only a select few...
Senility is a bad thing.
Screwing 90% of the people out of their healthcare plans they are perfectly happy with to cover the 10% that “have none”.
and then have BigGub.Knowsbest.com run it?
Sounds like a risky schema to me.. any way ya cut it.
one of the idiot elite....wants ACA and government control instead of REAL health care and health insurance REFORM
We are government by Progressives. They are just divided into factions - some seeking more radical change, some more “Fabian” in their outlook - but they all are Progressives.
Tax credits to offset private insurance premiums is a far cry from mandated coverage, special cut-outs, IRS policing, etc.
Follow the providers (doctors and hospitals) to determine if a obamacrre is a train wreck. So far they have decided they don’t want to work for government.
And that’s all you need to know. We have one party “of the government” and the other which is just “sorta of the government” and those are your choices today.
Screw them all.
Another idiot.
“...the Affordable Care Act will benefit millions of uninsured, low-income Americans.” - That is not the issue, the issue is “At what cost to whom?”
This all goes with Bush’s vision of a ‘new world order’. He,Bush, as a member of USA aristocracy sees nothing wrong in making the monetary pain for some lesser persons to pay for all the needs of all lesser persons, whether or not deserved. In all the debates on health insurance I don’t hear anything about personal responsibilities for bad situations. Some people deserve what they have to live with.
This was a ploy to get healthy WORKING folks to buy health insurance. It's just another Medicare program except you get what they say you get and that lookback that applies to Medicare will no longer apply AND they have access to all your assets.
Millions of poorest Americans get no Obama subsidies
Lost among reports of the difficulties of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges is the news that President Obama’s health insurance reform law is actually making it harder for the very poor to get insurance coverage. The architecture of the law and the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision that struck down a portion of the Affordable Care Act have combined to create a gap for low income Americans that deprives them of Obamacare’s health insurance subsidies as well as no-cost coverage under Medicaid.
Danielle Morgan, the 23-year-old married mother of four in North Carolina, is one of those affected. Danielle’s husband is a full-time Bible college student with no income. Danielle told Examiner that she works to support their family, but her employer does not offer health insurance. The family has not had health insurance in the past, but Danielle was hopeful that the new health insurance marketplaces would allow her to purchase an affordable policy for her family and avoid Obamacare’s fine.
Even though Danielle is employed, President Obama unilaterally delayed the portion of Obamacare that requires employers to provide their employees with health insurance. The employer mandate will only apply to companies with more than 50 employees when it goes into effect in 2015.
The problem of insuring low income workers is made worse because Obamacare bans the “mini-med” policies that cover an estimated 1.4 million Americans according to an estimate by Politico. These plans were used by many employers, such as McDonald’s, to provide low-cost health coverage for low-income workers who cannot afford to pay their share of a traditional health insurance plan. Because the plans have annual limits for payouts and do not provide the federal minimum essential coverage, they do not qualify as health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Many workers formerly insured by “mini-med” plans will likely become uninsured unless new “skinny” plans can be designed that meet the requirements of the law.
After several attempts at logging on the exchange, Danielle finally went to Kaiser’s online premium and subsidy calculator. What she found shocked and dismayed her. The premium for her family would be $5,711 per month for a Bronze plan. She also found out that her family would not qualify for a subsidy even though they are below the poverty line.
Danielle and her family fell into a gap created when the Supreme Court struck down Obamacare’s mandatory Medicaid expansion. In the 2012 ruling, the Court held that the federal government could not force the states to expand Medicaid to low income families. If states voluntarily expanded their Medicaid programs, the federal government promised to pay the full cost for three years and 90 percent thereafter. Twenty-five states, including North Carolina and Georgia, chose not to join the Medicare expansion.
http://www.examiner.com/article/obamacare-leaves-5-million-poor-americans-uninsured
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