WPCNR WASHINGTON WIRE. By John F. Bailey. August 13, 2009: On Tuesday evening, Congresswoman Nita Lowey of the Congressional 18th District reached out to over 4,000 consitutents by telephone in the first of a series of Telephone Town Meetings. Tonight residents across Westchester will have another opportunity to ask Ms. Lowey questions as well as hear her talking points on the health care bill now being discussed in the House of Representatives. WPCNR listened into the first of these historic uses of technology Tuesday night. Here is how our session with Ms. Lowey went at the Tuesday night session where 4,000 callers were on the phone with the Congresswoman:
Nita Lowey at the Council of Neighborhood Associations Tuesday evening. Earlier she spoke with Westchester residents on a Conference Call the CitizeNetReporter participated in, as reported below.
The call came in, and I was given a number to call and a code to join the conversation. After you joined it, Ms. Lowey started the call explaining the reasons why health care reform was needed now, then set the stage by confronting critics of the plan by saying emphatically what the bill would do in its present form.
Ms. Lowey said to her telephone guests:
“ The Bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans through a health insurance exchange offering plans modeled after the benefits members of congress receive, and would also expand the number of individuals eligible for Medicaid. Businesses who cannot afford to provide benefits to employees would be offered tax credits to offset the costs. It would help to contain costs by creating competition and implementing reforms for insurers providing payments to doctors for quality of care not the quantity and by eliminating billions of dollars of fraud and waste in our health care system.
Negotiations on this bill are continuing because the three house committees have passed versions with different amendments, but as of today, here’s what the bill means to you: 1.) You can keep your current plan and your doctors. 2.) Your insurance company could not deny or drop your coverage for catastrophic care or charge you higher premiums because of age, gender, or health status. 3.) You would have no annual or lifetime benefit caps, and 4.) if you lost your health care for any reason, you could join a private or public plan in the exchange at an affordable cost.
For seniors on Medicare, you would pay 50% less than drug costs, until the “donut hole” is completely eliminated. You would keep all your current benefits. You could keep your present doctor. You would no longer pay at all for preventive services like annual physicals and screenings. And, if you don’t (presently) have insurance, here are the options for getting it: You could get an affordable plan comparable to the benefits enjoyed by members of congress, through the exchange; tax credits would be available to individuals with incomes up to 400% of the poverty line (that’s about $88,000 for a family of four). More Americans will also be eligible for Medicaid.
Then she opened it up for questions which the participant could ask by punching up “STAR 3.” You then joined a queue of questioners with questions being analyzed and consistent trends in callers’ questions were given Ms. Lowey to answer with a moderator framing them for her. At times live callers were allowed to answer questions directly.
The most dominant question that was presented by moderator first was whether illegal aliens would benefit from this health care reform.
Congresswoman Lowery said, “That’s a myth. It is absolutely incorrect. At Section 246 of the bill expressly statesd quote nothing in the subtitles should allow for federal payments or affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States. Furthermore, the bill does nothing to prevent the Commissioner of the Health Exchange from requiring that individuals seeking coverage prove their citizenship.”
Gary asked “I wonder how we’re going to meet the health demands of 37million new patients without any provision really for a similar increase in the number of doctors?” (He added that his wife was a physician at a major Westchester hospitaland all of the colleagues she speaks to as doctors are opposed to the bill.).
Lowey answered, “Let me say I would appreciate all those people that your wife’s speaking to, contact my office, so they can come in to talk to us, because I’d really like to respond to anyone who has questions. The fact is, the house bill makes significant investments to train more primary care physicians. There will be loans, incentives, adjustments for primary care physician payment rates to encourage medical students to choose primary care as their specialities. There will also be an emphasis on increased training of primary care physicians in hospital residency programs. And primary care doctors will be able to participate in medical homes that will help coordinate your care, and they’ll be paid extra for those services. The bill also includes a provision I offered to address the severe nursing shortage our country is facing.”
She said plans participating in the health plan exchange would be required to meet a minimum number of benefits based on the plans covering members of congress and federal employees.
End of Life
The next item of consensus concern offered by Ms. Lowey’s moderator was a definition of “End of Life Council and what it meant. Lowey explained,
“ (The rumor is)the bill requires that everyone covered by Medicare be visited by an End of Life Council. Let me tell you that is not correct. This is the rumor. It’s a myth. It’s not true. It’s on the talk shows. The bill creates a program within Medicare which will help the sickest patients make well-informed decisions about the care they want and need at the end of life. There is no Council that will be charged with making end of life care decisions. I don’t want a council to make an end of life caredecison for anyone in my family. A guiding principal of health care reform is improving patient-centered care in which patients are active decision-makers regarding their own health and health care. There’s no council. It’s not true. It’s all a rumor. It means that a doctor will get paid to talk to the person to give them advice.”
Long Term
Next, a slew of questions concerned the cost of long-term care and how the bill addressed that issue. Lowey reported ,
“The house bill includes a provision called the Community Living Assisted Services and Support (CLASS Act). It would create a program in which participants pay a monthly premium in exchange for receiving daily benefits in the form of home care, adult aid programs or nursing home.”
Then the moderator took a telephone poll to determine what was the most pressing of issues persons were concerned with. The moderator asked in citizens on the call were most concerned that 1.) Health Care would be rationed, 2.) That they would lose current employer insurance or 3.) that health care would become socialized.
In less than 15 seconds, Ms. Lowey gave the results of the audience. Lowey said 35% of the people participating were concerned about rationing. Lowey said,
”Let me make it very clear, no insurance covers everything at any price, but many insurance companies limit drug formularies and treatments a patient’s doctor may believe she or he needs, which sounds an awful lot like rationing to me. Patients and doctors not insurance bureaucrats can best make health care decisions and will be given the ability and tools to do so in this proposal. Patients will still be able to obtain further tests, treatments, medications, but by pursuing the most effective treatments first, patients can be treated more effectively.
“For the 48% who (expressed their concern) are concerned our health care system would become socialized. I want you to know it’s my and my colleagues’ priority to increase coverage and choices and decrease costs for every American. We’ve already had government run health care programs for decades, Medicare, Medicaid,the veterans hospital system. Not only has medicine not been soclialized, these plans are generally respected for providing overall quality and affordable care.
The public plan, by the way, would be only one option in addition to private plans offered through the insurance exchange. There is no requirement for any American to enroll in the public option. The proposal would expand eligibility for Medicaid, mandate affordable benefit plans similar to those offered to federal employees and congress people, and contain the costs of public and private insurance by creating competition for the insurance industry and eliminating waste and abuse in the health care system.”
Byron in Larchmont asked “how is all of this going to be paid for?”
Lowey said, “I’m very concerned that we squeeze out all the waste from the system, squeeze out the waste from the insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry. President Obama has insisted the program does not increase the federal deficit. Congress and the administration are working aggressively to reign in costs by raising efficiency in entitle programs, squeezing savings out of insurance and the pharmaceutical industry.
(To Be Continued)>
