House Bill Includes Public Option

Nancy Pelosi released the House's version of the health-care reform legislation Thursday, unveiling a bill with a significant Medicaid expansion and a public option. The reforms, which include raising Medicaid eligibility levels to 150 percent of the federal poverty level and negotiated government health-care rates, would cover some 96 percent of Americans, cost just below $900 billion dollars over a ten-year period, and will not increase the budget deficit for two decades. The public option, originally intended to provide reimbursement to doctors and hospitals based on Medicare rates, will instead have its rates negotiated between health-care providers and federal health officials—a plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said his Senate bill would also include. The $900 billion price tag is reduced from the previous cost of $1.04 trillion thanks to the Medicaid expansion, which is more cost-effective for covering the poor than subsidies would be; much of the money to pay for the bill would come from a surcharge on wealthy taxpayers as well as money-saving changes to Medicare and Medicaid. Despite the compromises on the public option and Medicaid, disputes between Democrats and Republicans over federal money for abortion and care for illegal immigrants remain unresolved.