Kennedy Staff Circulating ‘Draft Of A Draft’ Health Care Legislation

By Igor Volsky on Jun 6, 2009 at 11:15 am

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is circulating draft legislation designed to overhaul the nation’s health care system. This so-called “draft of a draft,” as one Kennedy spokesperson described the set of documents now available, is the first piece of concrete health reform legislation to emerge from Democrats in Congress.

The legislation, called the “American Health Choices Act,” would provide universal coverage to all Americans and establish a new public health care plan to compete alongside private insurers.

As previously reported, the new public plan would reimburse providers Medicare rates plus 10 percent. Under this arrangement, the new public option would not have to negotiate its own rates, but could piggy back off of Medicare’s considerable reach. Using Medicare plus 10 rates, rather than the prevailing market rates, would lower costs and allow the plan to charge lower premium rates.

Moreover, the bill aims to improve access to coverage by regulating insurers, expanding Medicaid and SCHIP, and building state-sponsored insurance gateways (or exchanges) to help Americans find affordable coverage. Individuals and employers would be required to purchase insurance, but families earning up to 500 percent of of federal poverty line (FPL) ($110,000 for a family of four) could “buy insurance on a sliding scale with government subsidies” and anyone earning up to 150 percent of the FPL ($33,000 for a family of four) would also be eligible for Medicaid; the bill also expands SCHIP to cover people up to age 26, from age 18. Currently, an adult with no dependent children could be penniless but still ineligible for Medicaid coverage in 43 states.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who is leading the committee’s health care effort in Kennedy’s absence, “has said he hopes to begin debating a bill in committee on June 15.”

More details after the jump: Read more

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Yglesias

The “Congo” Chip

By Matthew Yglesias on Jun 6, 2009 at 10:01 am

I’ve written previously about how purchases of rare metals used to build electronics helps to fuel Congo’s series of civil conflicts. Under the circumstances, it seems bizarre that AMD has decided to dub a new chip of theirs the “Congo”. David Sullivan remarks at ENOUGH:

Did someone actually think it was a good idea to name a microchip after the Congo? It is, after all, the place where trade in minerals vital to technology like ultra-thin laptops is fueling the deadliest conflict in the world.

Okay, AMD isn’t one of the 21 companies that Enough has contacted about Congo’s conflict minerals, so I can understand that they didn’t get the memo. But apparently Hewlett Packard is one of the laptop manufacturers planning to use the new ‘Congo’ chip technology, and they have been one of the most outspoken companies attempting to address mineral supply chain issues.

Of course at the end of the day what chips get given which names doesn’t really matter. But the endless violence in Congo does matter, and better-understanding the supply chains used by major electronics firms matters to helping contain and curtail the violence. Check out the Come Clean 4 Congo video contest for more on this.

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Media

O’Reilly Apologizes For False Attack On CNN

By Guest Blogger on Jun 6, 2009 at 9:00 am

On the Fox News this week, host Bill O’Reilly complained that he was “shocked that an Army recruiter in Arkansas got gunned down by some Muslim terrorist in the United States, and I can’t find any info about it.” Purporting to show “blatant media bias in America,” he criticized CNN specifically, claiming the network had largely ignored the story. According to O’Reilly, “only Anderson Cooper at 10:00 covered the story. No one else.” However, yesterday, CNN’s Rick Sanchez took O’Reilly to task for his misbegotten “media bias” claims, showing a lengthy clip of day-long CNN coverage of the shooting:

SANCHEZ: Bill O’Reilly says he only saw it once. And since he only saw it once, well then, that must be the truth. It doesn’t matter what really happened, it doesn’t matter what the record shows. All that matters is what Bill thinks he saw.

Watch it:

Last night on The Factor, Bill O’Reilly announced he had a “rare correction” to make. O’Reilly said that a “snide, surly guy on CNN” (Rick Sanchez) corrected the record about CNN’s coverage. “I was wrong. My apologies to CNN,” O’Reilly said. Watch it:

- Kyle Schmidt