Seven Things You Probably Don’t Know about the Senate Health Bill
This is from Kaiser Health News:
- Employers would be required to provide an unpaid “reasonable break time for nursing mothers” in the first year after giving birth.
- $400 million is allocated “to help teens make the transition to adulthood.”
- A temporary “reinsurance” program under which the government would pick up 80 percent of some high-cost insurance claims for retirees who are under 65 but who still get health insurance from their former employer.
- There will be higher Medicare payments for bone density scans.
- Nonprofit hospitals would have to limit how much they charge low-income uninsured emergency patients to the lowest amount they receive from insured patients for the same services.
- Non-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans would have to spend at least 85 cents of every premium dollar on health services or forfeit their special federal tax deductions.
- Pharmaceutical benefit managers would have to disclose details on discounts they negotiate on prescription drugs with retail pharmacies and wholesalers.
It’s heartwarming to know that we have so much extra money to burn that we can spend millions helping teens transition to adulthood. Hard to believe that the transition was made at all over the last 100,000 years or so, without this kind of helping hand.
I think the problem of employee nursing mothers is not going to be very large, since there aren’t going to be very many employees of any type in future years. We’re all going to be independent contractors or we’ll just be unemployed.
I see the labor unions are getting theirs.
I’m not sure how $400 million can help teenagers transition to adulthood. Isn’t that what we call high school and college? The whole concept of adolescence as a distinct phase of life is a relatively new (20th Century) phenomenon. In ages past, children aided household production by fetching firewood, herding goats, tending younger siblings, etc. Teenagers were expected to take on adult tasks as soon as they were physically able. Over the past few years, the length of time between childhood and adulthood has been rising. I would argue this is only possibly in an advanced, wealthy society. As societal wealth rises and life spans lengthen, maybe 42 will become the new 22 with respect to when parents cut the umbilical cord. Will the $400 million be used to encourage a parents to let their kids live at home until middle age?
Here’s something else you probably didn’t know is in the Senate (and House) health reform bill.
Vending machines would be required to post calorie counts.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/12/02/should-vending-machines-post-calorie-counts/
How do you like the fact that the panel which will decide what should and shouldn’t be covered by insurance will have only “one medical professional” in a group of 20 something. Also they will be appointed by the president Unvetted, no doubt!
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