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New Britain Herald Editorial: Health care reform for everyone, even Congress
Nov 7, 04:55 PM
U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, has filed an amendment to the health care reform bill currently before the House of Representatives that would require members of Congress who take federal health care coverage to purchase their insurance in the proposed health insurance exchange.
This exchange requires private plans to compete with each other and a government-sponsored plan and is intended to prevent giant companies from dominating the marketplace, as we have seen in Connecticut.
Murphy said the idea to include Congress in the exchange came straight from his constituents – and it has also been mentioned on the editorial page of this newspaper. We support it for two reasons.
The first, of course, is simple fairness. Murphy said his constituents told him members of Congress should not be treated differently from people who go into the exchange for coverage. If our country is creating an insurance program that would cover all Americans – and predictions are that the House version would cover 96 percent of us – then we all have a right to expect the same level of care.
Secondly, if members of Congress are crafting a plan that will affect their own lives, their own families, they have an added incentive to put together the best plan the country can afford. A simple example of affordable improvements is a proposed upgrade to Medicare to cut co-payments for preventive services. The health insurance industry has long known that paying for preventive care actually saves money, because an annual physical or a mammogram discovers diseases like hypertension, diabetes and breast cancer in the earliest stages when they can be easily treated – before drastic and expensive care is needed.
On Thursday, AARP joined in supporting the the health care reform bill currently before the House, citing, among other reasons, another preventive measure: “Saving seniors from having to pay thousands in out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs by closing the Medicare Part D coverage gap, or “doughnut hole.” If it becomes law, seniors will be able to continue taking needed medications, without concern for how they’ll pay for them – medications that may keep them healthier.
But, to return to Murphy’s proposal, we can’t help wondering: If Congress had been covered by Medicare when the prescription drug provision was created, would the doughnut hole provision have been enacted?
