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KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey discusses the latest health reform proposal unveiled today by House Democratic leaders.

Listen to audio interview (mp3) | Read KHN’s summarized major news coverage of the bill.

Transcript:

Jackie Judd: Good day, I’m Jackie Judd with Health On The Hill. Breaking News from Capitol Hill. House Democrats have unveiled their bill for health care reform. It’s the product of work of three House committees. Joining me today is Mary Agnes Carey from Capitol Hill. Mary Agnes, what’s the big picture?

Mary Agnes Carey: House Democratic leaders today unveiled their health reform package. They said it will come in at under $900 billion under the next decade. It will increase insurance for 36 million people who don’t have it now. It will have, as we’ve known from previous measures, it’ll have an individual mandate with some exemptions for hardship and so on, and also an employer mandate. But they’ve made some significant changes for small business. They said that small businesses , for example, whose payrolls are under $500,000 would be exempted from the mandate, and then that mandate penalty would come in on a gradual basis between $500,000 and $750,000 on payroll. That’s important because a lot of members with small business constituencies said requiring businesses to cover their employees would be a hardship. So that was a major concession. Of course, the public plan, which we’ve all heard so much about, is contained in the House bill. It would be paid for with negotiated rates for hospitals and physicians and for other providers. Again, that was an important change from the prior bill, which would have paid on Medicare rates. House moderates in the Democratic party, as well as those representing rural areas said that our providers need negotiated rates to stay in business, so that was a major change in this bill.

Jackie Judd: And so with all of those changes, do the House Democratic leaders believe that they have the sufficient number of votes to pass this?

Mary Agnes Carey: They’re feeling good about it. They’re feeling confident. They’ll have those 218 votes before they see a House vote, which they said tentatively could occur at the end of next week.

Jackie Judd: And what are the biggest differences – we understand at the moment – between the House version and the Senate?

Mary Agnes Carey: On the public plan, for example: In the House, it will be there and it will be part of the health insurance exchange. In the Senate, Democrats were talking about an opt-out provision for states that would allow governors and state legislatures to say “no, we’ve decided that we don’t want to participate in the public plan.” That’s one of the major differences. Another major difference between the bills is on how they finance it. In the House, they’ve decided to put an excise tax on high-income earners. That definition would be $500,000 for individual people and $3 million for couples. I don’t think you’ll see that excise tax in the final bill that’s in the works in the Senate, and if it is, part of the House package. And also, the House package is going to allow the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. In the Senate, Max Baucus, who is head of the Finance Committee, as well as the White House, have cut a deal with the drug industry to limit their exposure on financial issues in this bill and I don’t think you’re going to see allowing the HHS Secretary to negotiate Medicare drug prices, but the House Democratic leaders were not part of those negotiations, so that’s why that provision is in the House bill.

Jackie Judd: And a final question, Mary Agnes. In terms of the time table, does it still seem to be that if there is going to be legislation approved by Congress that it would happen before Christmas?

Mary Agnes Carey: That is absolutely the goal of Democratic leaders in the Senate and in the House. Their very strong feeling is they have momentum on their side; it’s an important issue. Next year, as we all know, we face a mid-term election. It would be very difficult to get legislation of this size done then, so they’re pushing their hardest to have it done this year before they leave for the year.

Jackie Judd: OK, thank you so much. Mary Agnes Carey outdoors on Captiol Hill – we can hear the background there. Thank you so much. I’m Jackie Judd with Health On The Hill.

Swedish developer Pieces Interactive has joined forces with Tecmo to bring Fret Nice, a platformer that can be played with a guitar controller, to Pla…

Remember those Microsoft ads from a little over a year ago, the ones with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates trying on shoes? Of course you do; it’s all the Internet talked about for days. I present to you this shocking photo: Seinfeld using a Mac!

Yup, that scene is from this week’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. And while it may be worth a chuckle in the abstract, people ought to know that Jerry always had a Mac sitting on his desk in the Seinfeld TV show. What was out of order was him promoting Microsoft. Well, I’m sure the giant sacks of money helped, but the original sin was Jerry going from Mac to PC, and not this latest switch.

via TUAW

You may have seen a misleading Associated Press story this morning on the accuracy of Recovery Act job reports that were posted earlier this month on Recovery.gov. On the same day that we learned that the economy has begun to grow again for the first time in over year, the very critics who opposed economic rescue from the beginning are now trying use this misleading story to twist the truth about the early success of the Recovery Act.

Here is what you should know:

Governors, mayors, county executives, private businesses and community organizations across the country submit reports to Recovery.gov so that you can get an unprecedented look at how your taxpayer dollars are being spent creating jobs and boosting the economy through the Recovery Act. These reports are not from the federal government – but from the very people putting Recovery funds to work.

Our top priority is ensuring that, when the reports are posted on Recovery.gov tomorrow, you will get the most accurate look possible at what has taken place with the Recovery Act over the last eight months. That’s why we have been working with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board – an independent oversight body – and the actual people that submitted the reports to conduct an extensive three-week review of them.

Three business days into the review, the Board posted a preliminary portion of those reports – just federal contracts which represent less than 2 percent of the Recovery Act and are a sliver of the information collected – on Recovery.gov so that you could get a look at what had been turned in initially. We support the Board’s act of transparency – but were clear that day that we considered the reports "partial and preliminary" and noted that it was "too soon to draw any global conclusions" from them.

Our twenty-day review wraps up today and we can say with confidence that the full set of reports going up tomorrow – corrected versions of the reports posted on October 15th, and many more new reports being posted for the first time now — are far sharper than the initial ones you saw two weeks ago. In fact, our review process had already caught four out of five items that AP’s misleading story cites as “over-counting” jobs. With every review of the reports, with every call to the person filing them to confirm them, the information has gotten better and better – and we are looking forward to their public posting tomorrow. It will be a historic moment for government transparency.

Here are the real facts on AP’s misleading story: 

At 2 p.m. EDT  today, watch the H1N1 briefing by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) live on Flu.gov. Today’s update will include updated information about vaccine availability and anti-viral medications.

Flu.gov continues to be the one-stop clearinghouse for flu information.  Updated information on how to find vaccination clinics in your area will continue to be added to Flu.gov, as it becomes available. Visitors can use an interactive widget to search for fraudulent H1N1 flu products and detailed information is available for:

Parents and Pregnant Women
Caregivers
People with Health Conditions
Seniors
Travelers

Watch the live briefing on Flu.gov.

On the same day that we found out that motor vehicle output added 1.7% to economic growth in the third quarter – the largest contribution to quarterly growth in over a decade – Edmunds.com has released a faulty analysis suggesting that the Cash for Clunkers program had no meaningful impact on our economy or on overall auto sales. This is the latest of several critical “analyses” of the Cash for Clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV. Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn’t withstand even basic scrutiny.

The Edmunds analysis is based on two implausible assumptions:

1. The Edmunds’ analysis rests on the assumption that the market for cars that didn’t qualify for Cash for Clunkers was completely unaffected by this program.

In other words, all the other cars were being sold on Mars, while the rest of the country was caught up in the excitement of the Cash for Clunkers program.  This analysis ignores not only the price impacts that a program like Cash for Clunkers has on the rest of the vehicle market, but the reports from across the country that people were drawn into dealerships by the Cash for Clunkers program and ended up buying cars even though their old car was not eligible for the program. 

This faulty assumption leads Edmunds to a conclusion that is at odds with many independent analyses: Edmunds assumption that more than 80% of the payback from Cash for Clunkers would occur in 2009 isn’t how many mainstream analyses, including Moody’s and IHS Global Insight approach the problem (see pages 5 and 15 of this CEA report [PDF]). In fact, Deutsche Bank recently concluded that “The important takeaway from recent sales trends is that it suggests that there has been minimal ‘payback’ for the U.S. government’s ‘cash for clunkers’ program.”

2. Edmunds also ignores the beneficial impact that the program will have on 4th Quarter GDP because automakers have ramped up their production to rebuild their depleted inventories.

Major automakers including GM, Ford, Honda and Chrysler all increased their production through the end of the year as a result of this program, which will help boost growth beyond the third quarter. The actions of private market participants, who would not increase production if they didn’t think demand for their product would be there through the end of the year, is a far better indicator of market dynamics – and one that Edmunds.com conveniently ignores.

Most importantly, this program is helping boost our economy and create jobs now when we need it most. In a comprehensive report, the Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the Cash for Clunkers will create 70,000 jobs in the second half of 2009. The strength of recent auto sales data suggest that, if anything, this projection underestimates the actual impact of the program. CEA’s analysis is transparent and comprehensive, laying out all of its assumptions for the public to understand. Edmunds.com, on the other hand, is promoting a bombastic press release without any public access to their underlying analysis.

So put on your space suit and compare the two approaches yourself:

Edmunds.com
Council of Economic Advisors

Just a couple of days after calling the Nikkei report on the big-screen DSi “conjecture,” Nintendo has announced the new DSi model via an update on th…

This is just too cool not to post. Look at that little thing. It’s genius. It’s just a bit of walnut or oak, carved into a shape that will keep your ear buds under control. I’m amazed at the sheer beauty and simplicity of the little thing. I don’t even know what to call it. Calling it a wire management device takes away from the sex appeal, but the product name of Wrap Wrap is lame. Idk, but I want one. $17. [via Gadget Lab]

F-16 pilots from the United States, Belgium and Jordan competed in the Scramble
launch portion of Falcon Air Meet 2009, a multi-national F-16 competition hosted
by the Royal Jordanian Air Force here Oct. 21…

Members of the Louisiana Army National Guard were surprised by four NFL players
during pre-deployment training here at Camp Beauregard Oct. 23…

Tears of sadness turned to tears of joy as thousands of Illinois families hugged
their loved one for the first time since their Soldier was deployed in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom…

Defense and Veterans Affairs Department health care professionals began a
three-day workshop here today to harness initiatives to improve psychological
health care for servicemembers and veterans…

The Department of Defense has acquired enough doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine to
immunize all 460,000 members of the National Guard, officials announced
today…

A new perspective has enabled the leadership at the Department of Veterans Affairs
to improve the level and accessibility of care it provides to servicemembers, the
department’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs said
here this week…

In the past couple of days I’ve received emails from two separate people who found that public domain material they put on YouTube was taken down to companies claiming ownership of the work. In both cases, the stories seem pretty ridiculous, and for all the complaining that copyright holders do about how awful it is that they need to “police” their own content on YouTube, it seems like those who are getting hurt are people who are putting up public domain material and getting shut down — often with little recourse.

The first story comes to us from two self-described “hippies,” Haint and Littia, who had put up a video showing some of Haint’s works, and used as background music a song by a group called the Psalters, who put their entire album into the public domain so that anyone could do what they wanted with it — such as using it for background music in a video. However, music licensing company Rumblefish, supposedly uploaded its catalog into YouTube’s content ID system — and apparently (and I’m still trying to figure out how, because no one seems to have a good explanation), the Psalters song is somehow in Rumblefish’s catalog. Hence, YouTube took down the video. Apparently others have also been finding their perfectly legal and licensed content taken down thanks to Rumblefish as well, and were told that they needed to call and get Rumblefish’s permission to get the content back up.

Haint and Littia note that they can’t issue a counternotice, because Rumblefish never sent a DMCA notice which they can counter (Update: to clarify, as explained in the next sentence, they can dispute, but that’s slightly different than countering the DMCA notice, and comes with its own problems). The “takedown” was triggered by the content ID match, which still makes things a bit tricky, since “disputing” such things could potentially lead to a lawsuit, so there’s a bit of a chilling effect in disputing a content ID match. Poking a big company with a stick where they can turn around and file a lawsuit is a bit scary — even if you know you’re in the legal right.

While looking into that story, reader Stephen Pate sent over his own story of having his entire YouTube account suspended. He’s not entirely sure why, but believes it has something to do with video he posted of the recent “crash on the moon.” The video was taken directly from NASA’s live broadcast, which NASA makes clear is not covered by copyright.

But… along came everyone’s favorite news organization, the Associated Press, and claimed the video was their copyrighted material. Nice of them. Due to at least one other similar incident, Pate’s entire account was shut down, and to make matters worse, this apparently happened at about the same time that YouTube switched emails to gmail logins, leading Google to claim that it can’t match his email to the email of the account in question.

I’m sure Google and YouTube are trying their best, within the confines of copyright law and various lawsuits, to handle such situations, but it seems like things are a mess — and more and more users are finding that even if they have what appears to be perfectly legal content, they may face takedowns and even loss of their entire account, with limited avenues for recourse.

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The President and his team have discussed this problem with small business owners from across the country and we know they don’t want to stop providing coverage to their employees. Small businesses are like families and small business owners want to give their employees the coverage they deserve. Unfortunately, the high cost of health care is making it impossible for many small businesses to provide health benefits.

Today, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a new report, Lower Premiums, Stronger Businesses: How Health Insurance Reform Will Bring Down Costs for Small Businesses. The report looks at the current status quo and outlines how reform will help solve this problem and bring costs down for small businesses. Specifically, reform will.

Create an insurance exchange. Health insurance reform will create a health insurance exchange that pools small businesses and their employees with millions of other Americans to increase purchasing power and competition in the insurance market (a luxury only large firms currently enjoy).  Increased purchasing power and competition, in turn, make premiums more affordable.  The exchange will also reduce administrative costs for small businesses and their employees by enabling them to easily and simply compare the prices, benefits, and quality of health plans.
Provide a small business tax credit.  On top of the potential savings created by the health insurance exchange, an estimated 3.6 million small businesses nationwide could qualify for a tax credit to make coverage for their employees even more affordable. For example, a firm with 9 employees and an average wage of less than $20,000 per employee could receive a credit of 35 percent off its premium costs in 2011 under the amended Senate Finance bill, or a credit of 50 percent off its premium costs under both the Senate Finance and House Tri-Committee bills in 2013.
End the “hidden tax” on small businesses that provide health insurance.  Premiums are high, in part, because of a “hidden insurance tax” of more than $1,000 added onto every family policy that covers the cost of care for those without insurance.  Health insurance reform will benefit small businesses that already provide health care by expanding health care coverage to all Americans and removing this hidden tax.  These reforms will enable streamlined, efficient coverage for all Americans.
Prevent arbitrary premium hikes. In the current health insurance system, small businesses can see their premiums skyrocket if just one or two workers fall ill and accumulate high medical costs.  Health insurance reform will prevent insurance discrimination based on health status, meaning that small businesses will no longer be unfairly penalized if a worker falls ill.

These are just some of the ways health insurance reform will support small businesses and help ensure all Americans get the secure, stable coverage they need. To learn more, read the full report by visiting www.HealthReform.gov.

Linda Douglass is Communications Director for the Office of Health Reform

The Trans-Atlantic Science for Policy Workshop at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra brought together a unique group of 22 individuals with pertinent experiences of real-life scientific support to policy-making. These parliamentarians, science advisers, heads of European and international organisations, leaders of science foundations and academies, plus senior NGO representatives and CEOs from industry, represent all aspects of science-policy interaction from conception and development to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

We at CrunchGear are rarely at the forefront of fashion. However, once I reviewed the Vibram Five Fingers I knew I was onto something. Thankfully, there are other people out there who don’t think my love for foot gloves is not strange or weird. In fact, people wear these crazy shoes everywhere they go!

Take a look at BirthdayShoes.com. Editor Justin Owings gets testimonials from all over the world including folks who have run marathons in these things and other folks who stand around in India wearing them. Heck, even Sergey Brin is down.

To be clear, these people are totally serious about breaking the chains of monotoe hegemony. One fellow started wearing them to work and is not afraid of what his coworkers have to say:

Thursday marked the first week since I started wearing the KSO Treks in the corporate environment as a daily part of my work attire. Although having worn them to and from work since september 9th, I had previously made it a habit of switching out to a more traditional shoe while on the clock. Finding it difficult to wear monotoed footwear every day, it just became apparent to me last Friday that there should be absolutely no reason to have to go back to wearing anything that felt so uncomfortable while being so unhealthy.

Luckily for me, I have a pretty good rapport with most coworkers and find it easy to converse with those I haven’t met. Most seem to be more aware of me for being a surfer/skateboarder which already sets me apart … Quite a few have noticed the five finger shoes as the week progressed and today work literally stopped in one department while a lively discussion about footware ensued.