About 42 percent of U students are older than 25 and, for the most part, are no longer covered by their parents’ health insurance, according to the Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis. Some, like Ian Jensen, a junior in computer engineering, have to pay rising health insurance rates out of pocket on top of their rising college tuition in the middle of a recession. Others are members of the 10 percent of the country that don’t have coverage8212;such as Michael Middleton, a senior in English.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act bans health insurance companies from denying coverage for those with a pre-existing medical condition or charging customers higher premium rates based on gender or medical history. It also subsidizes the cost of health insurance for those who cannot afford it.
“Medicare works,” said Chase Clyde, president of the U College Democrats. “You don’t see elderly people on Medicare saying they’re locked into a socialist system.”
For months, lawmakers have bickered over President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill. The majority of Democrats want a public option that creates affordable health care for those who aren’t covered and drives down costs for those who are. Most Republicans want nothing of the sort, instead opting for reform from within the private insurance sector and not from government intervention.
Whatever happens, Middleton and Jensen’s futures are riding on the outcome.
The politics
Saturday, the House of Representatives passed its version of the health care reform bill by a vote of 220-215. After weeks of impassioned deliberation, the bill only passed once lawmakers conceded that the bill would bar the public option from covering abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger.
The bill would extend affordable coverage to about 36 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, guaranteeing coverage to 96 percent of the country by extending it to the poor and those denied coverage for having a pre-existing condition, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
But the bill won’t go anywhere until the Senate reconciles it with its version, which also bars undocumented workers from paying for the government’s health insurance policies. It won’t be easy. Republican and moderate Democratic senators have been outspoken in their intent to stand against health care reform if it contains a public option.
But the public option isn’t the only tough sell for Capitol Hill or for the U’s political party representatives8212;it’s the estimated $1.1 trillion price tag. The health care coverage expansion would be paid for by cutting Medicare’s spending by more than $400 billion during the next 10 years and by increasing taxes 5.4 percent for individuals making more than $500,000 a year and for families with an annual income of more than $1 million, starting in 2011.
“I think it’s appropriate to tax the wealthiest for the benefit of the poorest amongst us,” Clyde said. That’s where Clyde and Drew Conrad, chairman of the U College Republicans, fundamentally disagree.
Even though the plan was born out of the need to make health care accessible to the minority 10 percent of the country without health insurance, the insured will have to pay for it.
“Tax payers will have to cover the public option,” Conrad said. “So if you have health insurance, and you’re being taxed for the public option, essentially you’ll be paying for two health care plans.”
Opposing senators worry that the trillion dollar price tag and burden on Americans’ incomes would drive the country further into a recession.
the public option, Conrad said he would much rather see government incentives, such as tax breaks, for health insurance companies that offer a tiered program that’s affordable for the uncovered 10 percent of Americans. He said he agrees with Clyde in wanting to see more competition in the health insurance market, but he said he would like it among the private insurers instead of between them and a government program.
Republicans argue that competition with a government program could mean layoffs within the private insurance companies as they lose revenue from a diminishing membership that pays less8212;at a time when the American unemployment rate is the worst it’s been in a generation.
The future
Clyde said he predicts that the version of a government health care plan Obama signs in the spring will ultimately allow individual states to choose whether to accept the plan. Conrad said he doubts it will even make it that far.
To make it to the president’s desk for approval, the bill has to make it through the Senate, which, at this point, is a tall order. Republican senators are staunchly opposed to the bill, and key moderate Democrats necessary for a majority vote refuse to support any bill that would pit private insurance companies against a public option.
The only way around it could come from Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe from Maine. She’s proposed a public option that goes into effect nationwide, only as a last resort if the health care reform bill fails to force insurance companies to lower their rates and stop cutting off coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. It’s an option that appeals to the moderate Democrats and might give some version of health insurance reform a fighting chance.
Middleton and Jensen eagerly await the decision.
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The Associated Press
contributed to this article.