Rebecca Alper of NJPIRG

    For too long, families’ and small business owners’ financial futures have been threatened by unchecked increases in health care costs. The bill from U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) offers serious solutions. The Senate should quickly commence its consideration. We call on all Senators to support the motion to proceed to the bill.

   Majority Leader Reid has taken the best of the Senate Finance and House proposals and fashioned a bill that lays the groundwork for real reductions in the trajectory of rising costs in the coming years.

   The bill includes:

   • An Independent Medicare Commission with the authority to make the hard decisions on provider payment policy that will ensure the sustainability of federal programs like Medicare. These recommendations may only be overridden by Congress under special fast-track consideration.

   • A public health insurance plan option, competing on a level playing field with private coverage plans in the exchange. This public option would generate much-needed choice and competition, leading to lower costs for consumers, small businesses, and the nation.\

   • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research into which treatments work best, so that consumers and their providers can be armed with the latest science when making decisions about care.

   • Unprecedented investments in primary care and prevention, including increased reimbursement for direct face-to-face consultation services and new funding for scholarships and loan-forgiveness for primary care providers.

   • A new Center for Innovation, housed in CMS, to rapidly develop and test innovative payment models that reward higher quality and lower cost delivery of care.

   • Health information technology and simplified administration to reduce administrative costs.

   Consumers will also benefit from bans on the most egregious insurance industry practices such as pre-existing condition denials, lifetime caps on benefits, price discrimination based on health history, and rescission of coverage based on small enrollment form errors.

   This introduced bill presents serious solutions to the rising costs which threaten America’s economic future. The entire Senate ought to put aside partisan wrangling and immediately begin consideration of this historic legislation.

Rebecca Alper, program associate

N.J. Public Interest Research Group

Trenton