The President is slated to address a joint session of Congress about health care reform September 9, as the young administration shores up slipping support for this key domestic agenda issue. Reportedly, President Obama will present some specific details about his vision for a new U.S. health care system, responding to criticism that he has given only broad recommendations, leaving details to Congress.

To bolster the administration's argument for reform, the Department of Health and Human Services has recently released a report highlighting benefits of reform for seniors. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a report entitled "America's Seniors and Health Insurance Reform: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare." According to a press release on the HHS website, the report highlights the problems with the current system where seniors have escalating costs for their health care. The report also outlines how health insurance reform will strengthen Medicare and protect coverage for seniors.

"Senior citizens have seen their premiums and out-of-pocket drug costs rise and without reform, many seniors on Medicare could lose access to the doctor they know and trust," Secretary Sebelius said. "Health insurance reform will protect the coverage seniors depend on, improve the quality of care and help make Medicare strong."

Highlights from the report on the benefits of health reform include elimination of overpayment to private plans, cutting drug costs that seniors have to bear in the "doughnut hole" by 50 percent, stopping the upcoming cut in reimbursement fees to physicians, and reducing fraud and abuse to ensure Medicare does not go bankrupt.

Secretary Sebelius' report is available at http://www.HealthReform.gov/reports/seniors/index.html.

The Kaiser Family Foundation Briefing

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has also recently released a reform-related issue brief. This brief details information on health insurance subsidies. Subsidies assist persons with income above the limit for Medicaid in paying for premiums and out of pocket costs for private health insurance. The brief points out that most proposed health reform plans, including President Obama's campaign proposals, the Senate HELP Committee Affordable Health Choices Act, and the House's America's Affordable Health Choices Act have such an option.

The KFF brief makes the following points: Health insurance subsidies are intended to help in making health care coverage affordable. For example, subsidies can help in any proposals where there is a requirement for individuals to purchase coverage; many families and individuals may not be able to afford to purchase even lower cost policies without some type of financial assistance. In addition, persons with lower incomes should have some protections through subsidies for costs at point of service, which can run very high if an individual has a serious illness. Finally, in making insurance coverage more affordable, the subsidies expand the market for people to buy health insurance. This in turn may reduce market practices such as screening for health risks, or limiting or charging more for applicants determined to be at a higher risk.

The KFF brief may be accessed at: http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/7962.pdf

White House Briefing

In this week's White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded continuing questions about opposition to the current health care plan reform proposals. Secretary Gibbs emphasized the President's firm commitment to working with Democrats, Republicans, independents, "anybody that wants to see progress on health care reform." He also expressed disappointment that Senator Mike Enzi's (R-WY) GOP radio address the past weekend reiterated "generic Republican talking points" and that Senator Enzi "has clearly turned over his cards on bipartisanship, and decided that it's time to walk away from the table."

Acknowledging that the Senate Finance Committee is expected to produce a bipartisan bill more or less by September 15--although some senators have appeared to back away from negotiations, Gibbs said that if one reads the comments some of these senators have made, "...they seem to be less interested in the bipartisanship they talked about only a few weeks ago."

Adapted from a press release by HHS, in part from information from the KFF issue brief, and in part from the transcript of the White House press briefing.

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