Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
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October 07, 1999, Thursday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: A; Pg. 2
LENGTH:
829 words
HEADLINE: House GOP passes insurance-related
tax break
SOURCE: Staff
BYLINE: BENNETT ROTH, Houston Chronicle Washington
Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
WASHINGTON - As the House commenced a heated
debate over regulating managed care plans, Republican leaders Wednesday muscled
through a series of tax breaks they said were intended to help individuals and
businesses afford health insurance.
The package of incentives to
increase health insurance access was approved 227-205 on a largely party line
vote, with dissenting Democrats claiming the provisions were added solely to
sour support for a broader package of HMO reforms.
The action, however,
was merely a prelude to a more significant series of votes scheduled for today
on managed care alternatives that would make it easier for consumers to appeal
their HMO health care decisions and force the plans to provide basic services,
such as access to the nearest emergency room.
And in a sign that they
have capitulated to the demands of some of their members, GOP leaders have
reluctantly thrown their support behind a managed care proposal that allows
consumers a limited right to sue their managed care plan. The Senate has already
approved a managed care plan that does not include the right to sue.
House Republicans said tax provisions are needed because of the growing
number of uninsured Americans, which the Census Bureau reported this week stood
at 44 million people. They added that Democrats' clamor for HMO reforms would
mean little if consumers could not afford to purchase health insurance.
"Access and affordability is as important as providing patient
protection," said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla. "A right without insurance is no
right at all."
The package includes tax breaks for individuals who pay
more than half the cost of their premiums, and for those who are caring for
elderly family members at home. It would also make it easier for small
businesses and individuals to band together to purchase cheaper health policies.
It would also expand a Medical Savings Account program, now capped at
750,000 taxpayers, which allows individuals to sock away money for medical
expenses in tax free accounts.
Democrats, however, said the tax
incentives would do little to address the concerns of many of the uninsured who
do not make enough money to benefit from such breaks. They added that Medical
Savings Accounts benefit only those who are healthy and have the money to save
for extra expenses. They claimed that MSAs drain insurance pools of healthy
beneficiaries, driving up costs for the sickly who cannot choose other options.
"This bill does nothing except to help the insurance companies and the
well-to-do and the healthy," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.
Democrats
also objected to the fact that Republicans had not detailed how they would pay
for the cost of the tax breaks, which are estimated to be $ 48 billion over 10
years.
They suggested the tax provisions were tacked on to force
Democrats to vote against the overall health care legislation.
The
Democrats were also angry that the Republicans had not allowed them to bring up
amendments that would detail how they would pay for the managed care
reform - a financing plan that some Democrats believe must be included
in any bill they support.
Before the vote President Clinton accused the
Republican leadership of "legislative gamesmanship " and spiking the bill with
"poison pills and legislative sleights of hand to practically guarantee the
defeat of this bill."
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.,
injected presidential politics into the debate by passing out a letter he sent
to GOP front-runner George W. Bush, asking the Texas governor to use his
influence to urge Republicans to approve the same kind of tough managed care
regulations that he allowed to become law in Texas.
Texas is one of a
handful of states that allows consumers the right to sue their managed care
plans.
Gephardt noted that Bush should exercise the same influence on
GOP lawmakers on the managed care issue as he did recently on the budget when he
chided Republicans for trying to delay full payment next year of earned income
tax credits to the working poor.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan
suggested that the governor supported legislation that included the right to sue
managed care plans.
"He believes people in federal plans ought to have
protections similar to those in Texas," said McClellan.
House members
today will consider several managed care plans. One sponsored by Reps. Dingell
and Charles Norwood, R-Ga., which is backed by most Democrats and some
Republicans, provides for the broadest right to sue health plans.
Another health plan sponsored by Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and supported
by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., would give consumers the right to sue
but would only allow such suits in federal courts and would place limits on
damages.
The managed care legislation has been the target of an
aggressive lobbying effort, with business and insurance interests opposing the
measure and doctors, consumers groups and trial lawyers supporting it.
LOAD-DATE: October 8, 1999
