Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. secretary of health and human services, right, meeting with Sandy Praeger, commissioner of the Kansas Insurance Department, and other insurance industry executives, on March 4, 2010. (Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg)
By Bruce Japsen | President Obama’s top health official predicted that health care reform will pass the U.S. House of
Representatives this weekend, and said
consumers will benefit right away from more transparency from insurers.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said in
Chicago this afternoon that having health plans report their rates to
the government would help slow the rise in premiums right away.
“Just some transparency in the marketplace” would help, Sebelius told reporters before speaking at a National Council on Aging meeting at the Hyatt Regency.
She requested information two weeks ago from the nation’s largest health insurers, including the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. One reason she did this was to see how much these plans are spending on medical care.
If health plans are not spending at least 80 cents of every dollar on medical care, she said, they should not be allowed to sell policies to individuals and small groups as part of exchanges that will be created after health reform passes.
But Sebelius said even knowing the government will be asking for such information will lead to lower rate increases.
“It will be helpful for the public to understand what the costs are,” Sebelius said.
We have social health in Canada and Europ.
Why they come to the US do procedures?
Why not to open US state boarders for the Insurance Companies?
Health reform in the future is good but who is going to pay now?
I am sick of republicans ,I will never vote for them again .
They are so crazy people .The health care reform bill now is similar to their bill back in 1993 ,so why they oppose It ???
according to Republican party Sarah Palin is the smartest one in group and here is what She said ” We used to hustle on over the border for health care ….and I think,isn’t that kind of ironic now ? ” She admitting that her family used to go to Canada for medical treatment when she was a child , Canada has a single -payer system , which Palin oppose ! (Too bad for Canadian tax payers )
Limbaugh the second smart one in the group also said ” I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.” .well too bad ,Costa Rica has had health care for all in 60 years already.( should Costa Rica taxpayers cover health care for this mad man ? )
Republicans :
Don’t You learn any thing from housing crisis ? like housing cost in the past ,health care cost is out of control .the next crisis will be health care crisis if health care reform failed ,millions of people may die .
please forget about Republicans ,pass health care reform NOW.
In ramming through an overwhelmingly unpopular 2,700-page health care “reform” bill using brute force tactics, Democrats are passing what amounts to the longest suicide note in history.
Their own pollsters are telling them the public has rebelled against their tactics. So their response is……to press their foot down even harder on the gas pedal.
We’ll see how that works out for them.
If the government is anxious to bypass normal procedures to pass a healthcare plan it cannot be good. I have read polling showing 53% oppose and 43% of the public favor the bill. Healthcare needs fixing but not like this.
Kevin,
You are either mistaken on your quotes or are deliberately taking them out of context. I am not a Palin fan but when she was going over the border for care it was PRIOR to them having nationalized healthcare. Her family did it because it was closer to go over the border then to go to a hospital in Alaska. Second, Limbaugh did not say that he was going to move to Costa Rica. There are several prominent surgeons that are considering starting practices there for people to pay cash for care that will be rationed under the proposed “reform” plan. He stated that he would go there for care that might be unavailable here. This is not unlike what Canadians (some of which are in Parliament) do now. They come here and pay cash for services that are rationed in Canada. There is enough distortion on both sides to go around. Do not make it worse.