September 15, 2011

GOP: Back to Health Care-Gutting Business

Rep. Henry Waxman (R-Calif.)Andy Holzman/Zum

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With all the Medicare-privatizing and debt ceiling hostage-taking this year, Republicans haven’t had much bandwidth to spare on the priorities of last session—like killing health care reform.

But now they’re back in the swing of things. House Republicans on the powerful energy and commerce committee released draft legislation this week that takes square aim at the patients’ bill of rights and other bedrock consumer protections written into the Affordable Care Act. The bill would change the law so that insurance plans that existed before the passage of health care reform—i.e., the majority of private health care plans—don’t have to comply with new consumer protection rules. 

So, under the Republican draft, what protections would no longer apply in grandfathered plans? Here are a few:

  • Insurance for Young Adults under the age of 26: Under the GOP bill, people under the age of 26 could no longer stay on their parents’ plans if those plans existed before health reform passed.
  • Prohibition on recession of insurance: Grandfathered plans would be able to cancel coverage for people who get sick or make a mistake on an insurance application.
  • Prohibition on preexisting conditions: Plans could deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions or charge them more.

The bill would also impose lifetime and annual limits on coverage, dramatically restrict patient choice, and eviscerate patients’ right to appeal denial of coverage. The GOP’s push to undo what ACA did appears to be glommed into its overall anti-regulatory push. The title of Thursday’s hearing on the draft legislation was “Cutting The Red Tape: Saving Jobs from PPACA’s Harmful Regulations.” In a nutshell: The bill looks to preserve the status quo for health insurance companies. 

The benefits of the patients’ bill of rights are already being felt, and it is among the most popular parts of health care reform. But will Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.) and the other Dems on the committee win the spin war?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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