Via The NY Times:
Hospital lobbyists said Wednesday that the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the Senate Finance Committee’s health legislation indicated that the committee had not yet delivered on a deal they made with panel’s chairman, Max Baucus, and the White House for their support.
Chip Kahn, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, said that as a condition of the industry’s political support the White House and Mr. Baucus had promised earlier this year to extend health coverage to at least 94 percent of the country’s residents or at least 97 percent of American citizens. But according to the budget office, the finance committee’s proposal would mandate coverage of only 91 percent of residents and 94 percent of citizens.
The hospitals are counting on the extension of insurance to reduce their current costs for emergency treatment of the uninsured, making up some of the $155 billion over ten years in cost cuts the hospitals have agreed to.
“They have not yet met the standard of our deal,” Mr. Kahn said. Asked what the hospitals would do if the Democrats failed to hold up their end, he said, “I am not going there yet. Hopefully they are going to improve.”
Making deals based on hope is naive to the extreme.
I hope this bill does some good.
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