As we brace ourselves for the reality of health care reform, and as the Senate bill has now taken shape, let's start to analyze how we can best improve this before it becomes law.
Since the House of Representatives has taken a stand, and has (thankfully) refused to accept the ping-pong strategy the White House has been pushing to meet their Christmas deadline, the next major stage in this process is going to be the conference committee. Most of us here at DailyKos agree that the House bill is significantly better than the Senate bill. But we also aware that the Senate version is most likely much closer to the final form than the House version. So where can we make the most impact? I propose we take on a fight we can win: the Medical Loss Ratio. More below the fold:
Right now, in the Senate bill, the MLR for group plans is set at 85% and individual plans at 80%. I think we can fight to get these increased to the across-the-board 90% in the House bill during conference. Or at least get something in-between. If we can get enough public exposure for this, it will be even more popular than the public option. The American people will not support health insurance companies skimming so much money off the top of our healthcare plans.
Progressives should frame this debate in terms of "profit margins", because people will understand that better than "medical loss ratio". We should run ads proclaiming that insurance companies should not be taking up to 15-20% profits on our health care plans to pay for CEO bonuses and corporate jets. "Call Congress. Tell them that you want 90% of the money paid into health insurance to be used for CARE."
I believe this is a fight we can win, and it will have significant impact on many Americans in their day-to-day lives.