Updated -- Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals - Kaiser Family Foundation

The Foundation has updated its interactive side-by-side health reform comparison tool to incorporate the major amendments to the House Tri-Committee legislation adopted by the three committees of jurisdiction during their mark-ups of the bill. The update also adds a summary of the Republican Study Committee bill, the Empowering Patients First Act, recently introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). Significant amendments to the House Tri-Committee legislation are identified using abbreviations for the House panels that approved them – “E&L” for the Committee on Education and Labor; “W&M” for the Committee on Ways and Means; and “E&C” for the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The Foundation will update the comparison tool again after the various amendments are blended into a final House bill. The online tool allows users to compare any of 12 different major health reform plans, including the House Tri-Committee legislation and the Senate HELP Committee legislation. The Senate Finance Committee continues to debate its version of health reform legislation. The side-by-side summarizes the policy options papers released by the committee in May, and will be updated once a bill is announced by the committee. The comparison tool and many other resources are available on the Foundation’s health reform gateway page. Dual Eligibles Brief Examines Opportunities to Improve Policy for Those Covered by Both Medicaid and Medicare Health reform presents an opportunity to realign federal and state policy for the dual eligibles to promote a more rational, cost-efficient system for nine million of the poorest, sickest and highest-cost people covered by both Medicaid and Medicare. A brief from the Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured provides an overview of policy options for pursuing this goal. Options examined in the brief include establishing a national route to provide financial assistance for low-income Medicare beneficiaries; developing systems that provide integrated acute and long-term services and supports; increasing the availability of home and community-based services; and providing more stable financing for coverage of this population. The brief is available online. Brief Examines Variations In Health Risk Across Industries That Could Affect Efforts to Reward Healthy Behaviors Faced with an unsustainable growth in health care costs, both employers and policymakers have begun to consider the potential savings that might be achieved by investments in health promotion and better access to preventive care, including the potential of building financial incentives for healthy behaviors and the use of prevention services into health plans. Creating the right incentives is a challenge however, because experience is so limited and healthy behaviors among workers vary widely. To illustrate the range of differences, the Foundation prepared an issue brief that describes the variation among workers across large industry groups in key areas: family income, health risk factors, education, language, and access to basic health care. The brief, Rewarding Healthy Behaviors: Variation in Health Risk Across Industries Among American Workers is available online. Read More