Explainers and fact checks on health reform bills

Several news organizations published explainers on health reform.

The Los Angeles Times provides a Q&A that dissects the costs and various proposals of the pending Democratic healthcare bills. "The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that after revenue-generating provisions and savings in Medicare and Medicaid, the House bill would add $239 billion to the deficit over 10 years." The Times also examines which plans qualify as so-called Cadillac plans and how the government might "squeeze savings out of Medicare without cutting patient services" (Geiger and Oliphant, 8/31).

The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) has "a look at the differentiating factors between the main bill, the House Tri-Committee bill commonly known as H.B. 3200, and various proposals and other bills on the table" (8/29).

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a glossary of health care terms, including CHIP, COBRA, co-op plan, and health savings account (8/28).

NPR reports on a historical precedent for the current health care debate: a radio series that ran more than 50 years ago. For more than 20 years, NBC's America's Town Meeting of the Air offered a lively discussion of new health care options, many of which sound familiar today." In the 1930s, there was some thought of folding national health insurance into Social Security," but former President Franklin Roosevelt "didn't want to take on the powerful AMA. Social Security moved forward, government health care died on the operating table." NPR chronicles the ongoing debate on the show through the 1940s (McDonough, 8/28).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.