Apr 1 2010
AARP Bulletin: Will all Americans get health coverage as good as lawmakers' insurance under the overhaul, as Democrats pledged? Apparently so. Even though most federal workers will maintain their federally employee's benefits, lawmakers will have to sign up for insurance plans through the new, state-run exchanges offered through the health legislation (Barry, 3/31).
The Hill: Will a tax on tanning salons raise as much as congressional revenue estimators have guessed? "The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that a 10 percent tax on tanning-bed services would raise $2.7 billion over the next decade, but the industry says there simply aren't enough salons or customer traffic to generate that much revenue" (Heflin, 3/30).
ABC News: Will the IRS have to hire hordes of new agents? "Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee warn that as many as 16,500 new IRS auditors and investigators -- or 17 percent of the agency's current work force -- could be needed to administer and enforce new health insurance rules under the law." The IRS commissioner called that a misconception, however, and said the "onus" for most of the new work will fall to taxpayers (Dwyer, 3/30).
The Roanoke Times: Will Medicare Advantage plans still be available to seniors? Rates for the plans have been cut as part of the overhaul. Under current law, the plans are paid about 14 percentage points more than it costs to provider coverage to patients under traditional Medicare. But, it's unclear whether insurance firms will continue to offer the plans at the lower rates. "Insurance companies are still working through the specifics of the bill" (Jones, 3/31).
 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.
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