Health Care Reform - House Releases Draft Bill

Early Friday afternoon, the House released a health reform draft bill that consolidates the ideas and discussions from the three committees responsible for health care - Energy & Commerce, Education & Labor, and Ways & Means. If passed, the bill would institute a public health insurance plan, a pay-or-play insurance requirement similar to the Massachusetts model, establish a health insurance commissioner, expand Medicaid eligibility, fill in the Medicare Part D doughnut hole, and would end insurers' practice of denying coverage or charging higher premiums to sick people. Key details of the plan, however, have been left out, such as a CBO cost estimate. An article about the bill can be found in today's New York Times and Wall Street Journal.