Who wins, who loses in Senate health bill
Closer look at what’s inside the legislation’s latest version set
The Associated Press
updated 10:16 p.m. ET, Sun., Dec . 20, 2009
WASHINGTON – The little town of Libby, Mont., isn’t mentioned by name in the Senate’s mammoth health care bill, but it’s one of the big winners in the legislation, thanks to the influence of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
After pushing for years for help for residents of the area, thousands of whom suffer from asbestos-related illnesses from a now-closed mineral mining operation, Baucus inserted language in a package of last-minute amendments that grants them access to Medicare benefits.
He didn’t advertise the change, and it takes a close read of the bill to find it. It’s just one example of how the sweeping legislation designed to remake the U.S. health care system and extend coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans also helps and hurts more narrow interests, often thanks to one lawmaker with influence or bargaining power.
Here’s a look at some other winners and losers in the latest version of the legislation, which was expected to survive an initial test vote in the Senate around 1 a.m. Monday.
WINNERS
Cosmetic surgeons, who fended off a 5 percent tax on their procedures.
Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. These states are getting more federal help paying for a proposed Medicaid expansion than other states are. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who’s providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab for the expansion, in perpetuity.
Beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage plans — the private managed-care plans within Medicare — in Florida. Hundreds of thousands of them will have their benefits grandfathered in thanks to a provision tailored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., that also affects a much smaller number of seniors in a few other states.
Longshoremen. They were added to the list of workers in high-risk professions who are shielded from the full impact of a proposed new tax on high-value insurance plans.
Community health centers. They got $10 billion more in the revised bill, thanks to advocacy by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
A handful of physician-owned hospitals being built around the country — including one in Bellevue, Neb. — which would be permitted to get referrals from the doctors who own them, avoiding a new ban in the Senate bill that will apply to hospitals built in the future. Without mentioning Nebraska or other states by name, the Senate bill pushes back some legal deadlines by several months, in effect making a few hospitals that are near completion eligible to continue receiving referrals from the doctors who own them. Chalk up another win for Nelson.
AARP, the lobby for elderly people. The new Democratic bill has about $1 billion in extra Medicaid payments to states that provide visiting nurses and other in-home or community services to prevent low-income people from needing to be admitted to hospitals. In House-Senate bargaining, AARP also is expected to win one of their top priorities: a full closing of the so-called "doughnut hole," the gap in Medicare’s coverage of prescription drugs.
QueenBeeWorld... 
LOL! I do love your comments, Captain! You have a way with words. I agree that we have to take health care into our own hands with this health Scare looming over our heads so I\’ll post lots of health information in 2010 to keep us all well.
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QueenBee
December 21, 2009
\’Physician heal thy self…\’ Don\’t know who\’ll take the time to read this and who won\’t Queen Bee? I\’m in Canada, so we have a different set of A-Holes up here, but the results are more or less the same anyway. Something happens state-side and it isn\’t long before we follow. If \’we\’ (and I use the term loosely) could change our collective lifestyles to embrace a healthier set of habits, we could save a little pocket change that would other wise go to the system; with all its inadiquacies and short comings, I\’d sooner talk to a quack than these guys! I WILL NOT BE THEIR EXPERIMENTAL HAMSTER! I want to die at home in bed… It\’s my dream… OK then, it\’s my nightmare. In a democracy, we have the right to choose between nightmares, don\’t we? I rest my basketcase.
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Captain
December 21, 2009