AOA Update on Health Care Reform – January 22, 2010
January 22, 2010
On Tuesday night, the year-long effort by President Obama and Congressional Democrats to enact their sweeping national health care reform legislation was dealt a serious setback by the election of Scott Brown (R) in the Massachusetts special election called following the death of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D). With their 60 seat Senate majority trimmed by one, Senate Democrats can no longer stop a Republican filibuster of either of the two health overhaul bills (versions approved separately by the Senate and House) that Congress has been working on or even a final merged version.
As of today, the President and Congressional Democratic leaders, who did not expect what they consider an unfavorable result in Massachusetts, have not made a decision about how or when to approach the new situation on Capitol Hill or the endgame of health care reform. It is possible that the President will announce his plans during his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress scheduled for Wednesday, January 27th.
At every step of the legislative process, the AOA has been reading the fine print and working to make provider non-discrimination safeguards – aimed at protecting patient access to optometric care – a key element of any health care legislation that advances. As a result of the AOA’s efforts, the House-passed version of health care reform includes the Ross Amendment (to block pre-emption of state patient protection / provider non-discrimination laws) and the Senate-passed version includes the Harkin Amendment (to establish a Federal provider non-discrimination law). The AOA views both provisions as necessary to ensure that health plans are not given the new authority they want to restrict patient access and control the care ODs provide.
At the urging of the AOA, both the Senate and House bills would specifically designate children’s vision as an essential benefit for health plans to be offered to uninsured Americans. Also, the AOA has backed safeguards for existing coverage, also included in the House and Senate-passed bills, aimed at ensuring that no American would be forced to give up their health insurance coverage, including their vision coverage, if they want to keep it in place. The AOA is also fighting for full recognition of Optometry in Medicaid (Schakowsky Amendment, passed by the House) and adding access to vision care through school-based health clinics (Dodd Amendment, passed by the Senate).
The health insurance industry, organized medicine and other groups with anti-optometry objectives remain more active than ever on Capitol Hill. AOA-backed provisions have advanced however, through the outstanding efforts of state optometric association leaders and staff, the AOA Board of Trustees, AOA Federal Keypersons, AOA-PAC investors and concerned ODs and optometry students from across the country who have answered urgent calls to action to contact Congress from the AOA Washington Office. Given the shift in how health care reform will be considered further, an even greater level of involvement of ODs and students will be needed to ensure that Optometry continues to be heard on Capitol Hill.
To be clear, the AOA is not standing down and is continuing to ensure that Optometry is active and visible on Capitol Hill even as the President and Congressional leaders are considering their options. In recent days, the California Optometric Association issued an alert urging doctors to contact Members of Congress in support of the AOA-backed Schakowsky Amendment (full recognition for ODs in Medicaid). Also, several ODs from Illinois took time out of their offices this week to travel to Washington for meetings with Members of Congress from their state on this provision.
Every AOA member can help take Optometry’s message directly to Capitol Hill at this critical time by participating in the AOA Congressional Advocacy Conference (March 2-4 in Washington, DC) or by joining as an AOA Federal Keyperson or AOA-PAC Investor. For more information on how to get involved and do more on health care reform, please contact the AOA Washington Office (attn: Jon Hymes) at 1-800-365-2219 / jfhymes@aoa.org.
Hello,
I am a second year student at the Illinois College of Optometry. While trying to follow the details of the health care reform, I have become very confused.
First of all I would like to thank AOA for fighting to protect the place of Optometry in the health care industry.
However, I am not sure that I understand what other factions may change and want to change about the Optometrist role in health care.
Where are the problems in our current reimbursement with Medicade and private health insurance? I am ambarrassed to say that i am fairly niave about much of the effects of any new health care, and what problems there are currently.
Just looking for a little unbiased direction to educate myself on where optometrist stand and where optometry may be in the future.
Thanks
Am I to assume that AOA still insists that stand-alones [e.g.VSP & others]be kept out of the proposed health-care exchanges? If so could someone please explain in terms I can understand why this is such a good idea since it puts in jeapardy some 55 million VSP patients of 26K OD’s who are panelists. Explain to me how hurting VSP helps our profession. When I started practice in the early ’60′s I would have starved w/o patients that VSP provided me—AOA didn’t raise a pinkie to help me. Maybe I’m too stupid to see your reasoning, but right now I’m infuriated …