What's Bart Stupak's real agenda?

The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the U.S. House of Represenatives has prepared, for all 435 congressional districts, a district-level analysis of the impact of health care reform legislation. This analysis includes information on the impact of the legislation on families, small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured. Somebody in Michigan should forward the link to Representative Bart Stupak, just in case he doesn't know.

The bill caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $6,200 for individuals and $12,400 for families who purchase insurance through the exchange or who are insured by small businesses. It also eliminates annual and lifetime limits on all insurance coverage. These changes mean no family will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

Take, for example, the highlights from the report on MI's First District, Represented by Republican Bart Stupak. In Rep. Stupak’s district, the health care reform bill will:

• Improve coverage for 364,000 residents with health insurance.
• Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 197,000 families and 17,900 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
• Improve Medicare for 141,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
• Extend coverage to 44,000 uninsured residents.
• Guarantee that 10,000 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
• Protect 1,100 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
• Allow 50,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.
• Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 41 community health centers.
• Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $102 million annually.

Under the legislation, small businesses with 100 employees or less will be able to join the health insurance exchange, benefiting from group rates and a greater choice of insurers. There are 18,600 small businesses in Bart Stupak's district that could benefit from this provision.

Tax credits for truly small businesses:
Small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $50,000 will qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 17,900 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits according to the committee report.

By that reckoning, it's bound to be good for the 1^st CD in Michigan, but their Democratic Representative must have something else as a higher priority than the health and economy of his district.

Curious how other districts will fare? The full report is at: Benefits of Health Care Reform, District by District Impact, where the Committee notes the cost of health care reform under the legislation as currently formulated is:

"...fully paid for, in large part by eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and excessive profits for private insurers. The legislation will reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the next ten years, and by about $1.2 trillion over the second decade."

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, and political analyst who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.