Page 2 - Auto Enrollment News Today

Without any kind of replacement such an auto enrollment that i and bill cassidy suggested earlier this year and put it into a very complex tax bill does not make sense. >> thats critical because if you lose collins, its likely your bill is in trouble. cnbc reports the senate gop leadership wants to approve this bill after thanksgiving. but with no margeren for error the latest attempt at a signature legislative accomplishment is once again on thin ice. another break for us now. and coming up, ...

A policy perspective. health care is such a complex issue, and to pull one section out of the affordable care act without any kind of replacement such as an auto enrollment, bill cassidy suggested earlier this year, and put it into a very complex tax bill does not make sense. >> what do you say you heard senator kennedys -- i dont know if you heard senator kennedys argument. his argument, in his state 80% of the folks pay the fine. middle to lower income, and its -- might at well serve as a tax ...

He had 13 people behind closed doors. the president hasnt called anyone. nancy pelosi or chuck schumer. theyve been interested. i do think one area we might have overlap is what ive been calling auto enrollment where people get auto enrolled into a particular program that the subsidy covers it. it sounds like there is some republican interest. senator cassidy and more conservative think-tank policy experts are interested. thats an area where we could have overlap and go to what marc is suggestin...

People who will choose not to have insurance. i think you could diminish that number gravely if you had a system where people were automatically enrolled and you had to opt out. >> i love this idea of automatic enrollment. why is there no -- i guess, why is there no critical mass on this in your party? >> well, people are now finally starting to look at that idea and weve had a couple of scholars who have written papers on how you might do auto enrollment. so i think it was a new idea. but i do ...

So i think auto enrollment might be a better way to proceed. >> with obamacare, there was public debate, committee debate. there really hasnt been the opportunity for elected leaders on the house side, certainly on the senate side, to have that public debate. why do you think that is? >> clearly, thomas, the process here has been less than ideal. its really hard to defend that process. i am not concerned they had meetings to hash out just what they want to put in the bill, and that was probably ...

Point mandates are being eliminated and theyre necessary for any type of coverage that the country can have access to? >> well, yes. i mean, the employer manual -- ive always had a lot of problems particularly with the employer mandate. i think its been harsh and unworkable for many employees, very confusing, and i think in many cases resulted in a loss of hours for many folks. so there are a lot of problems with the employer mandate in the health care -- obamacare, which im happy to be rid of t...

Legal. not illegal. this was legal to do. you remove the mandate. sounds good. how do you get the healthy people in the pool and make the system work? >> the bill that susan collins and i have introduced. we used a mechanism called auto enrollme enrollment. we do that with medicare. you turn 65 and you are on medicare. we do the same easy enrollment in the plan in the patient freedom act. that is getting currency from the senate colleagues to eliminate mandates, but keep people in the pool to pr...

You have a credit for the annual premium. a portion does go to subsidize the overall pool. if the young person gets in a car wreck, they are covered. subject to deductible, of course. if we do easy enrollment with medicare with premiums sufficient, we can have a large and robust pool. >> you acknowledge the 23 million people on the lower income spectrum going to lose care, thats relevant. isnt that something you have to address? >> totally. thats why i say the house plan is yesterdays news. if w...

People are going to lose coverage by new proposal. there are ways to get universal conch. i will give you one that i think mark and i might agree on which is have you a government auto enrollment into a catastrophic plan. >> thats true. >> with not just catastrophic but with three visits to a primary care doctor and prevention covered. few that auto enrollment, everybody gets it. steve: talking about where the government is in charge. >> no, no. not in charge. forget the in charge. like medicare...

Companies do because they obviously can keep some provisions or not. it depends on sort of their cost/benefit analysis here. >> yeah. some said they will deal with parts of it, they will keep allowing kids up to age 26 to stay on their parents bills. one thing they do not have the ability to do is construct the individual mandate out of scratch. i will say quickly, the interesting thing if congress cant come to an agreement is what do states do, because states could set out an individual mandate...