1583-1584 Nyland Federal Assembly

[Blacaria]

The current President is: Anders Kohout (Seperallis)
The current Speaker of the Assembly is: Nichlas Hougaard (Blacaria)


1583-1584 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions



UP 123 | CDA 125 | NL 92 | NPA 47 | NKR 41 | PCP 39 | MCN 22 | NMP 18 | LCN 16 | NCP 12

Bill Posting Period is CLOSED

Emergency Sessions: None


HEAR ye, hear ye, the 1580-1581 session of the Nyland Federal Assembly is now in session. All Honourable Assemblypersons, do please take your seats for role-call.

Within these halls, all legislative decisions for Nyland shall take place. Anyone from any party shall be allowed to present legislation for consideration, but only one bill may be active upon the floor for debate and vote at any one time. Furthermore, during debate, one must clearly state who is being recognized to speak on the floor, their party (if applicable), and then put forth their statement or argument for or against the bill and other points of discussion; one may refer to others arguments if they so desire, but they shall refrain from direct outbursts on the floor without having been called to the floor to speak.


The Rules
This is meant to be a fun thing where anyone can pop in as an assemblyperson of Nyland's legislature, and legislation by no means has to remain serious or solemn. There are a few basic rules to consider, however:

1) Legislation for the period can only be presented during an open period for submittal. The status of the Bill Submittal period is located above. If you miss the posting period, tough shit; hold onto it for later.
2) Submitted Bills are first-come, first-served. If emergency stuff happens, such as natural disaster or a state of war, a separate thread will be created. (No more Tambossa-style "vote only" unless time is really, really of the essence)
3) There are no time limits on debate. If the session ends before debate finishes, or we don't get through the queue of bills, then tough shit, it's gone; remake it in the next session.
4) To move for a vote, two people must motion for a vote. Voting will then begin in this thread, with people posting whether they vote for or against, and which party they represent.
5) After a bill moves to a vote, there is no revote; will not be re-submitted until the next session.
6) Votes will be weighted by party, and the party's votes split based upon those who recognize themselves as from such party. Individual people may of course split their alloted votes amongst (yes), (no) and (abstain) if they so wish.
7) Any Bill that passes a vote, regardless of how trivial or silly, will move to the President's Desk for consideration; the President must post his approval/denial in this thread.
8) Any bill denied by the President may still become law with a 2/3 majority in favor in the legislature; any bill approved by the President is in immediate effect and becomes law throughout Nyland.

God help us all.

Submissions
If one so wishes to put forth legislation, please proceed through the following steps:

1) Complete the following form:

Show ContentYou Complete Me:

Code:

[table][tr][td][align=center][font=Perpetua][size=xx-large]Name of Bill or Act[/size][/font][/align][/td][/tr][tr][td][align=center][font=Perpetua][size=large]Assembly Bill ----.---[/size][/font][/align][/td][/tr][tr][td][font=Perpetua][size=medium][b]Drafted by:[/b] (The person, party, or organization that drafted the legislation.)
[b]Submitted by:[/b] (Name and party (if applicable) of the person or persons submitting the legislation to the floor.)
[b]Submit Date:[/b] (Date submitted to be heard on the floor. (answer this))
[b]Hearing Date:[/b] (Date the bill was heard on the floor. (leave blank))
[b]Revision Date:[/b] (Latest revision date of the bill. (leave blank))

[b][u]Summary[/u]:[/b]
This is a quick summary of what is included in the legislation. This should be no more than a single paragraph. Pretend you're writing an abstract or somesuch.

[u][b]Section #:[/b] Section Title[/u]
This is where the parts of the bill are explained. each section must pertain to one specific thing; if the bill addresses something else, add another section (you can use as many as you want/need). Please use plain, yet clear, English; there's no need to go into fancy legalese, and there's no requirement for length and such, as long as you've written all you feel needs said on the subject.[/size][/font][/td][/tr][/table]

2) Post form in a reply to this thread, during an open submission period; legislation is first-come, first-served.

Show ContentLegislation Being Heard (on the floor):

Military Modernization Act of 1584

Show ContentSubmitted Legislation (to be heard):

Show ContentLegislation Passed or Failed:

FAILED - National Medical Relief Act of 1583 [NMRA83]
PASSED - Federal Child Benefit Bill [FCBA84]

Previous Sessions

1581-1582 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1579-1580 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1577-1578 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1575-1576 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1573-1574 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1571-1572 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions
1569-1570 Nyland Federal Assembly Sessions

[Seperallis]

National Medical Relief Act of 1583
Assembly Bill 1583.132
Drafted by: Special Committee for the Reform of Healthcare, Department of Health Submitted by: Rosario Manrique (NL), Milan Vuletaski (NL) Submit Date: 6 Dein, 1583 Hearing Date: Revision Date: Summary: This bill overhauls and modernizes Nyland's healthcare system by combining both the prescription and medical voucher subsidies into one program, expands the payouts of the federal Medical Voucher Program to meet increases in medical expenses, expands insurance coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, allows, the Medical Voucher Program to combat rising costs by negotiating prices, and installs the Medical and Prescription Prices Review Board as a means to control unreasonable medical costs. Section 1: Medical Voucher Program 1) The Medical Voucher Program (MVP) shall be automatically adjusted annually to match inflation per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of all medical goods and services. 2) All medical goods and services so classified as such under the VAT program shall be exempt from VAT when purchased via the MVP. 3) The MVP shall be expanded on the following basis: 3.1) $5000 voucher per adult earning $50,000 adjusted gross income (AGI) or less per year, with a maximum of 2 such vouchers per household, to phase out on a linear basis until an AGI of $100,000 is reached, at which point the adult voucher shall be $0. 3.2) $2000 voucher per dependent person per family earning an AGI of $50,000 or less, up to a maximum of 4 such vouchers per household, to phase out on a linear basis until an AGI of $100,000 is reached, at which point the dependent voucher shall be $0. 4) Any taxpaying citizen so choosing so may opt-out of the federal Medical Voucher Program by participating in an equivalent state medical voucher program. 5) The MVP shall be used to pay for all qualified and necessary medical expenses as determined by a schedule set by the Medical and Prescription Prices Review Board, to include the purchase of private health insurance. 6) All private insurance companies accepting the use of the Medical Voucher Program must offer and accept coverage for persons with preexisting and detrimental medical conditions without discrimination or adjustment of premium prices. 7) The MVP shall be given the authority to negotiate prices with medical facilities, prescription drug manufacturers, private insurance providers, and other entities which may accept payment from the MVP. Section 2: Prescription Voucher Program 1) The separate Prescription Voucher Program (PVP) shall be eliminated, and its function and funding included in the Medical Voucher Program (MVP); the scope and function of the PVP shall be included hereafter in the scope and function of the MVP. Section 3: Medical and Prescription Prices Review Board 1) This act shall create the Medical and Prescription Prices Review Board, hereafter refered to as the MPPRB. 2) The MPPRB shall use and update lists of existing medical service diagnostic codes (including the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, ICD), catalog and monitor patents for medical procedures and prescription drugs, and set price controls - including initial drug prices and subsequent price increases - for medical procedures and prescription drugs both under patent and based upon its established catalog and the ICD. 3) Direct-to-consumer advertisement of patented medical procedures and patented prescription drugs shall be banned, and the MPPRB shall enforce this ban and regulate advertisement to the public for non-patented and generic pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. 4) The MPPRB shall have the authority to regulate pharmaseutical retail markup prices, with consideration to the advice of pharmaseutical retailers.

[Blacaria]

Nichlas Hougaard
Speaker of the Assembly

The National Medical Relief Act of 1583 has been placed forward for debate. All honorable assembly persons are hereby invited for comment.

[Seperallis]

Rosario Manrique (NL)

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

I don't think there's any debate on the shoddy state of the healthcare system in Nyland these days. While our standard of care is excellent, the prices we pay as a nation are unsustainably exorbitant, a product of a broken insurance system taken advantage of by a bloated healthcare system driven to put profits over people. Year over year, medical corporations charge exorbitant prices to insurers, knowing that insurers will not pay those prices immediately, but use those prices when calculating payouts for the next year, leading to record-setting price hikes and premiums increases year over year.

Why do they do this? Because they know the government will pay, the insurance companies will pay, the people will pay. Healthcare has become a profit-engine for investors, rather than a service for public wellbeing.

But what can we do? The Medical Voucher Program instituted decades ago has proved invaluable in providing both affordability and choice for families' healthcare, but spiraling prices have already outpaced the program's payouts; the program's Emergency and Disability Health Fund is already burdened with unsustainable costs which are threatening to make the entire program unfundable and obsolete.

This crisis is at its boiling point and we must act.

That is why the administration, myself, and my colleagues have put forth this plan to stop the endless spiral of rising health costs, before our nation and are people are drowned by them. We are one of the few countries int he world that has historically refused to put forth price controls on drugs and medical services, and our people have suffered and are suffering because of it. By no means is this a perfect measure, or even perhaps the final measure, but it is a measure, and the best option we have to both preserve the innovation and quality of care that only a free market can provide, while ensuring affordable access to necessary healthcare for all our citizens.

[BrumBrum]

Kasper Jansen, NMP

Today yet again the corporatist globalist shills. The traitors to the people of Nyland show their colours. Is the healthcare system broken , yes but rather than fix it they propose an idea designed by the medical insurance companies. They propose a system to keep the fat cats making profits and exploiting the people. They once again reject the only true solution , a universal single payer system. We will not vote in favour of this, we will stand with the great people of Nyland and fight for true justice. We will hold these corporatist bastards to account and fight the corporate greed. Nothing less than the full nationalisation of the healthcare system including all private clinics and hospitals will be acceptable to us. We call on the people to protest , to start the peoples revolution against the government and rise up in this nation against the corporatist bastard fat cats and their little monkeys here doing the fat cats bidding!

[Seperallis]

Rosario Manrique (NL)

What you've just said... is... one of the most insanely idiotic things I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this assembly is now dumber for having listened to it.

Full nationalization will never happen in Nyland, because Nylanders - sans apparently one Spergson who forgot to take his meds - aren't dumb enough to believe the lie that government will solve all their problems. Once again Mister Jensen demonstrates he'd rather spit vitriol and clown around with pals in his little meme party than represent his constituents. Members of the Assembly, people are literally dying for lack of affordable healthcare, Mister Jensen, I'd suggest you sit down and shut up until you're ready to come back to the adult's table, where the rest of us - you know, the people actually concerned with solving the health pricing crisis as opposed to you, Mister Jensen, who would rather play political games with peoples' lives in your selfish and transparent bid for power and relevancy - we will be having a grown-up discussion on the matter.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the floor is yours once again.

[BrumBrum]

Kasper Jansen

Why should Nyland accept a half-baked proposal. This is the very problem with politics today. It no longer serves real Nylanders but is instead filled with whores to the millionaires and billionaire corrupt elites like Mrs Manrique. Let me tell you NL like all other parties except ours are whores to the billionaire class. They punish the poor while rewarding the rich. This shows in this healthcare policy. If they really wanted to save lives and do a good healthcare system for the people they would have single payer healthcare and we can run it state by state with their own boards. We care about Nylanders not corporatist pigs and corporate whores that is why we will vote down this proposal

[Seperallis]

Rosario Manrique (NL)

All he does is meme, meme, meme no matter what; got power on his mind, he can never get enough. Oh hey Kasper, here's a thought: how about you do your job, for once in your life? Having ridden into office on the coat tails of daddy's money while pretending to care about the plight of anyone and anything other than your own prestige or pocketbook, I know work is an alien concept to you, almost as much so basic thought, but do try? Maybe? No? Is that beyond you? Are you completely incapable of anything beyond regurgitating factless rhetoric?

I figured as much.

Is reading beyond you, as well? Listening, perhaps? Apparently so, since you're bent on describing a completely different, non-existent bill to the one we're discussing. This bill expands affordability and access to a whopping 74% of the country, virtually all of our working poor and middle class. This bill saves taxpayers millions by eliminating redundancies. This bill actively and effectively cuts to the core of healthcare unaffordability and kills the problem of runaway medical costs at its core, instead of a feeble single-payer system that simply obfuscates the real problem until it rears its ugly head again decades later in the form of unsustainable public debt.

But you wouldn't know any of that, Señor Spergson. No, you instead blindly oppose what you don't understand, because it wasn't you who came up with the idea, so you'd rather flatly oppose that which would help hundreds of millions just because it doesn't enhance your personal prestige. We've seen your kind before elsewhere, the anti-everything blowhard who's less useful than a soggy sack of bricks, swooping in and telling everyone that the world is awful and evil and only he can set things right. I wish I had the crayons to make this easier to explain to you, so I'll try to use as simple terms I can: you lack both the cunning and the charisma to be a proper populist, so I'd suggest quitting while you're behind.

[Blacaria]

Nichlas Hougaard
Speaker of the Assembly

And that is enough gentlemen, this is a hall of debate and not petty squabbling. Assemblyman Jensen, the campaign period is over; if you have nothing appropriate to say in regards to this debate. Don't say anything at all; now does anyone else have anything further to say in regards to this bill?

[Seperallis]

Monica Friberg - NL

I'm afraid we cannot support this bill as advertised. There is no contest that health costs are rising and squeezing the budgets of Nylanders everywhere, and something needs done about it. If it's a temporary measure to increase the size of the voucher programs, to make up shortfalls before other measures take effect, I believe we can live with that. We, or at least some of us, can even live with regulations on advertising.

What cannot be stomached, however, is this insistence upon socialist price controls to institute arbitrary caps on who can charge what for what. Eventually, this policy will come down to deciding whether one life is worth more than another by pricing one life-saving procedure for one disease much lower than the drug to treat another disease; it's wrong when the free market does it, and it's most certainly worse when deliberately done by some unelected bureaucrats in Nykoping. Nyland doesn't need socialist price controls, it needs tax incentives for investing into new and rare cures, a rework of the nature of insurance billing to prevent predatory practitioners from hyperinflating their reported costs, and greater direct federal investment into pharmaceutical research, to shoulder more of this costly burden that is the core of the inflated pricing instead of blunting our innovative advantages.

What's next, should we set price controls on automotive repair? Lawn care? It's a completely ludicrous and indefensible proposal.

Speaking of indefensible is the notion that you can just up and force insurance agencies to accept high-risk people with no caveat or adjustment to the nature of insurance defeats the entire purpose of this bill. As written, where we simply force insurance to accept the burden of patents they know will cost them more money, you're simply going to drive premiums into the stratosphere as agencies struggle to remain profitable, drive sick Nylanders out of the market after five or so years, and have us arrive back here in this Assembly, back to square one, arguing once again about how to fix the healthcare cost crisis.

Surely we can do better than...this.