If  you read Gloria Bilchik’s post here on April Fools Day you learned about some hilarious aspects of the health care bill that, well, really aren’t in the bill. But, there are some interesting things that really are in the bill that you may want to know about.  Health care sleuth Emily Badger writing for the online magazine Miller-McCune, has unearthed 10 surprising things in the 2000 page bill that we haven’t heard much about. They are:

1. Menu labeling. This is a great weapon in the battle against obesity. National chains with 20 or more restaurants must post “nutrient content disclosure statements” including calorie counts right next to the menu offering. For example, a  “Big Mac Value Meal” weighs in at a hefty 1170 calories. To help you put this in context, menus will mention your suggested daily caloric intake of 2000 calories.

2. Swag disclosure. When pharmaceutical reps and device manufacturers give gifts, food, travel, entertainment or grants to physicians, they must report this to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. These “incentives” will be listed on a searchable website available to the public. So, when your doctor prescribes that new drug with all the side effects, you can check to see if the drug rep brought goodies to grease the sale.

3. Right to pump. Workplaces with over 50 employees will have to provide break time and a private location for breastfeeding mothers to pump breast milk for one year after the birth of a child. This has to be a location other than a bathroom.

4. Postpartum depression. The problem of postpartum depression will get more attention in the form of increased funding for health worker training, public education, and research.

5. Tanning tax. Starting July 1 of this year, there will be a new 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services.

6. Adoption credit. Not sure what this has to do with health care, but beginning with your 2010 taxes, the federal adoption credit goes up by $1,000 to $13,170 per child and now becomes refundable.

7. Indian health.  The law increases funding and support on tribal lands for behavioral health and substance abuse, health care worker recruitment and facilities construction.

8. Background checks. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will develop a national system for conducting criminal background checks of prospective health care workers who would deal directly with patients in long-term care facilities or private homes.

9. Abstinence education. What??? The bill restores federal funding for abstinence-only sex education. Although proven to be not very effective, the health reform bill allocates $250 million for such programs over the next five years.

10. Your W-2. Beginning next January, your W-2 you receive from your employer will include the cost of employer-provided health care. If you have a Cadillac plan, you will have to pay additional tax.

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We won’t get “Medicare for everyone” in the current healthcare bill, and Rep. Dennis Kucinich may vote “no” because of that. And we may not even get a public option–even a watered-down version. But Kucinich’s basic premise of expanding Medicare–an idea that has been variously ignored, vilified and even laughed-at–refuses to die.  After all, Medicare (along with the Veterans Administration health care program) is a government-run program that works–with lower overhead costs and higher customer satisfaction that almost any privately run healthcare insurance program.

So, if we can’t get Medicare for all, how about “Medicare for more?”  That’s what Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is proposing in a bill he introduced on Tuesday. He calls his bill, H.R. 4789, the “Public Option Act,” and he’s also calling it the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act.”  The bill would allow all legal residents under 65 to enroll in Medicare by paying a fee.

Grayson’s approach offers a “workaround” for the absence of a public option in the much larger healthcare reform bill currently up for grabs in Congress. It’s a small step forward, in the spirit of the great incrementalist, Teddy Kennedy. It deserves consideration.

According to The Raw Story, Grayson introduced his bill by saying:

“The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’  It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair.  This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote. America needs a public option. That’s why I’ve introduced this bill. I say to those people on the other side of the aisle, if you don’t want to buy into the public option, but don’t prevent me and my family and the ones who I love from doing the same. Let us have our alternative.”

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