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Posted by David on November 8, 2009, 5:57 am
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My Congressman sent me the following regarding the new healthcare bill:
>>>Dear Friends,
Today, with my enthusiastic support, historic health-care insurance reform legislation passed the House of Representatives. I voted for The Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962, because it would give all Americans, for the first time ever, comprehensive health-insurance coverage with guaranteed benefits. Every family—including those who keep their current health insurance—will benefit from no longer having to worry about losing health coverage because of a new or lost job.
For too many years, drastically needed health-insurance reform has been delayed. I voted for the Affordable Health Care for America Act because the cost of doing nothing is too high: Without health-care insurance reform, the insurance premium for an average family is expected to rise from $11,000 to $24,000 in less than a decade. Under this historic health-care legislation, 78,000 citizens who are residents of our Fifth Congressional District will now for the first time have insurance to pay for their healthcare. They will no longer pass on to the rest of us the extremely high cost of emergency-room care that they do not currently pay for.
While you can read the entire bill here, I want to share with you some of the highlights of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, H.R. 3962:
The bill starts with what works well in today’s health care system and fixes the parts that are broken. Your current coverage is protected—you keep your current health plan, doctors and hospitals if you like them.
According to the independent and non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the Affordable Health Care for America Act will provide or protect health-insurance coverage for 96 percent of Americans, will be completely paid for, and will cut the federal deficit over the next ten years.
The Act would immediately create a nationwide insurance program for individuals who have been uninsured or been denied health care because of a pre-existing condition.
Regardless of which health-insurance plan you have, your insurance provider will no longer be permitted to deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions, terminate your coverage because you get sick, or place limits on your annual or lifetime benefits for any reason.
Medicare will be made stronger by improving the delivery of care and bolstering resources to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. The infamous Medicare prescription-drug “doughnut hole” will be phased out, copayments for preventative services will be eliminated and reimbursements for primary care providers will be increased. These improvements will extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund without decreasing individual beneficiary benefits.
In 2013, a new Health Insurance Exchange will be a marketplace for uninsured individuals and small employers to shop among a large amount of private and public insurance plans. Choice, competition, and large risk pools will help keep premiums affordable.
A new standard of basic benefits, the essential benefits package, will be required for plans in the Exchange and eventually for all health-insurance plans. These benefits will include eliminating copayments for preventative services, mental-health services and placing caps on out-of-pocket expenses.
A public health insurance option, the Consumer’s Choice, available only to individuals eligible for the Exchange, will offer an alternative to private plans. The Consumer’s Choice will be self-sustained by premiums, will operate by negotiating reimbursement rates—not setting them—with providers, and will compete with private insurance carriers to drive premiums down for everyone.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act does more than just expand coverage to the uninsured; it also extends basic protections that all citizens should have from their health-insurance plans. These important guarantees will improve health-insurance coverage for everyone who has insurance—even those Americans who are extremely satisfied with their current plans. I strongly support these reforms because they will improve health care for all Americans and help rein in the skyrocketing health-insurance costs for families.
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For those who might be late comers to this board, Dory was a poster who we will remember as one who gave of herself so others survivors might smile. She always kept this board moving with her inspirational poems, jokes and riddles. Most will give Dory credit for energizing this board. She was an inspiration to everyone on this board. In that spirit, let us
continue to post in Dory’s memory so she might smile down on us and give us the same inspiration. Therefore, we have named the board, Dory's Board, in her memory. 11/11/01 (Dory was the first to call attention to the significance of 9/11, re: WTC tragedy, i.e. 911 for emergency). Let me be the first to note all the ones in the above date, indicating she was No. 1 on our board.