Doyle Welcomes Supreme Court Decision on Health Care Reform

Statement

U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (PA-14) issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision this morning upholding the health care reform law enacted in 2010.

"Today, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. This is a very welcome development.

"This is a good day for the 30 million Americans who don't have health insurance, the millions of young people who can now stay on their parents' insurance until they're 26, the millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, the seniors who would have fallen into Medicare Prescription drug donut hole, and the families who would have been bankrupted by health care costs if this law had been struck down.

"If the Supreme Court had struck health care reform down, millions of Americans would have ended up paying more for health insurance down the road -- and they might not have been able to get any health insurance at all if they have a pre-existing condition. Insurance companies would once again have been able to cherry-pick customers, deny coverage and discriminate against individuals, drop someone even when their policy was all paid up, and slap annual and lifetime limits on how much money they will spend for a patient's care. Millions of Americans wouldn't even be able to afford health insurance. And millions of Americans would have gone bankrupt from health care costs they couldn't pay for.

"Opponents of health care reform have pledged to continue to work to repeal health care reform. I will continue to oppose such efforts, and I look forward to seeing just what policies they will propose for making affordable, high quality health care available to all Americans."

As a result of the Affordable Care Act, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court this morning

105 million Americans no longer have a lifetime limit on their coverage, including 900,000 people in the PGH metro area.
Up to 17 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage by insurers, including up to 120,000 children in the PGH metro area.
54 million Americans in private plans are already eligible for free preventive services, including more than 100,000 children, 450,000 adults, and 300,000 seniors in the Pittsburgh metro area.
54 million Americans in private plans are eligible for free preventive health care services, including more than 850,000 people in Pittsburgh metro area.
Over 6 million young adults nationwide have gained insurance coverage, including thousands of young adults in the Pittsburgh metro area
5.3 million seniors in the "donut hole' have saved $3.7 billion in Medicare prescription drug costs so far, including 60,000 seniors in the metro area who saved $36.3 million, an average discount of $615 per senior.
Last year, 360,000 small employers used the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit to help them afford health insurance for 2 million employees.

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