Kanjorski Discusses Health Care Reform Law At Blue Mountain Health System

Press Release

Today, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) spoke with employees at Blue Mountain Health System in Lehighton about how the health care reform law that was enacted last week will improve the affordability and accessibility of health care. It also provides many immediate benefits that will start this year including beginning to close the "doughnut hole" in Medicare for seniors, providing tax credits for small businesses to help them afford health insurance for their employees, prohibiting insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick and from placing lifetime caps on coverage, and enabling young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, among many other provisions.

"The health care reform law is about enabling the American people to choose the most affordable health insurance that best fits their and their families' needs," said Congressman Kanjorski. "It will take a few years for many of the details of the legislation to go into effect, but there are many provisions that will begin to benefit people this year. This law will lower costs for everyone and give all Americans and small businesses more control over their health care choices. Soon, people will be able to see these benefits and insurance companies will no longer have the upper hand over what types of insurance Americans can access."

"An essential component of the legislation provides hospitals with important tools to improve the delivery and quality of health care services," said Andrew E. Harris, chief executive officer and president of the Blue Mountain Health System. "Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems have long supported taking steps to achieve coverage for all our citizens and this legislation moves us closer to achieving that goal."

"As a long time physician and member of the senior management team at the Blue Mountain Health System, it became painfully obvious that health care reform was desperately needed - reform that puts the patient first," said Clement McGinley, M.D., vice president of medical affairs for the Blue Mountain Health System. "We know from following the national debate that there was nothing easy about developing this legislation and we thank Congressman Kanjorski for keeping healthcare reform a priority."

Starting this year, the health care reform law will provide many benefits to Americans. It will begin to hold insurance companies accountable by prohibiting them from dropping people's coverage when they get sick. It also bans insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on coverage. The law requires new private plans to cover preventative services and immunizations with no co-payments and to ensure that consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions.

Seniors will start to see immediate relief from high prescription prices with a $250 rebate for Medicare beneficiaries who hit the "doughnut hole," which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will issue guidelines about in the coming weeks. The legislation also makes preventative services and immunizations free under Medicare starting in 2011, eliminating co-payments for preventative services and exempting preventative services from deductibles.

Small businesses that provide coverage to their employees will be eligible for a tax credit of up to 35 percent of premiums. The legislation creates a temporary high-risk pool to insure those who are currently uninsured because of a pre-existing condition and extends coverage to young people, allowing them to remain on their parents' insurance policy until age 26. It also increases funding for new training programs to train a greater number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals and includes increased funding for community health centers - allowing them to almost double the amount of patients they treat over the next five years.

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