Issue Position: Securing Quality, Affordable Health Care for Connecticut Families

Issue Position

After many months of debate and more than half a century of work on the part of many presidents who tried to reform our health care system, our country finally succeeded. The health care reform bill President Obama signed into law fulfills the promise of generations of great leaders who fought to secure quality, affordable health care for all Americans. This health care reform is good for the middle class, for small businesses and for the economy, and we will be a better and stronger country because of it. This is a big deal. It is a big deal because we have finally begun to overcome the distortions and power of the insurance companies who want to keep raising rates and dropping you when you are sick. It is a big deal because it brings so many big, long overdue changes that most people just take as common sense.

What people want now is not more fighting but information: what will change and how will it affect me? The core principle of this plan is to keep and strengthen the core health insurance that people already have -- and make it more affordable and dependable. Here is what will change, starting now:

Small Businesses: Rosa knows that small businesses are the heart of our economy. They struggle to cover themselves and employees and are forced to buy the most expensive insurance. Because they are the big winners in these health care reforms, so is our economy. Beginning this fall, small businesses will get tax credits when they buy health insurance for their employees and themselves. Soon, they will get to choose and buy much more affordable insurance on a health exchange. They will no longer have to battle insurance companies alone. Larger group rates will enable small businesses to have the same advantages as big companies in purchasing insurance. And small businesses and their employees will have access to a much fuller range of plans than ever before, with a tax credit to make it more affordable.

Insurance companies can no longer discriminate against you and your children because of a pre-existing condition. They can't drop you when you get sick and they have to take everyone -- without charging you any more. They now have to cover maternity care, preventive care, and wellness care -- that make us healthier and save us all money. They can no longer impose life-time limits that kick-in when you need it the most.

Being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. Rosa fought passionately to provide for the health needs of women in this health care reform, and all American women will gain from this fight. No longer will insurance companies be allowed to treat having had a child or a c-section, or being the victim of domestic violence, as a "pre-existing condition," nor can they continue to charge individual women up to 50 percent more for the same coverage. That ends with this reform.

Insurance companies in the exchanges will have to get approval to raise their rates by more than medical inflation. When this plan is fully implemented, there will be no more 32 percent rate increases like what we saw from Anthem last year, right here in Connecticut.

These reforms end the power insurance companies yield over doctors and patients and over responsible and working Americans. Middle class Americans will no longer have to fear being dropped by their insurance companies when they need it most.

Health care reform will improve Medicare and provide prescription drug coverage seniors need. These reforms extend the life of Medicare and begin to fill the doughnut hole in coverage that leaves so many seniors vulnerable. Seniors get immediate relief from high prescription drug costs this year, with a $250 rebate and a 50% discount on brand-name drugs in the donut hole. And the reforms include Senator Ted Kennedy's CLASS act, a hard won initiative to help seniors stay at home independently instead of in an institution.

The new reforms help all Americans to afford health insurance, starting with young people. Within six months, young people will be able to stay on their parents' insurance policies until they are 26. And by 2014, if young people do not have insurance from an employer, they will be able to buy a plan through the exchanges -- and not get denied or charged more because of previous medical history. And they will be eligible the same tax credit as all individuals and businesses in America, to make coverage more affordable.

Because of those changes, 32 million Americans without insurance will be able to afford coverage. Today, these people wait to see a doctor, put off treatment and end up at emergency rooms. The high costs of doing business this way get passed on to everyone else in the form of higher hospital and insurance bills. This reform will change that, through increased coverage for preventive care through Medicare and better-funded Community Health Centers and through coverage for the uninsured.

Deficit Reduction: Health care costs have run totally out of control -- with skyrocketing premiums and unchecked government spending on health care -- both major contributors to our long-term deficits. This health care reform bends the cost curve downward and raises taxes for those earning over $250,000 to bring down the deficit by $138 billion over the next ten years, and an by additional $1.2 trillion the decade after that. The non-partisan, authoritative CBO confirms that this will reduce spending and cut deficits.

This reform will allow people to make healthy choices. Insurance policies must be transparent and readable, in plain language, and companies must publish their denial rates. Insurance companies will be required to cover prevention and check ups. Rosa understands the importance of investment in prevention to improve the public health and help get costs under control. Recently, she appeared with First Lady Michelle Obama in support of the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity. Focused efforts on preventing public health threats such as obesity and smoking are a critical element of cost reduction in the health care system.

Rosa has been a champion of one of the most important public health measures in this reform--health labeling for food in restaurants. Rosa worked with the National Restaurant Association to get agreement on labeling of all items in restaurant chains, so consumers can make healthy and informed choices. It is an important step -- and it will come within six months. Soon, restaurants and fast food chains will have to display the calorie information of their food on their menus, menu boards, and drive-thru boards, as Subway does now. This will apply to vending machines too, so consumers have the information they need to look after their health while at work or on the go.

Rosa knows it can be hard to cut through the smoke of the partisan battles of Washington to see the changes these reforms will bring. But she wants to assure Connecticut families that virtually every change included here was championed at some point by Republican and Democratic policy experts and political leaders -- from both Roosevelts to Nixon to President Clinton. These are moderate and careful changes that have the support of the AARP, the AMA, the hospital association, the Catholoic hospitals and nurses association, the pharmaceutical industry, the major unions, and major business associations.

No one should have to choose between health care coverage and financial security. Rosa knows that health care reform is a smart investment, not just for our health, but for our economic well-being. She is proud to have supported the historic health care legislation passed this year, and she is committed to continuing the fight to secure quality, affordable health care for every American.

Source