What the Passage of the Health Care Bills Means for Us

Here's the information that Involved Voters need to set the record straight on Health Care.

From 7th District Congressman Mark Schauer

"What does health insurance reform actually mean for me?"

• This year, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. Once the new health insurance exchanges begin in the coming years, pre-existing condition discrimination will become a thing of the past for everyone.
• This year, health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday.
• This year, insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. This year, restrictive annual limits on coverage will be banned for certain plans. Under health insurance reform, Americans will be ensured access to the care they need.
• This year, adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool.
• In the next fiscal year, the bill increases funding for community health centers, so they can treat nearly double the number of patients over the next five years.
• This year, we'll also establish an independent commission to advise on how best to build the health care workforce and increase the number of nurses, doctors and other professionals to meet our country's needs. Going forward, we will provide $1.5 billion in funding to support the next generation of doctors, nurses and other primary care practitioners -- on top of a $500 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Health insurance reform will also curb some of the worst insurance industry practices and strengthen consumer protections:

• This year, this bill creates a new, independent appeals process that ensures consumers in new private plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions made by their insurer.
• This year, discrimination based on salary will be outlawed. New group health plans will be prohibited from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that discriminate in favor of higher-wage employees.
• Beginning this fiscal year, this bill provides funding to states to help establish offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals in the process of filing complaints or appeals against insurance companies.
• Starting January 1, 2011, insurers in the individual and small group market will be required to spend 80 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Insurers in the large group market will be required to spend 85 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Any insurers who don't meet those thresholds will be required to provide rebates to their policyholders.
• Starting in 2011, this bill helps states require insurance companies to submit justification for requested premium increases. Any company with excessive or unjustified premium increases may not be able to participate in the new health insurance exchanges.

Reform immediately begins to lower health care costs for American families and small businesses:

• This year, small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable.
• This year, new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no deductibles for preventive services. And beginning January 1, 2011, Medicare will do the same.
• This year, this bill will provide help for early retirees by creating a temporary re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age 55-64.

This year, this bill starts to close the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' by providing a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the gap in prescription drug coverage. And beginning in 2011, the bill institutes a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the 'donut hole.'

If you already knew all of this, congratulations on being exceptionally well-informed. If this is not at all like what you've been hearing from "The Party of NO," perhaps you've been the victim of a misinformation campaign. Whatever the case, now you know. So, please share the good news!

Three Cheers for Mark Schauer - and Us!

Our 7th District Congressman, Mark Schauer, continued his excellent work on behalf of constituents and the State of Michigan by voting for health care reform last night. (Please see my previous posts and www.whitehouse.gov for information about how the legislation will benefit us.)

This was a gutsy vote on Schauer's part. He's already been targeted by big-money, special interests who want to replace him with someone who will dance to their tune.

We are lucky to have a Representative who works as hard and has as much integrity as Mark Schauer. So, it's up to us Involved Voters to make sure Mark gets re-elected.

Isn't it about time?!

A year's worth of discussing, ideas, formulating legislation and debating; two health care reform bills, one passed by the House and one passed by the Senate with 60 out of 100 votes - more than a simple majority. Now it's time to wrap things up and give all of us who have been waiting (not always patiently) what we want.

Here's what the "reconciliation process", otherwise known as a majority vote on the budget-related elements of health care reform with debate but without filibustering, will deliver for us:

Hold Insurance Companies Accountable:

• Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all new plans;
• Prohibit rescissions of health insurance policies in all individual plans;
• Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
• Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs;
• Establish a process for the annual review of unreasonable increases in premiums, requiring State insurance commissioners to work with the HHS Secretary and States.

Protect Consumers:

• Provide grants to States to support health insurance consumer assistance and ombudsman programs to help consumers;
• Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
• Require all insurance plans to use uniform coverage documents so consumers can make easy comparisons when shopping for health insurance;
• Establish an internet portal to assist Americans in identifying coverage options;
• Prohibit insurers from discriminating in favor of highly compensated employees by charging them lower premiums.

Ensure Affordable Choices and Quality Care:

• Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
• Create a temporary re-insurance program for early retirees;
• Require new plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
• Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
• Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
• Facilitate administrative simplification to lower health system costs.

The Republican's in Congress want to trash all these gains and start over! After a year of working to get this far! As an Involved Voter, ask yourself: Who are they working for?

Republican Support for Congressman Mark Schauer

Is Republican talking points crafter and Wall Street consultant Frank Luntz losing it?

He used a photo of our Democratic Congressman (7th District) Mark Schauer and his wife, Christine, who are small business owners in a memo on how to kill Wall Street reform by making it seem like it would hurt small business owners. (Luntz's specialty is calling things by names that grab people by the emotions and short circuit their reasoning ability - for example "death taxes" for the estate taxes that the very rich pay.)

Here's a link to the story on YouTube.

I think Luntz' goof is good for Mark. Lots of Republicans in the 7th admire how hard he works for people in the district and what a contrast his grasp of the issues is to his GOP predecessor's regurgitation of empty talking points. Schauer is a keeper. But, expect lots of Club for Growth and other big bucks to be flowing in to try to defeat him.

Let's let them know they can't buy Involve Voters' votes!

A Christmas Gift for America

The US Senate took a giant step toward health care reform this morning. Our Senators, Levin and Stabenow, voted with the rest of the Democratic Caucus to pass a bill that will:

-- Extend coverage to 31 million Americans, the largest expansion of coverage since the creation of Medicare.

-- Ensure that we can choose our own doctors.

-- Finally stop insurance companies from denying coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

-- Make sure we will never be charged exorbitant premiums on the basis of our age, health, or gender.

-- Guarantee we will never lose our coverage just because we get sick or injured.

-- Protect us from outrageous out-of-pocket expenditures by establishing lifetime and annual limits.

-- Allow young people to stay on their parents' coverage until they're 26 years old.

-- Create health insurance exchanges, or "one-stop shops" for individuals purchasing insurance, where insurance companies are forced to compete for new customers.

-- Lower premiums for families, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, especially for struggling folks who will receive subsidies.

-- Help small businesses provide health care coverage to their employees with tax credits and by allowing them to purchase coverage through the exchanges.

-- Improve and strengthen Medicare by eliminating waste and fraud (without cutting basic benefits), beginning to close the Medicare Part D donut hole, and extending the life of the Medicare trust fund.

-- Create jobs by reining in costs -- fostering competition, reducing waste and inefficiency, and starting to reward doctors and hospitals for quality, not quantity, of care.

-- Cut the deficit by over $130 billion in the next 10 years.

It's a long list. But that's only because this bill represents the most significant health reform our nation has seen since the creation of Medicare.

There's another step to go before health care reform is a reality -- the Senate and House bills must be reconciled. So, as Involved Voters we know what we have to do. We must keep after our Senators and Representatives and let them know we want to see the bills combined in a way that serves the best interests of us all.

Wishing you all the blessings of the season and a happy and healthy 2010.

Term-limited as State Rep - Candidate for State House

Pam Byrnes has been untiring in her efforts to serve those of us in her district, the 52nd, and to address the needs of Michigan as a whole. She's built up an impressive store of knowledge about state government and uses it effectively. She is currently Speaker Pro-temp of the Michigan House of Representatives-- the choice of her colleagues.

All of this will be lost to us because of term limits unless we work to get Pam Byrnes elected to the State Senate from the 18th District. Our current State Senator is also term-limited and that creates an open seat.

There will be a coffee hour with Representative Byrnes Monday, November 2, 9:30 AM at the Chelsea Senior Center, 512 E Washington Street in Chelsea. It's another opportunity to talk with Pam about your concerns as Involved Voters and to support her in her plans to run for a seat in the State Senate.

The President's Summary of His Plan for Health Care Reform

Here, in the President's own words, is the essence of the plan he wants Congress to pass:
"It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government."

If you missed last night's address to a joint session of Congress, you can find the full text of President Obama's remarks at www.whitehouse.gov.

Now it's time for Involved Voters to let our Representatives and Senators know that we want them to pass health care reform that measures up to the President's standards - and do it now. Americans have been waiting for universal health coverage since the days of President Teddy Roosevelt. Reform is way overdue!