The following was posted by Congressman John B. Larson, Democrat from Connecticut after last night’s historic passage of health insurance reform.
As soon as health care passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:
- Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
- Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
- Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
- Lower seniors’ prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
- Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
- Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
- Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
- Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
- Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
- Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.
By enacting these provisions right away, and others over time, we will be able to lower costs for everyone and give all Americans and small businesses more control over their health care choices. If you are interested in joining the health care industry or
learning more about the medical assistant profession, check out the
Allen School of Health Sciences.
Are you satisfied or mortified by the bill’s passage? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
The following was posted by Congressman John B. Larson, Democrat from Connecticut after last night’s historic passage of health insurance reform.
As soon as health care passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:
I am so happy that this was enacted and that the president was able to accomplish what other presidents were unable to do. What a legacy for Ted Kennedy!
A complete success to the Kennedy dynasty, Obama kept his promise to Ted… Great job Obama, now this is done, fix our economy.
Come on people. This isnt the best thing in the world. We are being forced to do something. I thought this was a democracy. I guess it really isnt. Im not sure if this is a good thing, since we are being kept in the dark about most of it. And with the Kennedy name on it, that should have told us something right there. I guess you people didnt realize its going to raise our taxes and we will still be paying thru the nose for healthcare. Why is this better?
Certain things are mandated for the safety of all citizens. Think auto insurance. You are legally mandated to buy it too. Do you think we should allow drivers to hit the roads w/o car insurance? This mandate just makes sure that everyone is paying into the system so that they don’t rely (as many currently do) on emergency rooms for care. When folks use the ER we all pay for it anyway.
@ Peggy Brown, I have to agree with you. I am mortified as to what this is doing and going to do to our country as well as our future generations.
I agree that there needs to be reform, but not the was it was forced through and tacking student loans in with it to help pay for health care. That is not right.
I worry bout our constitutional rights as a people and as a nation.
It was not forced through. It passed Congress with a simple majority. A majority of polled voters wanted healthcare reform. A plurality of Americans voted the Dems into majority in both houses of Congress in 2008 after they clearly ran on a platform including healthcare reform. A plurality of Americans voted Obama into the presidency in part because he campaigned on reforming healthcare. So a impartial observer may question how this could be characterized as forced through? Majority rules in a democracy, plain and simple. There were plenty of folks who didn’t like it when the Rep Congress and GWB “forced through” an unfunded tax cut for the wealthy and sent young Americans off to die in a questionable war in Iraq. But in those cases, the minority respected the will of the majority. Why anyone would be mortified that people are now protected from the worst abuses of a for profit insurance industry is beyond me. Is it fair or right for ins co’s to deny people coverage after they get sick? Is it proper for ins co’s to deny care to women victims of domestic abuse by classifying said abuse as a “pre-existing condition”? And the argument that this law will saddle future generations of Americans with crushing debt was over when the NON-PARTISAN Congressional Budget Office reported that this law will reduce the federal deficit by more than a trillion dollars over 20 years.
I just want a job, the insurance will be something I earn, not given out for free.
This new law doesn’t given anyone “insurance for free”. If you get a job with health benefits, you will be earning it and co-paying for it. All the new law does is make sure the insurance companies cannot abuse you by withholding payment for treatments (or worse, dumping you) when you get sick. It is a misconception that the law gives anything away for free to anyone.
And if I don’t have a job, and there are no jobs to be had. Like 21.7 % unemployment in my county, then what? Who pays for it then?
The new law provides significant tax credits and incentives to small businessess to provide health insurance to their employees. In the last 10 years, rising costs of insurance have pushed more and more small companies out of business. By reducing the burden on small business owners (who report that the costs of providing health coverage to their employees is among their top expenses) the law will make it easier for small business to thrive and employ and cover more people. It is unfortunate that you live in a county with such a high rate of unemployment. Sounds like you’re in Michigan or Ohio maybe? These areas were hardest hit by the demise of many automakers. The automakers were ultimately sunk by the unsustainable costs of employee health benefits (among other mitigating factors). So the new law will hopefully help protect surviving companies from a similar fate. And, the law also contains heavy subsidies for Americans earning up to 4 times the poverty level. So if you’re unemployed and unable to purchase it on your own, you will still be able to be covered. Best of luck to you in your job search. We’re pulling for you here at the Allen School Online Blog.
Thanks for the encouragement Anthony. I am in California and the unemployment for February went up to 22.1 %. Not encouraging isit. I lost my job because of the new administration replaced me with summer youth. I was temporary and now the money has been readjusted and the postions are changing. Not very happy about it. Thank you again.
Are you satisfied or mortified by the bill’s passage? Share your thoughts in the comments section
I think the bill is absolutely great. It will help a lot of people who would not be able to afford health care coverage without this new bill. Not only will it help under priveledge families with health care, the bill will also help small businesses with supplying healthcare coverage to their employees at a resonable fee.
This bill provides all Americans with HEALTH insurance. I don’t know about anybody else, but for me health is the most important thing for the human being. Without a good health, nobody can enjoy their wealth, their children, their cars or everything else they earned in life. Some people are OK with having car insurance , home insurance, computer insurance, life insurance, and … the list go on and on, but when is time for health insurance, they think they don’t need it ? To me this is absurd. From my perspective, health care is a human right and should be valued as such. It is very unfortunate that this issue was politicized so much and really shows how our society has changed. Health care is not property of any party, and should not be used for any political victory or defeat. Thousands of people went to protest in the streets against this reform , but none of was were able to show where in the bill and how the bill affected them, but they are in the streets just because their party told them to do so. We all as humans come to this world to live our lives as best possible, and for America to be number one economy in the world and not to have health care for all its citizens, this is behind my logic. When you are sick it doesn’t matter how wealthy or poor, where and how you live, how many cars or mansions you posses, you are a democrat or a republican, you are going to need your doctor and the medicine. EVERYBODY should have access to health care. It is too long overdue.