Politics

New Momentum for America?s Affordable Health Choices Act

By Office of the Speaker

Momentum continues to build for America’s Affordable Health Choices Act because it is becoming more clear that the cost of inaction?to American families and the U.S. economy?is too high and the bill delivers on its promise to lower costs, provide greater choice, increase quality, and provide stability and peace of mind.

Editorials Agree on Need for Reform
Concord Monitor (New Hampshire), 7/26/09

What will the 90 percent of Americans who have health insurance get from health care reform? The biggest benefit will be hard to measure: relief?

People trapped in jobs they don’t like because a better one may not offer health insurance will get a chance to change. And if
health care cost increases are slowed, employers might have the money to hire people and give decent raises again.

Potential entrepreneurs, fearful of leaving jobs that offer health insurance, will get the freedom to engage in the kind of innovation that drives the economy?

? the goal of health care reform isn’t to keep insurers in business. It’s to cover everyone, improve health, and reduce the health care costs that are killing America’s ability to compete globally. Those costs have more than doubled in the past decade. If they double in the next one, everyone will go broke.

Newsday, 7/25/09

We spend $2.2 trillion a year for health care, thousands of dollars more per person than any other nation. But that extra money doesn’t buy us better health?

Every day 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance. Those with pre-existing conditions can’t get insurance. And medical bills are a factor in half of all individual bankruptcies. If we do nothing, that bleak picture will only get worse…

Health care costs will double over the next decade. Insurance premiums - rising three times faster than wages - will become unaffordable for more and more people. Wages will be depressed due to the burden employers bear for health insurance. Other employers will drop employee coverage. Taxes will rise for Medicare and Medicaid, because the alternative is less care, soaring deficits - or both.

So the choice isn’t between reform or keeping things the way they are. We can’t keep things the way they are. If we do nothing, we will all pay more and more for less and less.

Still, nothing is free, and that includes medical coverage for 47 million uninsured Americans. The 10-year cost is $1 trillion. But we’re paying for their medical care now?

New York Times, 7/26/09:

The health care reform bills moving through Congress look as though they would do a good job of providing coverage for millions of uninsured Americans?

?Many insured people need help almost as much as the uninsured. Premiums and out-of-pocket spending for health care have been rising far faster than wages. Millions of people are ?underinsured? ? their policies don?t come close to covering their medical bills.

? The reform effort should help ease the burdens of many of them?

Many Americans reflexively reject the idea of any new taxes ? especially to pay for others? health insurance. They should remember that if this reform effort fails, there is little hope of reining in the relentless rise of health care costs. That means their own premiums and out-of-pocket medical expenses will continue to soar faster than their wages. And they will end up paying higher taxes anyway, to cover a swelling federal deficit driven by escalating Medicare and Medicaid costs.

? The main gain for [those with good existing coverage] is greater security. If they got laid off or chose to leave their jobs, they would no longer be faced with the exorbitant costs of individually bought insurance but could buy new policies through the insurance exchanges at affordable rates.

Consistent Support for Reform
Gallup Poll, 7/24/09:

Seven in 10 Americans favor the passage of new healthcare reform legislation.

70% of Independents and 50% of Republicans support the passage of new healthcare reform legislation.

Reforming Health Care is Key to Improving the Economy
Newsweek, 7/24/09:

Health care, 16 percent of the economy, is inefficient. The lack of affordable health insurance is a barrier to hiring and entrepreneurship. And a failure to control the cost of Medicare and Medicaid will crowd out other investments and make it more difficult to sustain consumption. “If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit,” President Obama said in his occasionally combative July 22 press conference?True.

Nonpartisan Analysis: America?s Affordable Health Choices Act Delivers
CBO Report, 7/26/09:

This weekend, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) affirmed that America`s Affordable Health Choices Act would deliver targeted assistance to those in need today and lead to an increase in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. The CBO analysis confirms that bill?s provisions would result in dramatically increased coverage without crowding out private insurance.

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 28, 2009 (boomark / email).