We are grateful for the passage of the health care reform bill and we want to extend our thanks to President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid for their leadership. They have worked tirelessly to pass the bill that may be the signature achievement of this Administration.
HR 3590, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, addresses one of the most compelling and vexing issues of our day: health care that has drained the finances, broken the spirits, or ended lives prematurely in too many American families. The skyrocketing cost of health care and the dwindling access finally reached their breaking point and had to be confronted. Despite ferocious opposition by those who are genuinely concerned about change and those who let no lie go untold, the American people are the winners.
• Insurance companies will no longer be allowed to refuse coverage based on pre-existing conditions or to cancel the insured when they get sick
• Most of the 35 million people who are currently uninsured will be insured
• Subsidies will be available to some who cannot afford insurance
• Lifetime caps on insurance coverage will be prohibited
• The doughnut hole gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage will be closed
• Improved preventive care and additional benefits for women are mandated, such as insurance coverage for screening tests like mammograms and pap smears, without co-payments
• Stupak is out, but other restrictions on abortion remain
This bill is not a perfect bill. It does nothing to relax existing restrictions on abortion funding and access. It does not address some of the incentives that are making health care too expensive; it might have consequences that have not been anticipated. But it is a start and the first success since Medicare in a health care battle that has been going on for decades before that.
We want to thank those members of Congress who voted in favor, especially those who believe they did so at their own peril come November. We can only hope that the tide of perceived public opinion will turn and the election will be perilous for those who failed their constituents by voting no.
