| NEWSROOM
By Peggy Hathaway, Vice-President for Public Policy
Emotions are running high on health care reform. Much of the fear and controversy is based on misinformation. For the truth, go here.
Delay Is the Deadliest Form of Denial
If America does not seize this opportunity to enact major health care reform now, it’s unlikely to happen for many years. Delay endangers all Americans because expected growth in health costs for individuals, families, employers, and the government is unsustainable:
- If you have health insurance now, your premiums may skyrocket or rising costs may cause your employer to stop your health plan or cut way back on benefits.
- If you become sick or disabled, your insurance may not be renewed.
- Without health reform, in a few years Medicare will become insolvent—threatening both seniors and people with disabilities.
How Reform Will Help People with Disabilities and All Americans
Major proposals in Congress:
- Require health insurers to provide the same coverage and charge the same premiums to people no matter what their disability or other pre-existing conditions. Currently, unless they have employer-sponsored plans, people with disabilities or chronic conditions are often denied coverage altogether, the policies exclude needed services or the premiums are way too costly.
- Prohibit annual and lifetime caps on coverage. Currently many health insurers have annual caps or lifetime benefit caps such as $1 million. People with serious injuries or conditions often quickly exceed these caps due to lengthy hospital stays or extensive rehabilitation.
- Guarantee continued coverage after you acquire a disability or serious illness. Currently many insurers will not renew a policy even if you pay all your premiums on time.
- Require health insurance to cover rehabilitation and habilitative services
- Require health insurance to cover wheelchairs, prosthetics, oxygen and other durable medical equipment, prosthetics and orthotic supplies.
- Help people cover costs that enable them to stay in their homes and communities. The Community Living Assistance Services & Supports Act— CLASS Act is included in major health reform bills. It will establish a voluntary payroll deduction insurance plan so that people with disabilities will be able to pay for assistance with toileting, dressing and other activities of daily living.
- Stop co-pays for preventive care such as regular check-ups, mammograms, prostate cancer screening.
- Put caps on your out-of-pocket expenses such as co-pays.
In addition, major proposals provide:
- If you are self-employed or lose health insurance through no fault of your own, you will be able to purchase quality, affordable health insurance through an insurance exchange, even if you are laid off from your job, you move to another state, or your employer can no longer afford to offer a health insurance plan.
- Coverage under Medicaid will be extended to low income people whose incomes are up to 133% of the Federal Poverty level. This will help us all – because hospital emergency rooms treat the uninsured and pass those costs along in higher costs to everyone else.
- Medicare benefits will be improved to help close the “donut hole” in prescription drug coverage.
Now more than ever, your voice is needed. To support health reform, please make a free call to your own Senators and Congressman/woman by going to http://www.unitedspinal.org/forms/call_in.html.
See also:
www.aarp.org/health/articles/health_reform_get_the_facts.html
