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Health Care

Taking ACTION on Health Care

ACTION United fought hard over the past two years organizing our members and our neighbors to make sure that all Americans have access to affordable health care.  As part of the Health Care for America Now Coalition we heped win historic health care legislation!

Members organized to picket and protest at the offices of health insurance companies and politicians.  We made sure elected officials listened to US not Big Insurance--the main opponents to reform.

The Fight Isn't Over!

Next steps:

  • Make sure the legislation is not weakened,
  • See Pennsylvania fully implements the program,
  • Let PA Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is also running for Governor and has filed suit challenging the implementation in PA that he doesn't speak for us!

HCAN Event

WHAT WILL REFORM DO FOR YOU?

(from Health Care for America Now)

If you receive health insurance from your employer (or your spouse's or parent's employer):

The big things will not change - you will keep your current health insurance, keep your current doctor, and keep your current benefits. All the health reform plans being proposed allow people to keep their health insurance if they want to, and that means keeping their current benefits and choice of doctor. So if you get your coverage through work, or if your spouse or parent covers you on their health insurance through work, these big pieces will not change unless you want them to.
Your health insurance will get better and more stable.
Health reform gives your employer a strong incentive to retain your health insurance or make it better. They will have to offer you at least standard, comprehensive package of benefits and your employer will not be able to continue shifting additional costs of insurance to you - they will have to pay at least about 70% of the cost of your coverage.
Your health insurance will get cheaper.
As the public health insurance option forces insurance companies to compete, prices of private health insurance will fall. Your costs, even if you keep your current health insurance plan, will go down.
If you lose your job, you will always be able to get affordable insurance.
If for any reason you lose your job and your employer based coverage, you will be eligible for affordable health insurance that meets your needs, as described below, with the government helping you pick up the tab until you get back to work, and expenses will be capped to make sure you can't go bankrupt due to medical costs. You will always have a guaranteed, affordable backup to rely on if you need it.

If you are employed but do not receive health care benefits from your employer:

Your employer will have to offer you good, affordable health insurance. Under the bill proposed by the House, employers will have to offer you health benefits. Those benefits need to meet a standard for coverage, so you can't be offered sub-par insurance that doesn't meet the needs of you and your family. And your employer will have to cover a large percentage of your health care costs (65% for families and 72% for individuals), ensuring insurance is affordable and your employer can't shift more costs to you. Small businesses are exempt from this regulation.
If you work for a small business that is exempt from regulations asking employers to provide health benefits you will always be able to get affordable insurance.
You will be eligible for affordable health insurance that meets your needs, as described below.

If you buy health insurance on your own, or if you or your family are uninsured:

You will be able to find coverage. You will have access to a new health insurance "exchange," where both public and private health insurance will be offered. You will be able to compare these plans side-by-side and choose what's right for you and your family. None of these plans will be able to reject your application for pre-existing conditions or for your gender. You will have guaranteed access to health insurance.
You will be able to afford coverage.
Any health insurance plan in the exchange will be subsidized if you qualify. Subsidies will be available up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $88,000 per year for a family of four. These subsidies will ensure that you will only pay a certain percentage of your income in health care costs (that percentage varies depending on how much you make). Bottom line: Health insurance through the exchange will be affordable to you.
You will save money.
Even if you do not qualify for subsidies or choose the public health insurance option, competition from the public health insurance option will force prices for insurance to fall across the board.
Your coverage will be good coverage, stable and secure.
All plans in the exchange will have to conform to federal regulations, making sure that the plan you purchase covers things that you and your family need - things like preventative medicine, regular checkups, and prescription drugs. And, under health reform, your health insurance company will no longer be able to deny you coverage or care for pre-existing conditions. Your insurance company will no longer be able to drop your coverage if you become sick, or charge you more if you're a woman. There will be no more annual or lifetime caps on coverage, so you won't be stuck with tens of thousands in uncovered medical bills. And if you pay your premiums, your insurance company won't be able to reject a renewal of your insurance plan.
Your expenses will be capped.
Deductibles, co-pays, premiums, and other expenses will be capped at a percentage of your income (between 1.5% and 11%, depending on how much you make), so you no longer face exorbitant health insurance costs.

If you are on Medicare or Medicaid:

Your health programs will not be touched. There will be no eligibility or benefit cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Health reform will be financed partly by finding savings in these programs. These savings will come from eliminating portions of Medicare and Medicaid that are no longer needed once we've passed health care reform for everyone. For example, right now, Medicaid pays hospitals a reimbursement for people who come to the hospital without health insurance, and thus stick that hospital with the bill. Under health reform, most people will have health insurance, making these reimbursements unnecessary.
The Medicare "Donut Hole" will be closed.
The "donut hole" in Medicare's prescription drug program that leaves seniors with thousands of dollars in drug costs when their coverage runs out partway through the year will be gradually closed under health care reform.

Is this all paid for?

Yes. Health reform will be fully paid for, and will not increase the deficit. It will not increase your taxes, either. The House has proposed increasing taxes on those that make more than a quarter of a million dollars per year to pay for health reform. The middle class will not be affected. 
 
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REFORM FOR YOU vs. REFORM FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES

Reform For You

Reform For the Insurance Companies

Guranteed coverage, even if you have a pre-existing condition
If insurers have to offer you insurance, even if you have a "pre-existing condition," you'll always be able to be covered, and it's reform that works for you.
Today, insurers can deny you coverage or care if you have a pre-existing condition, a term so loosely defined it can include common acne. Reform that works for you would do away with denial based on pre-existing conditions and other insurance discrimination, making it so you'll always be able to find coverage.
Right now, the bill passed in the House and the bill being considered in the Senate would make denial of care or coverage because of pre-existing conditions illegal.
Find out where we are in the process here.

Denials for pre-existing conditions
If insurers can keep denying you care because of "pre-existing conditions," allowing them to deny coverage to the sick and make more money, it's reform that works for them and not you.
Today, insurers make money by striving to avoid covering sick people or people who might get sick, and thus use their insurance benefits. These people include women (who must pay more for coverage) and people who've been sick in the past and who have "pre-existing conditions." If this status quo is continued, people will continue to go without the care and coverage they need.
Right now, Republicans who are against health reform support the status quo and continued denials for pre-existing conditions. The Senate and House bills do include a public health insurance option, but if it is removed, insurers will likely continue their practices due to the inadequacy of regulation alone. For example, the practice of taking away a person's coverage because they got sick is illegal today, but insurance companies do it anyway. Without a public health insurance option to keep the industry honest, regulation is unlikely to have a big effect on insurance industry practices.

Caps on out of pocket costs
If your expenses are capped, so you are protected from bankruptcy due to illness, then it's reform that works for you and not for the insurance companies.
Affordable insurance means your monthly premiums are something you and your family can support. It means your out-of-pocket costs are capped. It means there are no lifetime caps on your benefits so you can't go bankrupt due to a catastrophic illness. It means your employer kicks in their fair share towards your coverage.
Right now, the bills in the House would cap your expenses at 11% of your income if your family makes more than $70,000 per year, and 1.5% of your income if you make less than $10,000 per year, with a sliding scale in between. The Senate bill has similar provisions, though more can be done to make health care affordable for all.

NO caps on out of pocket costs
If the insurance companies can continue charging you as much as it wants for health care, with no caps on out-of-pocket costs, it's reform that works for them and not you.
If your premiums are too high, if your out-of-pocket costs aren't capped, and if there are still lifetime limits to your coverage, you're paying too much and getting too little. If your employer doesn't have to kick in their fair share, you're not getting a good deal.

A public health insurance option to compete with insurance companies
If the health reform plan you're looking at has a public health insurance option that's national, available on day one, and able to set rates with hospitals and big drug companies, then it's reform that will work for you.
A strong public health insurance option will compete with the insurance industry to keep them honest and their bad practices under control. And it will serve as a guaranteed backup for you in case you ever need it for any reason. Bottom line: A public option means you'll never be left at the mercy of the insurance industry again.
Right now, the House bill has a public health insurance option, as does the Senate bill (though it allows states to opt-out). 

No public health insurance option to compete with insurance companies
If the health reform plan you're looking at doesn't have a public health insurance option, or has one that's not nationally available on day one - like a co-op or a trigger - then it's reform that will work for the insurance companies, not you.
Without real competition form a public health insurance option, the health insurance industry will have no incentive to change their ways. They'll keep denying people coverage and they'll keep raising prices. So-called "compromises" like a co-op and a trigger do not create competition with the insurance industry. And, because everyone in America will have to have insurance under health reform, you'll be forced to give the insurance industry your money and you'll have no alternatives.

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ID THE LIES: HEALTH REFORM FACT CHECK

LIE: Health care reform would mean rationed care

TRUTH:

Nothing in any health reform bill being proposed by Congress or the President would ration care. In fact, health reform would end the current rationing of care in this country that occurrs because people cannot afford health care. 
Health reform will expand your care in a few ways: Private health insurers will have to insure you, regardless of pre-existing conditions. You will have your choice of insurers - both private and public - to make sure you get the care you need. And you will still get your choice of doctor. In no way will your doctor be told what care to provide or will your care be rationed by a bureaucrat - health reform will end the current bureaucratic rationing of care by your insurance industry.

LIE: Health care reform would be a "government takover" of health care

TRUTH:

Health care reform bills would do nothing to get between you and your doctor or give health care over to the government. The foundation of all health care reform plans being considered by Congress is choice - your choice. Under health reform, you would be free to keep the insurance you have if you like it. If not, you would be allowed to choose from a range of insurance options, both public and private, to find what works best for you. Under no circumstance would you be forced to choose government health care.

LIE: Health care reform would mean death panels for seniors

TRUTH:

This smear has been debunked over and over again. There are no death panels and there never were any death panels. This is wrong, plain and simple. Organizing for America has a definitive takedown of this smear here.

LIE: Health care reform would cover undocumented immigrants and pay federal money for abortions

TRUTH:

The bills being considered by Congress specifically bar undocumented immigrants from receiving health benefits, and no money is provided for abortions.

LIE: Health care reform will bankupt our country

TRUTH:

Health care reform will be fully paid for.
A majority of reform will be paid for by finding savings and cutting waste within the current system. The rest of reform will be financed by new revenues. We will not be borrowing money to finance reform.
Instead, it is the cost of doing nothing that is unsustainable. We are spending $2 trillion per year on health care. One person goes bankrupt due to health care costs every 30 seconds. And health care costs are only set to increase. We cannot sustain this trajectory, and so we must reform our system now.
The White House has more information on how reform will be financed.

LIE: Health care reform will cut Medicare and Medicaid

TRUTH:

Medicare and Medicaid benefits will not be touched. Senior or low-income care will not worsen. In fact, the health reform bill being considered in the House of Representatives strengthens Medicare [pdf] and Medicaid by closing the Part D "donut hole" [pdf] that makes prescription drugs unaffordable for seniors.
For a full debunking of the health care smear email going around, see here.
 
 
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HOW TO TALK ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM

Your friends, family, and neighbors will listen to you about health care reform. Here's what you can say to convince them.

Start with anger at the status quo

Everyone knows somebody who has been screwed over by the insurance companies. These stories about insurance industry bad practices are the best reason for change you can give. Tell your friends and family your story, or ask them about stories that have happened to them or people they know. Then ask them if we should all continue to be at the mercy of the private insurance industry, or if we deserve a choice.

Define the sides

Reform can either work for you or work for the insurance companies. If they win, you lose.

Talk about choice and stability

Tell people you talk to that health reform will increase their choice. If they like what they have, they can keep it. (You cannot repeat this point enough.)  But, if they don't like what they have, or if they can't get or afford coverage, they will be able to choose coverage that works for them at a price they can afford from a range of public or private insurance options. They will always be able to get insurance and afford it, no matter what.

Explain the health reform bill

Tell your friends and family exactly how health reform would work.
If they get coverage through work, they would keep the coverage they have. And, their insurance would get more secure, because insurance companies would no longer be able to discriminate based on age or gender, or pass on so much cost to them or their employer that one or both would have to go bankrupt. 
If they lose their coverage for any reason (job change, layoffs), or if they ever found themselves without coverage, they would be able to choose from a range of insurance plans - both public and private - in a health insurance "echange." The exchange would help them compare prices and give them subsidies to help them afford whatever plan they pick. Bottom line: They will always be able to afford health care, no matter what.

Keep them honest

Make sure your friend and family know that health reform would create a public health insurance option - an optional health care plan run by the government - that people could choose only if they wanted to. The public health insurance option would keep the insurance industry honest by competiting for customers, forcing the industry to reform their ways.

Bust the myths

Use the information above to bust myths about health refom and make sure your friends and family know the truth.

Word to use:

  • Choice - "Health reform will give you more choice."
  • Keep what you have if you like it - "Health reform will allow you to keep your doctor and insurance plan if you like it."
  • Competition - "Health reform will force the private insurance industry to compete with a public health insurance option to keep them honest."
  • Consumer protections - "Under health reform, private insurance will protect consumers, making sure they can no longer deny care because you have a pre-existing condition for example."
  • Affordable, quality, and stable - "No matter what, under health reform you will be able to get quality care that meets and is affordable for your family."
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