Op-Ed: Health Care Update

Op-Ed

Dear Friends,

As health care reform efforts continue in Congress, I thought you would be interested in receiving an update on the progress. As you know, legislation to reform health care delivery was introduced and debated in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House three committees wrote bills: the Committee on Ways and Means, Committee on Energy and Commerce and Committee on Education and Labor. Each of these three committees approved a bill at the end of July.

Since July the House committees have been working to iron out the differences between these three bills. On October 29, 2009, the reconciled bill was introduced in the House of Representatives. A copy of this bill can be reviewed at docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf.

This week the full House of Representatives will begin debate on this bill; the Affordable Health Care for America Act. I anticipate the House will vote on passage of this legislation before Veterans' Day.

In the Senate, the health reform bill was considered by the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Both committees have voted and approved their version of the health reform legislation and the Senate is now working to blend their two bills. When the differences are worked out, they will debate that legislation on the floor and will vote on its passage.

Once both the House and Senate have voted on their versions of health reform, a committee made up of members of the House and Senate will work to resolve the differences between the two versions. The final product will then go before each house for final passage and then to the President for his consideration.

The bill that has emerged in the House of Representatives to be considered this week contains provisions that have been subject to much discussion and debate. I am pleased that there are important consumer protections in this legislation, including putting an end to policy denials for preexisting conditions and dropping coverage because an individual becomes ill. Insurance policies will no longer be able to discriminate based on gender, charge exorbitant out-of-pocket costs, or place lifetime or annual limits on coverage. Additionally, the "donut" hole in prescription drug coverage for Medicare Part D will be closed.

One important provision I fought for was to end cost-sharing for preventive care. This means that all individuals will be able to access preventive services such as mammograms, colonoscopies and diabetes screening free of charge. This will help detect problems before they become acute, savings lives and money. The bill will also provide subsidies to help low income individuals and families purchase health insurance, giving them a range of choices, including a public option.

I believe that the public option will bring needed competition to the insurance market and will help to keep coverage affordable. However, it is just one option of many, and the choice of doctors and health plans will be left to the individual. So if you are happy with the coverage you have you will be able to keep it.

We have come a long way over the past months. Folks know that claims of death panels, ‘socialized' Canadian plans, ending cancer care, eliminating private insurance companies and giving the government direct access to individuals' bank accounts are not true and were designed to scare people. Moreover, reform efforts are finally more bipartisan with Senator Olympia Snowe voting for the Senate Finance bill, and Republican party stalwarts Bob Dole, Bill Frist, Tommy Thompson and Bobby Jindal calling for Republicans to work with Democrats to fix our health care system.

The President has stated that he will not sign a bill that increased the deficit, and the House bill does not. It is paid for and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysts project the legislation would reduce the deficit by $30 billion over 10 years.

There is a lot that remains to be resolved but much progress has been made, and I know that even after legislation is passed there will be more to do -- reforming health care is an ongoing process and won't be completed with the passage of one bill.

I will continue to work on this critical issue and believe that health care reform must fundamentally provide access to affordable and effective care for everyone. No one in our country should die because they lack access to affordable health care or go broke because of a medical catastrophe, and we cannot allow our economy and our communities to be held hostage by health care costs that are permanently on the rise.

Sincerely,

Congressman Mike Thompson

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