CalPERS: Health Reform Has Already Helped Our Enrollees This Year

Press Release

Today, the CEO of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius detailing several key ways that the health reform law has already helped their enrollees.

California leaders in Congress -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman, and House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller -- highlighted the effectiveness of the health reform law:

Speaker Pelosi: "Already, tens of thousands of families across California -- and millions of Americans -- are seeing the concrete benefits of health reform. The Patient's Bill of Rights in health reform is now protecting Americans from the worst abuses of the insurance industry, such as lifetime limits, and CalPERS is showing us the real, human impact of these and other reform provisions."

Chairman Stark: "Only months after health reform took effect, California public employees and their families are benefiting from improved coverage and lower costs. Republicans have pledged to repeal the health reform law and undo these consumer protections. This is a dangerous prospect for nearly 1.3 million Californians in CalPERS who would be hurt."

Chairman Waxman: "I commend CalPERS for working to implement the key benefits of the new health care reform law. Their efforts show that the law is containing costs for employers and already extending coverage to tens of thousands of people."

Chairman Miller: "CalPERS' letter shows that health reform is already increasing coverage and ensuring quality care. Repealing these historic reforms, as Washington Republicans have pledged to do, will take away basic health benefits that Californians count on and take hard-earned money right out of their pockets. Californians, and all Americans, simply cannot afford the radical Republican repeal agenda."

CalPERS is the largest non-federal purchaser of health benefits in the country. The letter details several ways that families saw coverage improve during the latest open enrollment period, thanks to the health reform law:

* More than 27,000 young adults were added to their parents' health plans effective in January, resulting in a premium increase of less than 1 percent.

* CalPERS removed lifetime limits from all their plans that had previously included them.

* CalPERS joined a program that gives assistance to early retiree health plans to keep premiums costs down. This year, this program helped hold premiums to their lowest increase in 14 years. CalPERS estimates savings of approximately $200 million for more than 115,000 early retirees and their families.