3 reasons that the new health care plan is already working and will work even better
Dear Kevin,
Save lives, help small businesses, cut the deficit, and grow jobs. [1,2,3,4,5]
How could anyone be against that?
Yet the U.S. House is expected to vote TONIGHT on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, i.e. the health care reform bill, before it’s even fully implemented as is planned over the next several years.
Changing course now would harm our children, our businesses, our jobs, and our nation.
Approximately 129 million people could be denied care without the Affordable Care Act pre-existing condition protections. [1] The new benefits of health reform have already saved lives and freed millions of Americans from worrying that they’ll lose or be denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions when the law is fully implemented in 2014. Additionally, health care reform has begun providing tax credits for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees, growing jobs, cutting the deficit, as well as ensuring that our children are not dropped from coverage just when we need it most--and the sweeping benefits of health reform are not even fully implemented yet. [2]
*Please join me in signing this letter to Congress and state legislators telling them that we've come too far to turn our backs on kids, businesses, families, and our economy. Keep moving forward implementing health care reform! Click below to sign on:
http://action.momsrising.org/go/451?akid=2504.90096._ZJjNu&t=4
Why send a message now when we know the Senate and President will block the repeal? This is only the first attempt of the House to dismantle and slow implementation of the Affordable Care Act. So it's critical that we send members of Congress a strong and unequivocal message now about public support for moving forward with the full implementation of health reform so that we can stop any other efforts to weaken or dismantle health reform in their tracks.
The power of our numbers and the strength of our personal stories are essential to building political support and political will to continue moving forward on health reform. Nearly one thousand of our member have sent their personal stories of how health reform is helping their families. Stories like:
• “My son has asthma, and throughout his life we have faced frightening struggles to maintain his health and occasionally his life itself. The guarantee that we can access insurance without denial based on this condition is absolutely critical to us and to our entire country. Without his medicines, my amazing, intelligent, beautiful 9-year-old boy could die. This is a life and death situation, and I write from my heart when I say how thankful I am that we can re-imagine and re-create space for his life and future, by allowing him access to the medicines and care he needs.” - Emily, New York
• “I am the co-owner of an independent record label in Chicago. My small business covers 100% of the health insurance costs for our staff of seven. With the new health care reform my business will see approximately $12,000 in tax credits. In this economy, that kind of tax credit will make a huge difference for our company and allow us to invest more in our business. We have had our premiums raised 67% in one year. We need health care reform now!" - Nan, Illinois
• "After my daughter went into remission for cancer, her insurance company was trying to drop her. They said they would only continue coverage if she were in school fulltime. It was impossible for her to be in school fulltime when she was still suffering the effects of chemo. Now that the reform is in place, we no longer have to battle the insurance companies to keep her on the rolls. I, myself, have a pre-existing condition for which I could not be covered. Once the expanded Medi-caid goes into effect in 2014, I will have affordable coverage. It gives me piece of mind knowing I will not have to scramble to pay my costs forever. I just have to ride it out a little longer. I hope this isn’t taken away from me. It’s the first grain of hope I’ve had in awhile that I will not die an early death from lack of treatment.” - Mari, Nevada
As our MomsRising member stories show, rolling back health care reform hurts our families, our economy, our businesses, and increases the deficit.
Critics say the Affordable Care Act is unaffordable. Nonsense! Here are three important ways that health care reform helps our economy:
1. Lowers our federal deficit:
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the savings from the sweeping legislation will more than offset the cost of expanding coverage to some 30 million uninsured, reducing the federal deficit over the next 10 years. [3]
In fact, The Congressional Budget Office just released an analysis that confirmed that repealing health care reform as it passed would increase the deficit by $230 billion in the first decade and by more than $1 trillion in the following decade. [4]
David M. Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University, recently shared how health reform will lower the deficit and save costs: "The legislation establishes insurance exchanges, mandates minimum loss ratios for insurance companies, and streamlines transactions between medical care providers and insurers. Together, these provisions will significantly reduce the administrative costs of medical care. By far the most changes are in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The philosophy underlying the Affordable Care Act is to make Medicare and Medicaid smarter purchasers of medical care so that providers are rewarded for creating value—not just for providing additional services." [5]
The LA Times also recently took up this matter in a Q &A, stating: "What about the law's effect on the budget deficit?" LA Times answer: "The CBO, which lawmakers from both parties rely on to assess the effects of legislation, now estimates that the law would bring down the deficit over the next decade by more than $200 billion. That is possible because the authors of the legislation offset the cost of expanding coverage to 32 million Americans over the next decade with more than $500 billion in cuts to federal Medicare spending and more than $400 billion in new taxes and fees." [6]
2. Supports job growth:
A number of studies show that the full implementation of health care reform grows jobs. Studies show repealing the law would prevent 250,000 to 400,000 jobs from being created annually over the next decade. [7]
3. Helps small businesses:
Without the full implementation of health care reform, including tax credits for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees, businesses will continue to be in big trouble due to fast rising health care costs. Forbes Magazine recently reported that likely due to the tax credits with health reform, there's been a recent increase in small business health insurance policies: "The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees. Why? Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working." [8]
As the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke recently stated: “The cost savings are real, and they will grow over time. It's helpful to remember our health-care-cost trajectory before reform was passed. In the past 50 years, American firms saw a more than eightfold increase in the amount of payroll that went toward employee health insurance. Rising costs have meant fewer jobs. A 2009 Rand study confirmed that over the past 25 years, many American employers were losing jobs and revenue as a result of onerous health-care costs.” [9]
In short, the new health reform law is projected to not only grow jobs; but also to save lives, cut the deficit, give people more freedoms, more choices for care, and help businesses as it’s fully implemented over time.
*Join us in telling the U.S. House that it’s not time for political posturing and grandstanding. Our families futures are at stake. Our nation needs to stay the course implementing health reform for our families', our economy, and our lives:
http://action.momsrising.org/go/451?akid=2504.90096._ZJjNu&t=6
Share these stories and this list of ways health care reform helps our economy with people you know so they too can be informed too by forwarding this email now.
Clearly, the costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act are too high for our nation’s families and businesses. Too many businesses, like the one owned by Nan in Ilinois, are counting on the change health reform brings to help in the face of long-time sky rocketing health care costs. And, for too many people, like Mari and her daughter, repealing health reform could be a death sentence.
Thank you for signing our letter to Congress using the easy link above—as well as for forwarding this email around to people you know who may want to sign on too.
- Kristin, Donna, Joan, Mary, Ashley, Sarah, Julissa, Anita, Ruth, and the MomsRising Team
[1] 129 Million People Could Be Denied Affordable Coverage Without Health Reform
[2] A New Day for Health Care in America
[3] Congressional Budget Office Publications Related to Health Care Legislation, 2009-2010
[4] Preliminary Analysis of H.R. 2, The Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act
[5] Repealing Health Care Is a Job Killer
[6] Do Republican critiques of the healthcare law add up?
[7] Repealing Health Care Is a Job Killer
[8] More Small Businesses Offering Health Care To Employees Thanks To Obamacare
[9] Repealing health-care law will hurt American competitiveness
Like what we're doing? Donate: We're a bootstrap, low overhead, mom run organization. Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible--and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts.
Save lives, help small businesses, cut the deficit, and grow jobs. [1,2,3,4,5]
How could anyone be against that?
Yet the U.S. House is expected to vote TONIGHT on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, i.e. the health care reform bill, before it’s even fully implemented as is planned over the next several years.
Changing course now would harm our children, our businesses, our jobs, and our nation.
Approximately 129 million people could be denied care without the Affordable Care Act pre-existing condition protections. [1] The new benefits of health reform have already saved lives and freed millions of Americans from worrying that they’ll lose or be denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions when the law is fully implemented in 2014. Additionally, health care reform has begun providing tax credits for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees, growing jobs, cutting the deficit, as well as ensuring that our children are not dropped from coverage just when we need it most--and the sweeping benefits of health reform are not even fully implemented yet. [2]
*Please join me in signing this letter to Congress and state legislators telling them that we've come too far to turn our backs on kids, businesses, families, and our economy. Keep moving forward implementing health care reform! Click below to sign on:
http://action.momsrising.org/go/451?akid=2504.90096._ZJjNu&t=4
Why send a message now when we know the Senate and President will block the repeal? This is only the first attempt of the House to dismantle and slow implementation of the Affordable Care Act. So it's critical that we send members of Congress a strong and unequivocal message now about public support for moving forward with the full implementation of health reform so that we can stop any other efforts to weaken or dismantle health reform in their tracks.
The power of our numbers and the strength of our personal stories are essential to building political support and political will to continue moving forward on health reform. Nearly one thousand of our member have sent their personal stories of how health reform is helping their families. Stories like:
• “My son has asthma, and throughout his life we have faced frightening struggles to maintain his health and occasionally his life itself. The guarantee that we can access insurance without denial based on this condition is absolutely critical to us and to our entire country. Without his medicines, my amazing, intelligent, beautiful 9-year-old boy could die. This is a life and death situation, and I write from my heart when I say how thankful I am that we can re-imagine and re-create space for his life and future, by allowing him access to the medicines and care he needs.” - Emily, New York
• “I am the co-owner of an independent record label in Chicago. My small business covers 100% of the health insurance costs for our staff of seven. With the new health care reform my business will see approximately $12,000 in tax credits. In this economy, that kind of tax credit will make a huge difference for our company and allow us to invest more in our business. We have had our premiums raised 67% in one year. We need health care reform now!" - Nan, Illinois
• "After my daughter went into remission for cancer, her insurance company was trying to drop her. They said they would only continue coverage if she were in school fulltime. It was impossible for her to be in school fulltime when she was still suffering the effects of chemo. Now that the reform is in place, we no longer have to battle the insurance companies to keep her on the rolls. I, myself, have a pre-existing condition for which I could not be covered. Once the expanded Medi-caid goes into effect in 2014, I will have affordable coverage. It gives me piece of mind knowing I will not have to scramble to pay my costs forever. I just have to ride it out a little longer. I hope this isn’t taken away from me. It’s the first grain of hope I’ve had in awhile that I will not die an early death from lack of treatment.” - Mari, Nevada
As our MomsRising member stories show, rolling back health care reform hurts our families, our economy, our businesses, and increases the deficit.
Critics say the Affordable Care Act is unaffordable. Nonsense! Here are three important ways that health care reform helps our economy:
1. Lowers our federal deficit:
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the savings from the sweeping legislation will more than offset the cost of expanding coverage to some 30 million uninsured, reducing the federal deficit over the next 10 years. [3]
In fact, The Congressional Budget Office just released an analysis that confirmed that repealing health care reform as it passed would increase the deficit by $230 billion in the first decade and by more than $1 trillion in the following decade. [4]
David M. Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University, recently shared how health reform will lower the deficit and save costs: "The legislation establishes insurance exchanges, mandates minimum loss ratios for insurance companies, and streamlines transactions between medical care providers and insurers. Together, these provisions will significantly reduce the administrative costs of medical care. By far the most changes are in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The philosophy underlying the Affordable Care Act is to make Medicare and Medicaid smarter purchasers of medical care so that providers are rewarded for creating value—not just for providing additional services." [5]
The LA Times also recently took up this matter in a Q &A, stating: "What about the law's effect on the budget deficit?" LA Times answer: "The CBO, which lawmakers from both parties rely on to assess the effects of legislation, now estimates that the law would bring down the deficit over the next decade by more than $200 billion. That is possible because the authors of the legislation offset the cost of expanding coverage to 32 million Americans over the next decade with more than $500 billion in cuts to federal Medicare spending and more than $400 billion in new taxes and fees." [6]
2. Supports job growth:
A number of studies show that the full implementation of health care reform grows jobs. Studies show repealing the law would prevent 250,000 to 400,000 jobs from being created annually over the next decade. [7]
3. Helps small businesses:
Without the full implementation of health care reform, including tax credits for small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees, businesses will continue to be in big trouble due to fast rising health care costs. Forbes Magazine recently reported that likely due to the tax credits with health reform, there's been a recent increase in small business health insurance policies: "The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees. Why? Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working." [8]
As the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke recently stated: “The cost savings are real, and they will grow over time. It's helpful to remember our health-care-cost trajectory before reform was passed. In the past 50 years, American firms saw a more than eightfold increase in the amount of payroll that went toward employee health insurance. Rising costs have meant fewer jobs. A 2009 Rand study confirmed that over the past 25 years, many American employers were losing jobs and revenue as a result of onerous health-care costs.” [9]
In short, the new health reform law is projected to not only grow jobs; but also to save lives, cut the deficit, give people more freedoms, more choices for care, and help businesses as it’s fully implemented over time.
*Join us in telling the U.S. House that it’s not time for political posturing and grandstanding. Our families futures are at stake. Our nation needs to stay the course implementing health reform for our families', our economy, and our lives:
http://action.momsrising.org/go/451?akid=2504.90096._ZJjNu&t=6
Share these stories and this list of ways health care reform helps our economy with people you know so they too can be informed too by forwarding this email now.
Clearly, the costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act are too high for our nation’s families and businesses. Too many businesses, like the one owned by Nan in Ilinois, are counting on the change health reform brings to help in the face of long-time sky rocketing health care costs. And, for too many people, like Mari and her daughter, repealing health reform could be a death sentence.
Thank you for signing our letter to Congress using the easy link above—as well as for forwarding this email around to people you know who may want to sign on too.
- Kristin, Donna, Joan, Mary, Ashley, Sarah, Julissa, Anita, Ruth, and the MomsRising Team
[1] 129 Million People Could Be Denied Affordable Coverage Without Health Reform
[2] A New Day for Health Care in America
[3] Congressional Budget Office Publications Related to Health Care Legislation, 2009-2010
[4] Preliminary Analysis of H.R. 2, The Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act
[5] Repealing Health Care Is a Job Killer
[6] Do Republican critiques of the healthcare law add up?
[7] Repealing Health Care Is a Job Killer
[8] More Small Businesses Offering Health Care To Employees Thanks To Obamacare
[9] Repealing health-care law will hurt American competitiveness
Like what we're doing? Donate: We're a bootstrap, low overhead, mom run organization. Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible--and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts.
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 7:46 AM
2 Comments:
I think the key is what option the Republicans will put forward. The current health reform bill was not even read by most of Congress and does not reduce costs.
I'm not an advocate of repeal, but I don't want to destroy the system either.
http://pol.moveon.org/obamasocialsecurity/?id=25859-4797084-wexCLsx&t=2 Republicans hope to make 2011 the year that they finally cut Social Security.
Washington has been whipped into a frenzy over the deficit, and there are rumors the White House may try to cut a deal with Republicans by offering cuts to Social Security in the State of the Union.
We're aiming to get 150,000 signatures saying that any cuts to Social Security have to be completely off the table. We'll deliver the petition to the White House before Obama's speech next week.
A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to President Barack Obama.
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