National Health Reform is happening NOW!
Be part of the debate! Join our email list today!In this issue:
1. Action: Call your members of Congress
2. News and Updates: TVHR/CPPP Headed to Washington, D.C.; Public Insurance Option; Health Insurance Industry Insider Speaks out; Will Health Reform Benefit the Middle Class?
3. New Resources | Texas Uninsured Estimates for 2010
4. Calendar
On June 24, 2009 Wendell Potter, a former PR executive at CIGNA and Humana gave testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation providing important insight into the policies and practices of for-profit health insurance companies. Potter’s statement sheds light on the motivation and rationale of insurance companies’ practices like rescinding peoples’ health coverage due to unreported “pre-existing conditions” (see this CNN article on a Texas cancer patient who lost coverage) and cherry-picking people who buy their plans. He explains the powerful role that Wall Street plays in determining who an insurance company will cover, and how much they will charge for their coverage.
“What we have today, Mr. Chairman, is a Wall Street-run system that has proven itself an untrustworthy partner to its customers, to the doctors and hospitals who deliver care, and to the state and federal governments that attempt to regulate it.”
As the health care reform battle heats up, it is essential that people all over Texas intensify efforts to tell our members of Congress where we stand on health care. This week several national groups, including SEIU, AARP, Consumer’s Union, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and Families USA, are urging people across the country to call Congress and tell them to pass health care reform this year. Texas Voice for Health Reform encourages you to take the following simple actions.
1. Make three calls:
• On July 7th and 8th please CALL 1-866-210-3678 to tell your members of Congress: “WE NEED NATIONAL HEALTH REFORM THAT DELIVERS AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE, QUALITY COVERAGE TO ALL TEXANS THIS YEAR.”
• This service will only connect you to one member of Congress at a time. In order to reach all of your members, please make this call three times, making sure to speak with the office of your member in the House of Representatives and Senators Cornyn and Hutchison. To find who represents you visit this link and type in your zip code next to “Find Your Officials.”
2. COPY, PASTE and SEND this message to all of your lists and contacts
3. POST this alert on your Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts
4. TEXT the following to everyone in your phone’s address book:
“Call 1-866-210-3678 to tell your members of Congress “WE NEED NATIONAL
HEALTH REFORM THAT DELIVERS AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE,
QUALITY COVERAGE TO ALL TEXANS THIS YEAR!”
ADDITIONAL HELPFUL INFORMATION
• In Texas, our insurance premiums have risen ten times faster than our incomes in the last decade
• The average group family premium in Texas is about $13,000 a year, which is out of reach for low-income working families.
• But millions of Texans can’t even buy insurance at the average rate: under Texas’ weak regulations, employers today with fewer than 50 workers are paying up to $22,000 a year to cover just one employee!
• Our 2009 Texas legislature has failed to pass bills to significantly improve coverage for our 1.5 million uninsured children
• Ethnic and racial health disparities in Texas are severe, with Hispanics comprising nearly 60% of our uninsured population, though they make up just 38% of all Texans.
Texas Voice for Health Reform Principles
Texas Health Fact Sheet
CPPP’s Texas Health Care Primer
News and Updates
We still lack official final bill language or scores for any health reform bill. The Senate Finance Committee is working on hitting the arbitrary target of $1 trillion over 10 years and expected to start mark up on July 13; the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) got a new cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today, July 2, for their bill, but the legislation does not include any Medicaid provisions and does not yet reflect the full cost of reform; the House Tri-Committee will begin mark-up of a formal bill (only a draft is available so far) July 13.
Zero Sum: The Senate Finance Committee’s goal of a $1 trillion cost ceiling results in pressure to scale back on the promise of true affordability for all Americans, which means not just premium assistance but also limits on out-of pocket costs. At this point, even if the bill is totally paid for with offsets and new revenues, the $1 trillion cap means every improvement in one area can mean a cutback in another part of health reform. This could result in a lower income cutoff for premium assistance than the 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) supported by most advocates, and/or inadequate out-of-pocket cost limits that expose low-income families to spending more than 20 percent of their pre-tax income on health care.
New documents circulating on Capitol Hill over the last few days provide health reform advocates helpful information on the process and the content of national health reform.
- On June 5th, a document described as a “draft of a draft” of “Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans,” the Senate HELP Committee’s comprehensive health reform bill, was leaked to policy analysts and political bloggers. Our partners, Community Catalyst, released this summary of the draft bill which highlights the HELP committee’s policy proposals on Insurance Reform, Insurance Exchanges, and Affordability Provisions.
- Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein published “Exclusive: Senate Finance Committee’s Heath Care Timeline” which also includes insight on the Senate HELP Committee’s and the House of Representatives’ respective timetables for health reform. Klein’s outline is based on an internal memo that he received from a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
In a recent meeting with President Obama, groups representing doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and unions pledged to reduce health care spending by $2 trillion over 10 years. Cost savings projected in their June 1, 2009 letter to the President range from $1 trillion to $1.7 trillion, falling short of their stated cost-cutting goal, and it is unclear from the document if the projected savings are on top of (net of) the cost to implement the proposed changes. Senator Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has expressed skepticism that the industries’ proposal will actually result in $2 trillion in savings. Their industry letter notes that some of the proposals could be done today under current law (and some are), but that others depend on public policy changes through health reform. Unfortunately, the proposal contains few specifics on how federal policy reform could provide incentives and enforce accountability among insurers and health care providers for reforms and actual cost savings.
Recently the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) renewed its commitment to comprehensive health reform in its comments to the Senate Finance Committee on expanding health care coverage. In the statement, Bishop Murphy, Chairman of the USCCB Board on Domestic Justice and Human Development states that,
“Health care is a social good, and accessible and affordable health care for all benefits both individuals and society as a whole.”
Last week the Center for Public Policy Priorities joined 77 organizations in 29 states in signing a letter to the Senate Finance Committee commenting on their policy paper Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans. The letter both praises the Committee for the progress it has made in proposing legislation that will ensure coverage for more Americans, and makes recommendations that would expand coverage even further. Read the sign-on letter here.
In addition to signing onto the joint letter, the Center for Public Policy Priorities independently submitted its own comments to the Senate Finance Committee. Our comments specifically address concerns that the Committee has yet to establish a clear upper limit on health care costs and that their proposals for market reform do not go far enough to be effective in Texas.
Congress is writing health reform legislation right now, and we’re concerned that measures to ensure coverage for low-income Americans need more emphasis in the discussion. We are inviting organizations to join Texas Voice for Health Reform in sending a letter to the Senate Finance Committee asking them to keep and strengthen Medicaid. Click here to see the full action alert. Sign-ons must be received no later than Tuesday, June 2nd to be included.
Signatories
- Center for Public Policy Priorities, Austin
- Creative Funding Solutions, Houston
- Community Dental Care, Dallas
- El Paso First Health Plans, El Paso
- Gateway to Care, Houston
- Handicapped Resource Association (dba Helping Restore Ability), Arlington
- Health Care for All Texas
- Health Care for America Now – Texas
- Insure•A•Kid, Austin
- La Fe Policy Research and Education Center, San Antonio
- Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., San Antonio
- San Antonio Food Bank, San Antonio
- San Antonio Nonprofit Council, San Antonio
- Senior Community Outreach Services, Inc., Alamo
- Texans Care For Children, Austin
The Dallas Morning News recently asked 11 Texas health care experts, including Anne Dunkelberg, Associate Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, to comment on a variety of issues regarding health reform including single-payer vs. market-based approaches to health care; preventive care; the role of employers in providing health care; and making health insurance affordable. The diverse panel represents a broad spectrum of opinion on national health reform.
