Update on Federal Health Care Reform

Missouri Health Care for All members rally for health care reform.

March 2, 2010

Written by Amy Smoucha, MO Jobs with Justice, MHCFA Steering Committee Member

As Missouri Health Care for All, we reflect the community’s conscience in the health care struggle. As misinformation and rumors are spread in the media and by opponents, we must remain strong, clear and focused on our guiding Principles.

Below is an update on what it will take for us to win health reform this year, what we stand to gain, and what we stand to lose if we walk away with nothing.  Please read the update and share with other concerned advocates, and keep calling and e-mailing your legislators in support of health reform.

The Final Push for Federal Health Care Reform: 
An Update for Leaders and Activists

Final Push Mobilization and Messaging Strategy:

Goal:  Generate daily contacts with Congress from now until the March 29 Spring recess (or until a bill is on the President’s desk):

• Telling House members to pass the Senate bill
• Telling Senate members to use budget reconciliation to fix the Senate bill.

Key Message:  Get comprehensive health reform legislation to the President’s desk now.

Strategy:  Leaders and activists need to:

1. Make DAILY contact with House and Senate members.  (EVERY member needs to hear from us, regardless of what we believe their position is.)
2. Help bombard media with clear, pro-reform messages:  Letters to the editor, Op Eds, calls to talk shows, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking posts.  Let’s get the message out that health reform is good for everybody and the majority of Missourians want reform!
3. Involve others.  If you are reading this update, you are already more engaged in this movement than most of the people you know.  After you contact Congress every day, ask 5-10 friends, relatives and coworkers to do the same.  You can even suggest a “message of the day” to help new advocates feel more comfortable contacting Congress.

Cutting through the misinformation and deadlock:

Misinformation. We continue to see a daily barrage of misinformation, mostly fueled by large corporate and partisan interests, but with strains of discord delivered from both conservative and liberal sources.  While we are incredibly close to historic, comprehensive health care reform, passing legislation is by no means a done deal.  To ensure legislation arrives at the President’s desk, we must remain disciplined with a clear and unified message to Congress.

Deadlock.  45,000 Americans die each year because they can’t get affordable health care.  Yet, the weeks and days go by, and a Congress with an overwhelming majority of Democrats has not passed final legislation.  The current deadlock is caused by distrust between the House and the Senate and a desire in both chambers to avoid taking another health care vote.

Two steps to get this done:

1) To accomplish federal health reform, the House must pass the Senate bill.  House members do not want to vote on the Senate bill.  They don’t like some of the Senate’s provisions and they don’t want another health care vote on their record.  We must be unified in telling House members to pass the Senate bill.

2) For better reform, the House and Senate must craft another, smaller piece of legislation that can be passed through “budget reconciliation” proceedings.  That bill will only contain a small number of provisions that significantly impact the federal budget.  Provisions passed through reconciliation are not subject to filibuster and need only a simple majority vote.  The areas of policy that have enough votes to pass through reconciliation and also meet the criteria for passage under those rules are: 

• Improvements in affordability for lower income working families, both in terms of premiums and out of pocket costs. 
• Improvements to Medicaid, including increased funding to states.
• Funding to fully close the RX donut hole for seniors.
• A new proposal to create a Health Insurance Rate Authority to provide oversight at the federal level and help states determine how to review and monitor insurance premium rates.
• Delaying implementation of the excise tax on health benefits policies and applying it to fewer health plans.
• Increases cuts to Medicare Advantage plans (privatized Medicare HMOs).
• Increases taxes on the rich by broadening the Medicare payroll tax to include taxing unearned income (such as investment income) with incomes above $200K/$250K.

A word about the public option—We can’t see the forest for the trees:
There is currently a push by some progressive activists, groups and legislators for a public option to be included in reconciliation.  Some things to consider:

• Many progressive experts do not believe the public option language would be allowed under budget reconciliation rules.
• Most importantly, when pressuring some individual Congresspeople, these efforts can have a grave, unintended consequence of pushing them away from a necessary vote on the Senate bill.  If progressives don’t vote Yes on the Senate bill, we are in danger of losing everything.
• The public option is one of the smallest and one of the most inconsequential of all the reform measures in the House or Senate bills.  It would impact far fewer people than the winnable measures in the bills.
• As Congresspeople discuss the public option, they are messaging and spinning to their base—they are stating a political position, which should not be mistaken for a testimony as to what is possible.

How Federal Reform Will Help Missouri’s Families and Communities

Comprehensive health reform legislation will:

• Provide more than 30 million Americans access to affordable health coverage.
• Reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over 10 years.

In Missouri:

• 495,000 uninsured Missourians will gain health coverage.
• More than 1 million Missourians will access more affordable coverage through the health insurance exchange.
• 516,000 residents could qualify for premium tax credits to help them purchase health coverage.
• 961,000 seniors would receive free preventive services.
• 171,000 seniors would have their brand-name drug costs in the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” halved.
• 79,900 small businesses could be helped by a small business tax credit to make premiums more affordable.

Reform Legislation Includes Significant Private Health Insurance Reforms to:

• Prohibit private insurance companies from turning down individuals because of pre-existing medical conditions or rescinding policies.
• Stop insurance companies from charging higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions, gender, or occupation
• Prohibit annual or lifetime limits on coverage. Protect consumers with annual out of pocket spending caps after which the insurance company must pay.
• Cap insurance company administrative overhead and profits, requiring insurers to use premiums to pay for medical care.  Insurance companies must spend 85% of premiums on medical care in the group market and 80% in the individual market. 
• Strengthen oversight of insurance premium rates and rate increases.
• Allow sales of insurance across state lines, as long as companies comply with minimum requirements created by states participating in compacts authorizing such sales.

If we give up or walk away with nothing:

• 128,000 more Missourians will lose health insurance by 2019.
• 862,000 Missourians will lack health insurance by 2019
• The average Missourian’s family insurance premium will increase by $8,646 by 2019.
• Many more Missourians—our parents, our friends, our neighbors—will die because they lack health insurance.  Nearly 10 working-age Missourians die each week because they lack health insurance.
• Missouri’s small businesses will pay $3.3 billion more for health care premiums by 2018, stifling innovation and job growth.
• 171,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Missouri will continue to hit the “doughnut hole,” or gap in Medicare Part D drug coverage.
  

Six Ways to TAKE ACTION NOW:

1) Go to your Congressperson's website and use their email link to tell them Congress MUST pass comprehensive health insurance reform NOW!  Lookup your Representative.  
2) Contact Senator McCaskill TODAY with the same important message. Contact Senator McCaskill. 

3) Contact Senator Bond TODAY and urge him to support health reform. Contact Senator Bond. 

4) Write a Letter to the Editor. Write it from your perspective as a leader in your community. Share your faith perspective. Share what you see in the community and share your compelling reasons why we need comprehensive health care reform now. (if you need assistance finding a paper to send it to please email us)

4) Report any activity you do for health care reform to Stacey at ssickler@faithbeyondwalls.org.

5) If you would like to schedule a presentation about health care reform at your congregation or organization please email us.

6) Share this information with family and friends!