Thank Your Representatives for Passing Health Care Reform
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Last night, 220 members of Congress showed they’re on the side of working families, not big insurance companies. They’ve earned our thanks for keeping their promises and passing landmark health care reform.
Our friends at Health Care for America Now (HCAN) have set up an easy tool where you can contact your member of Congress and thank him or her for voting “Yes” on H.R. 3962. We demanded this change with our votes and our voices, and House members stepped up to make it a reality.
H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, is the right way to cover more people and make the nation’s health care system work better for everyone. It includes a public health insurance option, provides assistance for middle-class families to get health care coverage and sets tough new rules for insurers, making sure no one can be denied care or be rejected from coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
Here’s What Health Care Reform Means for Working Families
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| The AFL-CIO is running an ad in support of health care reform in newspapers in the Washington, D.C., area. |
Within days, the U.S. House will vote on a historic health care reform bill that will cover everyone, cut costs and protect families from insurance company abuses.
The House bill, H.R. 3962—the Affordable Health Care for America Act—has provisions that will help families now and in the long term, all while decreasing the nation’s deficit.
Although some provisions of reform will require time to implement, here are key changes that will kick in immediately, providing direct and critical relief to millions of working families:
- An immediate insurance program for high-risk uninsured people to buy into.
- Ending “rescissions”—prohibiting insurers from nullifying coverage when patients file claims.
- Ending the lifetime caps on how much care insurers will cover.
- Allowing young people to stay on their parents’ policies until age 27.
- Allowing workers who have lost coverage because they lost their job to extend COBRA coverage.
- New incentive programs to increase the number of doctors.
- Funding for community health centers.
- Reducing the “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage—which right now doesn’t cover any drug costs between $2,700 and $4,050.
- A new fund to help employers pay for coverage for early retirees.
AFL-CIO Leaders Headed Back to Pittsburgh to Fight for a Fair Economy
The new leaders of the AFL-CIO will meet up today in Pittsburgh to prepare for the G-20 conference, finishing up a listening tour among workers to kick off their administration and set out a strong progressive agenda.
Advocating on issues like housing, financial reform and health care reform that includes a public option, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker have been sending a clear message to big banks, insurance companies and others whose greed and irresponsibility have left us with a broken economy.
