WE NEED YOUR HELP:
TELL CONGRESS 'FINISH REFORM, FINISH IT RIGHT'
While Congress waits to act, people are dying for lack of affordable health insurance.
So here's the plan: Let's inundate Congress this Wednesday (February 24th) with one million phone calls, email messages, tweets, blog posts, faxes, social networking updates and office visits- all in one day.
The message is clear: "Finish Reform and Finish It Right."
Click here to call your members of Congress
Click here to email your members of Congress
Click here to join a virtual march for health reform
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The president's health care proposal (whitehouse.gov)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal
Andy Stern's statement on the proposal (seiu.org)
http://www.seiu.org/2010/02/seiu-statement-on-president-obamas-healthcare-reform-proposal.php
Letter from SEIU and allies to Senate and House leaders
http://www.seiu.org/images/pdfs/Pre_HCR_Summit_Letter.pdf
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Summary of the president's proposal
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SUMMARY OF THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL
February 22, 2010
The President’s Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of
their own health care.
• It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for
health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small
business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million
Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more
affordable for many more.
• It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans
the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.
• It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the
road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.
• It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
• It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100
billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting
government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.
The President’s Proposal bridges the gap between the House and Senate bills and includes
new provisions to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.
It includes a targeted set of changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the
Senate-passed health insurance reform bill. The President’s Proposal reflects policies from the
House-passed bill and the President’s priorities. Key changes include:
• Eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional
Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid;
• Closing the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” coverage gap;
• Strengthening the Senate bill’s provisions that make insurance affordable for
individuals and families;
• Strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and
Medicaid;
• Increasing the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans
from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and starting it in 2018 for all plans;
• Improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health
Insurance Rate Authority to provide Federal assistance and oversight to States in
conducting reviews of unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of
insurance plans.