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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

President Obama's Health Care Proposal

March General Meeting
Health Care Reform Update
Health Care Reform Resources

Obama Releases Health Care Plan.  March 11, General Meeting.  Heath Care Reform Update.  Senate Approves Health Care Reform Legislation.  Critical Health Care Reform Updates.  What You Need to Know About Health Care Reform.

Obama Releases Health Care Plan

Feb. 22 Release: President Obama will bring his Health Care proposal to his Feb. 25 health 'summit' with Congressional leaders. It contains many of the ideas from the bills already passed by the Democratic House and Senate, including a mandate that individuals buy insurance and a promise to "end discrimination" from pre-existing conditions.

The President's Health Care Proposal

Kaiser Family Foundation's side-by-side comparison of major Health Care reform proposals, including the President's.

Consumer Reports: Health lays out the benefits of the Senate bill.

March 11, General Meeting

When: Thursday, March 11
Topic: Immigration in N.C.: Where are we now?
Speakers:

- Marty Rosenbluth: Staff Attorney, Southern Council for Social Justice

- Maurico Castro:NC Latino Coalition, Organizer

- Irene Godinez, District Director, Reform Immigration FOR America

- Katherine Woomer-Deters, Carolina Immigrants' Right Project NC Justice Center

Time: 10 am - 12 pm
Location: Durham Technical Community College, Room 278 Collins Auditorium, Main Campus, Durham

This panel discussion on Immigration in N.C. is co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties and the Center for the Global Learner-Durham Tech. The panel of state-wide experts in the area of immigration will present information as it relates to NC and Orange, Durham, and Chatham Counties. The panel discussion will be followed by a question/answer opportunity to address specific questions the audience might have.

Objectives for the Meeting: Information shared during this discussion will enable the participants to:

1. more clearly understand the issues confronting immigrants living in NC and specifically in Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties
2. explore the impact of immigration on our local economy, including business, educational institutions and health care services
3. educate the community related to the implications of the National LWV Position Statement (2008): `....all persons receiving fair treatment under the law"
4. compare/contrast the lives of immigrants living in Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties with those across the state

The League of Women Voters believes "....immigration policies should promote reunification of immediate families; meet economic, business and employment needs of the United States....and that all persons should receive fair treatment under the law" (National Position Paper, 2008).

The public is invited.

Meeting Agenda

Speaker Biographical Information

Map

LWV Immigration Reform Position and Resource Material

Press Release

Information about the Dream Act

Heath Care Reform Update

January 21, 2010

To: Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

From: Mary G. Wilson, President

Re: Enact Health Care Reform Now

The League of Women Voters urges you to do what is necessary to finish work on health care reform in order to send a bill quickly to the President for his signature. While many of the provisions of the House bill are preferable to those from the Senate, we urge you to accept the Senate bill if other paths to enactment of comprehensive reform are not available.

We have a health care crisis in America. Too many citizens lack adequate health insurance coverage and rising costs threaten everyone. The failure of Congress to act on these issues over decades has simply compounded the problems and undermined faith in government.

Both the House and Senate have now passed comprehensive health care legislation, and the bills share many essential elements: they greatly expand health care coverage to include millions more Americans; they protect the coverage that currently delivers care to most; they contain essential elements to reduce costs over the long term; and they accomplish these goals at a reasonable cost. Either bill would represent an important, indeed an historic, step forward. Leaving the current system in place, after both the House and Senate have acted, and acted responsibly, would be a travesty.

Opponents of health care reform have adopted a strategy of fear, delay and obfuscation. They have relied on the anti-majoritarian rules of the Senate. And they have misled and lied about the provisions of the legislation. These fundamentally anti-democratic tactics cannot be allowed to prevail.

Medicare was enacted over strong opposition from those who opposed "socialized medicine." Social Security was adopted despite loud and prolonged complaints. Yet, both these systems are now sacrosanct. Many other accomplishments, from civil rights to environmental protection, were controversial when first adopted but have proven to be critical steps forward. Health care reform is part of that tradition.

We understand that there may be a number of ways for health care reform to succeed. None of these possibilities will accomplish all that needs to be done, and Congress will need to revisit many issues in coming years. But any of these alternatives moves us toward successful health care reform and thus is better than the status quo.

The League of Women Voters strongly urges you not to miss this historic opportunity to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation.

Senate Approves Health Care Reform Legislation

The Senate passed a historic $871 billion health care reform bill early Thursday morning, December 24th, handing President Obama a Christmas Eve victory on his top domestic priority.

The bill passed in a 60-39 party line vote after months of heated partisan debate. Every member of the Democratic caucus backed the measure; every Republican opposed it. Summary of the Senate bill

The bill now must now be merged with a $1 trillion plan approved by the House of Representatives in November. Democrats hope to have a bill ready for Obama's signature before the president's State of the Union address early next year.

There are major differences in the House and Senate bills, namely the "public option," which the LWVUS continues to advocate for. We will see what plays out in the first weeks of the new decade.

House Approves Health Care Reform Legislation

On November 7th, the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) by a vote of 220-215. The bill ensures access to quality, stable, affordable health care; promotes competition; slows the growth in health care costs; and improves the quality of care. While this bill is not perfect, it is an historic step forward that we believe needs to be supported.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act. Key provisions are:

1. Reduces the deficit more
2. Ends health insurance companies' blanket exemption from anti-trust laws
3. Extends coverage for young people up to 27th birthday through parents' insurance
4. Creates a new, voluntary, public long-term care insurance program
5. Exempts small businesses with payrolls below $500,000 from employer mandate
6. Limits the 'Health Care Surcharge' to millionaires
7. Addresses geographic variation in Medicare payments/Moving to Medicare payments rewarding quality and cost-effectiveness
8. Begins closing the Medicare Part D "donut hole" immediately
9. Provides immediate help for the uninsured (interim high-risk pool)
10. Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

More information

This bill includes a public health insurance option which will provide another choice in many areas of the US where one or two insurance companies dominate the market. Unfortunately this public option lost a powerful cost-saver in the shuffle. It lost the Medicare + 5% start-up provision and now has the Secretary of HHS have to negotiate rates for providers that participate in the public option.. That means the public option will have to start out from day one negotiating rates with a health industry that would like to see it fail. That could be a problem.

However, this bill is more in line with our League's position than the current Senate bill and contains many potential good things for North Carolina. As Adam Searing from the Health Access Coalition wrote in his NC Health Report today:

The LWVUS has been very clear about its support for health care reform which includes a "robust" public option.

Leaguers everywhere are called upon to (again) let their legislators know where they stand on the public option and health care reform. The Senate Finance Committee bill will be merged with the proposal developed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel (Senator Kennedy's HELP Committee). The HELP proposal contains a public option. If the Senate Democrats adopt the Finance Committee's proposal and drop the public option (as is expected) the bill has a greater chance of passing in the Senate. However, it will set up a direct confrontation with the House where all three of its bills include a public option. Therefore, the Senate and House merged version bill will surely have a public option. That's when the real fight begins.

PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH REFORM League Urges Congress and President to Continue Support for Public Option:

LWVUS President Mary G. Wilson in her Aug. 19th, 2009 Letter stated-
"The public option in health care reform may not be essential to bureaucrats or insurance companies but it absolutely is essential to the almost 47 million uninsured Americans who live day to day without health care coverage," said League of Women Voters National President Mary G. Wilson. Calling on Congress and the President not to succumb to the bullying tactics being used by special interest groups, Wilson urged Congress and the President not to waver in their support of the public option included in H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, recently passed by three House committees.

America is facing a health care crisis caused by a combination of skyrocketing costs and an insurance system that leaves millions of Americans without any coverage. "The current health care system is endangering our economy, our health, and our national security," Wilson said. "Last fall, voters elected a Congress and President that promised to reform our heath care system. Voters made it clear that they want a change in our health care system, a change that puts the brakes on the excesses created by a system dominated by large insurance companies," she continued.

"It is universal coverage that will determine the humanity of our system and a public option will make that possible for Americans who cannot obtain coverage through the traditional employer-sponsored plans," noted Wilson. "We believe that health care reform legislation must guarantee access to comprehensive and essential benefits to all U.S. residents."

"But the possibility of universal coverage is not the only advantage of the public option," warned Wilson. "We must control costs and the public option is the best chance to bring costs into line with reality. As a nation, we are spending $1 out of every $6 we earn on health care. Over the last three decades, increases in the amount we spend on health care have consistently risen faster than wages and inflation. Health care reform must provide effective cost controls, equitable distribution of services and allow for efficient and economical delivery of care. Offering everyone the choice of a government administered health insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans is key to lowering costs."

"The public option is critical to health care reform," Wilson concluded. "Now is not the time for politicians to get cold feet just because a handful of special-interest-backed protesters spread lies and make noise at public forums. Congress and the President need to demonstrate real leadership and move forward with true health care reform."

What You Need to Know About Health Care Reform

US House Health Reform Proposal

Your US Senators
Your US Representative

LWV Activity

Affordable health care is ranking near the top of citizens' concerns nationally and locally. The LWVODC Health Care Reform Advocacy Committee is working together with LWVNC to educate and advocate our community about health care reform issues.

Resources

• Why is comprehensive change to North Carolina's Health Insurance System Needed?
  
• How is the LWVODC Health Care Reform Advocacy Committee working to advocate for and to educate the community about health care reform along with theLWV of NC?
  
• What actions can you take to make a difference?
  
• Health Care Reform: Reality Check New resource from the White House to challenge the lies and rumors circulating on health care reform proposals.
  

• H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, District by District Impact (Tool for health care reform advocates. Just click on your district.)
  

• Kaiser Family Foundation: Side by Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform proposals
  

• Other documents to support HR3200
  

• The League of Women Voters of Arizona has compiled a 58 page booklet that supplies many of the facts and figures you may be looking for regarding Health Care Issues BEHIND Health Care Reform. They are not advocating for a certain plan or a particular reform. They hope simply to supply legislators, those personally interested in reform, or advocates for certain plans, the materials they need when considering their point of view or when trying to convince others of it.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: March 11, 2010 12:20 PST.

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