Letter Received From Congressman John Oliver
Dear Adam:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the movement towards true health insurance reform. I appreciate hearing from you.
Our current system is failing our citizens. Our states are struggling under the weight of increasing unemployment and healthcare costs. States, which currently spend over 20 percent of their budgets on health care costs, are seeing 1.1 million new enrollees in Medicaid for every one percent increase in unemployment. Many of the newly unemployed cannot even consider COBRA coverage a viable option. COBRA coverage would consume nearly 84 percent of family unemployment benefits – a price too great for a struggling family to consider. Currently, almost 45 million people go without health insurance, more than the combined populations of Connecticut and California.
As you may know, H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, would help to close this gap by creating a transparent and functional marketplace for individuals and small employers to comparison shop among private and public health insurers. This marketplace would increase the availability of coverage by creating a central location where consumers can go to compare different insurers and decide which is the best one for them. Private insurers would be able to compete with the public insurance options, with the hope that this fair and open competition will drive the price of insurance down. Along with the transparency of the open marketplace, the H.R. 3200 would guarantee certain coverage for consumers, such as caps on out-of-pocket spending, no more denials for preexisting conditions, an end to lifetime and annual limits on benefits, and a limit on the insurer’s ability to charge higher rates based on a person’s health status. In addition, the public option would provide a guaranteed set of benefits including both inpatient and outpatient hospital services, maternity services, preventive care for children, as well as mental health and substance abuse services.
In order to ensure that there are insurance plans available to all, H.R. 3200 would create a sliding scale of affordability credits which would be made available to low and moderate income individuals and families. Higher income individuals – those families making over $350,000 – would contribute less than 1% of their annual income in the form of a health care surcharge. For example, a family making $400,000 would contribute $500 to help provide access to affordable health care for all Americans – 0.13% of their annual income. A sliding scale would adjust the level of contribution as an individual’s income increases. The bill would also work to fill the donut hole in the Medicare Part D program and improve Medicare services for senior citizens and people with disabilities.
While H.R. 3200 has garnered most of the attention of late, another bill, which I have cosponsored, would do even more to ensure the rights of every American citizen to access affordable healthcare. H.R. 676, the United States National Healthcare Act, would provide a single-payer healthcare system under which would provide each U.S. citizen with free comprehensive healthcare services. Based off of the Medicare model, the National Health Care Program would be publicly financed, but would still allow each patient high-quality coverage for the doctor or hospital of their choice. It is expected that an amendment to H.R. 3200 will be introduced which would replace most of the text of that bill with that of H.R. 676. This would allow the House a straight up-or-down vote on the concept of single payer healthcare. I assure you that, should Rep. Weiner’s amendment come to the House floor for a vote, it will receive my support.
I also support an amendment likely to be proposed by Rep. Kucinich which would allow states to administer their own single payer health insurance systems. I fully support giving states the right to take these steps individually and I can assure you that, should Rep. Kucinich’s amendment come to the House floor for a vote, it will receive my support.
Again, thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on health insurance reform. Please be assured that, as this debate moves forward, I will continue to advocate for the right of every American citizen to have access to high-quality, affordable health care. Please feel free to contact me in the future with any further questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
John W. Olver
Member of Congress
