WASHINGTON-
Today, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) spoke with employees at Blue
Mountain Health System in Lehighton about how the health care reform law that
was enacted last week will improve the affordability and accessibility of
health care. It also provides many
immediate benefits that will start this year including beginning to close the
"doughnut hole" in Medicare for seniors, providing tax credits for small
businesses to help them afford health insurance for their employees,
prohibiting insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick and
from placing lifetime caps on coverage, and enabling young adults to stay on
their parents' health insurance until age 26, among many other provisions.
"The health care reform law is about enabling the
American people to choose the most affordable health insurance that best fits
their and their families' needs," said Congressman Kanjorski. "It will take a few years for many of the
details of the legislation to go into effect, but there are many provisions that
will begin to benefit people this year.
This law will lower costs for everyone and give all Americans and small
businesses more control over their health care choices. Soon, people will be able to see these
benefits and insurance companies will no longer have the upper hand over what
types of insurance Americans can access."
"An essential component of the legislation
provides hospitals with important tools to improve the delivery and quality of
health care services," said Andrew E. Harris, chief executive officer and
president of the Blue Mountain Health System.
"Pennsylvania hospitals and health systems have long supported taking
steps to achieve coverage for all our citizens and this legislation moves us
closer to achieving that goal."
"As a long time physician and
member of the senior management team at the Blue Mountain Health System, it
became painfully obvious that health care reform was desperately needed -
reform that puts the patient first," said Clement McGinley, M.D., vice
president of medical affairs for the Blue Mountain Health System. "We know from following the national debate
that there was nothing easy about developing this legislation and we thank
Congressman Kanjorski for keeping healthcare reform a priority."
Starting
this year, the health care reform law will provide many benefits to
Americans. It will begin to hold
insurance companies accountable by prohibiting them from dropping people's
coverage when they get sick. It also
bans insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions
and eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on coverage. The
law requires new private plans to cover preventative services and immunizations
with no co-payments and to ensure that consumers have access to an effective
internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions.
Seniors
will start to see immediate relief from high prescription prices with a $250
rebate for Medicare beneficiaries who hit the "doughnut hole," which the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services will issue guidelines about in the
coming weeks. The legislation also makes
preventative services and immunizations free under Medicare starting in 2011,
eliminating co-payments for preventative services and exempting preventative
services from deductibles.
Small
businesses that provide coverage to their employees will be eligible for a tax
credit of up to 35 percent of premiums. The legislation creates a temporary
high-risk pool to insure those who are currently uninsured because of a
pre-existing condition and extends coverage to young people, allowing them to
remain on their parents' insurance policy until age 26. It also increases funding for new training
programs to train a greater number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public
health professionals and includes increased funding for community health
centers - allowing them to almost double the amount of patients they treat over
the next five years.
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