WASHINGTON- Today, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) spoke with employees at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains 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."

"Geisinger has been fortunate over the past few years to provide input to Washington regarding ways we have been successful in providing quality and value for our patients and members," said Steven Pierdon, MD, Geisinger Northeast Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. "We appreciate the Congressman's visit today and continue to encourage our elected officials to work toward a context within which all healthcare providers and payers will see their primary mission as the provision of efficient, high quality care to all Americans."

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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