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Health care reform has been a top priority during the 111th Congress. One of the first votes I cast was to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which expanded health care coverage to 120,000 more of Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens. And Congress made history earlier this year by passing comprehensive health care reform legislation that will expand access to health care for 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce our budget deficit by $1.3 trillion, ease the burden of health insurance costs on small businesses, and improve care for seniors. I was proud to support these critical reforms, which the President signed into law in March.

Many reforms included in this legislation will take effect right away. In the next year, these changes will begin helping American families:

  • Medicare patients can receive free preventive care,
  • Seniors are eligible for assistance to close the “Donut Hole” in prescription drug coverage,
  • Small businesses paying for health insurance will receive tax credits up to 35 percent of premiums,
  • Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to children because of preexisting conditions,
  • Insurers will be prohibited from dropping coverage if a person becomes sick,
  • Young people will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until their 26th birthday.
This legislation will ensure that 95 percent of Americans have health insurance while containing costs and reducing the deficit. These reforms provide for increased competition among insurers, allowing businesses and individuals to choose from a wider range of insurance plans at lower costs. Over the next 10 years, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that this law will reduce the budget deficit by $138 billion dollars, with more than $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction in the following 10 years.

I worked with my Congressional colleagues and the Administration to ensure that no federal funding will be used for abortion. The President's executive order clarifies existing law and ensures that federal subsidies will not pay for abortion services. Make no mistake, this order carries the full force of law (the Emancipation Proclamation and the integration of our armed forces were executive orders). My commitment to life issues has been clear throughout this debate, and I would not have supported this bill unless the executive order upheld my principles and maintained long standing prohibitions on taxpayer dollars for abortion.

MORE INFORMATION ON HEALTH CARE REFORM

Healthreform.gov, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ site offering a wide range of information about the recent law and how it will affect you and your family: http://healthreform.gov/

The State of Ohio has created a site showing how provisions of the health reform law will affect Ohio residents: http://healthcarereform.ohio.gov/

AARP offers information on health reform, particularly how it will affect Medicare patients and older Americans: http://www.aarp.org/health/health-care-reform/info-04-2010/a_user_s_guide_to_health_care_reform.html

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created a calculator to illustrate how costs will change for patients buying insurance on the Exchange: http://healthreform.kff.org/

The Center for American Progress has a tool for small businesses to calculate their likely tax credit based on the new health care law: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/small_business_health_calculator.html

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