Congressman Steve Cohen - Health Care Reform

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Health Care Reform

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is the most significant health care reform bill ever passed in Congress. I am proud to have lent my input and support for this landmark legislation that will provide health insurance coverage to 96% of Americans.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act will help The MED in Memphis by drastically reducing the number of uninsured patients. It will provide resources for more community health centers and family practice doctors in our inner city. This bill will help our city’s mothers and families through the inclusion of infant mortality programs, a measure based on my NEWBORN Act, which would establish 15 pilot programs across the country aimed at lowering the rate of infant mortality to promote research, education interventions, and access to prenatal care.

H.R. 3962 helps our nation’s young and old. It allows young Americans to remain on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 27, helping to cover one in three uninsured young adults. For seniors, this bill means better benefits and lower costs, and it will preserve Medicare’s solvency for years to come. It closes the donut hole for prescription coverage, and will result in lower overall prescription drug costs for seniors.

This legislation improves our nation’s focus on wellness and prevention programs. It eliminates out-of-pocket costs for most preventive services (like mammograms or colonoscopies), reducing the climbing cost of health care for every American. This bill ends the atrocious health insurance industry practice of discriminating against patients based on pre-existing health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes. Insurance companies will no longer be able to drop a patient when he or she gets ‘too sick,’ and will bar them from being able to place an arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage a patient can receive in a year or lifetime. It institutes a cap on how much a patient can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because no one should go broke when they get sick.

The passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act is the culmination of an American political journey that started 97 years ago with Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 with the Bull Moose Party, and was picked up years later by Harry Truman and other presidents, including Richard Nixon. I am proud to be a part of this journey, and I look forward to the implementation of these great plans for the future of our district and nation.

GENERAL SUMMARIES & FACT SHEETS
Four Page Bill Summary
10 Page Bill Summary
Managers Amendment Summary
Topline Changes from Introduced Bill to Blended Bill
Immediate Investments on the Road to Reform
Top 14 Provisions That Take Effect Immediately
Implementation Timeline
Supporters of the Affordable Health Care for America Act
Myths vs. Facts
The Cost of Inaction
Health Care by the Numbers
Pocket Card