Results tagged “health care” from EdLabor Journal

The Associated Press wrote today that the 111th Congress holds a “record of achievement unseen in years.” The report read:

“Not since the explosive years of the civil rights movement and the hard-fought debut of government-supported health care for the elderly and poor have so many big things -- love them or hate them -- been done so quickly.

“Gridlock? It may feel that way. But that's not the story of the 111th Congress -- not the story history will remember.”

The AP specifically referenced many of Chairman Miller’s achievements when listing important legislation Congressional Democrats have passed, including “a giant step toward universal [health care] coverage”, “an economic stimulus package… to avoid a full-blown depression”,  “making college loans more affordable” and “making it easier for women to challenge pay discrimination.”

Chairman Miller pledged in 2008 to keep the Education and Labor Committee focused on rebuilding and strengthening the middle class during the 111th Congress.

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services forcefully responded to critics of the Affordable Care Act in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today. She wrote:

“These critics seem to believe that any oversight of the insurance industry is too much, and that consumers would be better off in a system where they have few rights or protections.”

…

“The Affordable Care Act is bringing some basic fairness to our health insurance market. So when I learned that a handful of insurers around the country are blaming their significant rate increases on the new law—even though the facts show that the impact of the law on premiums is small, just 1% to 2% declining over time—I let them know that we'd be closely reviewing their rate hikes.

It’s understandable that some insurance companies and their allies don't welcome this change. They've made large profits from the status quo. And it's not surprising—though still disappointing—that House Republicans have recently pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act and get rid of these new consumer protections.

“If critics really want to go back to the days when insurance companies ran wild with no accountability, they should have the courage to say so openly instead of hiding behind distracting attacks. In the meantime, we're going to keep standing up for American families and small business owners who deserve a system that works for them.”

More information on the Affordable Care Act

President Obama spent the afternoon in a Falls Church, Va. backyard explaining the benefits of health care reform, including many changes that will go into effect tomorrow. The Washington Post reported:

“He highlighted some new reforms that take effect at the six-month mark Thursday, including new coverage for preventive care and young adults being able to stay on their parents' health care plans until age 26.

“‘I thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ one woman present, Norma Byrne of Vineland, N.J., told the president, explaining she was benefiting from the law's provisions that are closing the prescription drug coverage gap in Medicare.”

Today, the White House unveiled a new health reform website – whitehouse.gov/healthreform that features the stories of people across the nation who will benefit from the Affordable Care Act.

Individuals featured on the site include Jennifer from North Dakota whose 9 year-old daughter Allison has Mucopolysaccharidosis type I, a rare genetic disorder. Allison’s prescription drug costs were rapidly approaching Jennifer’s plan’s lifetime limit – leaving her unsure about how she could continue to pay for her daughter’s life-saving medication. Caps on lifetime benefits are banned under the Affordable Care Act.

Thursday is an important day for many Americans who have struggled to maintain health coverage. Major provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect on the 23rd that will help more citizens receive affordable care and protect against the worst insurance company abuses, like refusing coverage to children with preexisting conditions. CBS San Francisco interviewed Julie Waters, the mother of a toddler with severe epilepsy. In response to the impending reforms, Waters told CBS:

 “Violet can still see the doctor. Violet can still be in the hospital for two weeks if she needs to for them to stop her seizures. Violet is going to be ok because of this.”

The Contra Costa Times profiled Gino Romiti, who suffers from fibromyalgia, a condition that causes chronic pain:

“For 23-year-old Gino Romiti, Thursday will be a day to celebrate.

“Six months after passage of the federal health reform law, major provisions will kick in that supporters say will make it easier for Americans to get and keep health insurance, including young people like Romiti.

“Romiti has taken a semester off school and is working at a clothing store in Walnut Creek that does not provide health insurance. He has been on his father's policy, but would have soon lost that coverage because he is not a student.

“That will change beginning Thursday, however, when he and other young people can remain on their parents' policies up to age 26.”

View CBS San Francisco’s full report below, which includes footage of Chairman Miller’s recent press conference on the Affordable Care Act.

The Medicare program is better protected from waste, fraud and abuse due to provisions of the Affordable Care Act. One of the fraud provisions in the law was inserted by Chairman Miller. Miller’s provision would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to hold the initial reimbursement to a new durable medical device supplier (for example, new suppliers of canes, crutches, and wheelchairs) for 90 days while she determines if there is a significant risk of fraud. In October, 60 Minutes highlighted the issue of unscrupulous durable medical device suppliers that use “phantom patients” to get paid by Medicare for medical supplies never purchased. This provision will give Medicare investigators the time they need to determine whether the business is legitimate.

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced steps it is taking to keep the Medicare program safe and secure. The Hill explained these new measures:

“Healthcare providers would be subject to new screening measures based on their level of risk to federal health programs, under new proposed regulations released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The fraud, waste and abuse prevention measures were called for in the new healthcare reform law.

“The screening measures include database and licensure checks, unscheduled or unannounced site visits, even criminal background checks and fingerprinting for the highest-risk providers and suppliers to Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. The proposed rule, which will be open for comment for 60 days, also establishes the criteria for six-month enrollment moratoriums to combat fraud and on payment suspensions during pending fraud investigations.”

…

“Improper payments cost federal health programs about $55 billion a year. The White House piggy-backed off the announcement to make the case that defunding healthcare reform, as some Republicans in Congress are advocating, would increase fraud.”

The White House applauded HHS’s work and reminded us all that these are among the reform provisions that congressional Republicans threaten to repeal:

“But if some opponents of health reform in Congress get their way, these common sense rules will be stopped dead in their tracks.

“Opponents are threatening to defund the Affordable Care Act, which would effectively handicap implementation and enforcement of these new rules that would help crack down on criminals and protect seniors.

“This is just one example of the consequences of defunding the Affordable Care Act and one of the many reasons why we can’t afford to roll back the new law. If opponents of reform get their way, new anti-fraud policies aren’t the only provisions that will be prevented from moving forward.”

The Census Bureau reported yesterday that 1 in 6 Americans did not have health coverage in 2009. That’s over 50 million people. This new statistic underscores the importance of the Affordable Care Act, which provides affordable care for all Americans and protects from the worst insurance company abuses – like denying coverage after a policyholder gets sick and setting lifetime limits on coverage. USA Today reported on the reasons for this rise:

“The reasons for the rise to 50.7 million, or 16.7%, from 46.3 million uninsured, or 15.4%, were many: workers losing their jobs in the recession, companies dropping employee health insurance benefits, families going without coverage to cut costs. Driving much of the increase, however, was the rising cost of medical care; a Kaiser Family Foundation report shows workers now pay 47% more than they did in 2005 for family health coverage, while employers pay 20% more.”

This report is a sobering reminder of why Democrats in Congress fought for the Affordable Care Act: the law will cover 32 million uninsured Americans while reducing the deficit and ensure that loss of employment no longer means the loss of health care coverage.

September 23rd marks the 6-month anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and the first day many important reforms go into effect. Beginning September 23rd, all new health plans will be prohibited from placing lifetime caps on coverage. This provision will be life-changing for one family profiled by Kaiser Health News and countless other families around the country. Kaiser reported:

“For many years, Ric and Jill Lathrop held their breath when the annual open enrollment period for their health insurance plan rolled around. Their two boys, now 12 and 14, have severe hemophilia, and each needs twice-weekly injections of a blood clotting replacement factor that costs roughly $250,000 per person per year. The couple lived in fear that their health plan would put a lifetime limit on their benefits.

“In 2005, that's what happened. The Oshkosh, Wis., hospital where Ric Lathrop worked as an MRI technician instituted a $2 million lifetime cap on benefits for the entire family. Rather than wait for their benefits to run out, the Lathrop family relocated to Illinois, where Ric Lathrop got a job at a hospital in Peoria; along with the job came insurance without lifetime limits.

“If that coverage had changed, the Lathrops might have had to move again . . . and maybe again. But the federal health-care overhaul makes further wandering unnecessary. Starting Sept. 23, the new law requires that when health plans renew their coverage for the coming year, they eliminate lifetime limits on coverage.

"It gives us a lot of reassurance to know our kids can have more freedom," says Jill Lathrop.”

Other provisions going into effect for all new plans and plan years beginning after Sept. 23 include:

• Requiring plans to allow young people up to their 26th birthday to remain on their parents’ insurance policy.
• Banning all health plans from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.
• Providing immediate access to insurance for Americans who are uninsured because of a pre‐existing condition. —This program is already in effect.
  

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will reduce health insurance costs for small businesses and increase coverage beginning this year, according to two reports released today.

Both a Commonwealth Fund report and an analysis by the RAND Corporation concluded that the new health reform law will help small business owners offer insurance because of tax credits and lower administrative costs of coverage available through a new insurance marketplace, the Exchange.

“The ACA will provide both immediate and long-term relief for millions of small businesses that have long struggled to provide health insurance to their workers and who are now coping with a severely weakened economy,” the Commonwealth Fund report concluded.

Small businesses often face difficulties in securing affordable coverage for their employees as the result of higher administrative costs and insufficient bargaining power as compared to larger companies. The RAND Corporation found that the new health reform law will increase the number of small businesses offering health insurance coverage “by aggregating employees of small firms into a single risk pool, exchanges will reduce year-to-year variance in premiums and may increase bargaining power and reduce administrative spending per enrollee.”

RAND estimates that that the percentage of workers receiving insurance through their job will increase from 84.6 percent to 94.6 percent once reform is fully implemented. The largest factor in this expansion is from more small businesses being able to offer coverage – rising from 60 percent to nearly 86 percent after reform.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, small businesses spend up to 18 percent more in premiums than larger firms do for the same insurance policy. In addition, when workers in small business have to shop for coverage themselves, nearly 70 percent of these workers give up because they found it difficult or impossible to navigate the individual market. More than 16 million employees work in small businesses will be eligible for a tax credit to provide health coverage over up to 2014 as the result of health reform law.

The Affordable Care Act provides specific benefits to assist small businesses and their workers to secure quality and affordable health insurance coverage. Beginning this year, many small businesses will be eligible for a tax credit for providing health coverage to their employees. When health reform comes into full effect in 2014, small businesses and their employees will be able to benefit from the creation of the health insurance exchange, a new marketplace that will help to drive down high administrative costs and end the worst insurance industry practices.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced today that nearly 2,000 employers and other organizations are eligible to receive crucial assistance to help them continue promised health coverage for early retirees, representing the first round of successful applications for the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. Early retiree health plans for employers such as General Motors Co., General Electric Co., unions, state and local governments and universities are eligible for assistance contained in provisions of the new health reform law.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius conveyed the importance of the program:

“In these tough economic times, it is difficult for employers to keep up with skyrocketing health care costs for employees and retirees. Many Americans who retire before they are eligible for Medicare see their life savings disappear because of medical bills and exorbitant rates in the individual health insurance market… The Affordable Care Act’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program will make it a little easier for employers to provide high-quality health benefits to their retirees as we work to put in place market reforms to lower costs for all.”

According to the Associated Press, “As medical costs soared in the last 20 years, employers have dramatically scaled back retiree health coverage. The share of large companies providing the benefit dropped from 66 percent in 1988 to 29 percent last year.”

The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program will help maintain promised coverage of early retirees who are over 55, but not yet Medicare eligible, providing an important bridge to help control costs until health reform comes into full effect in 2014. Organizations eligible for the program will receive partial reimbursements for health care costs that rise between $15,000 and $90,000 for each individual in the plan. The reimbursements may be used to reduce premiums or hold down rising costs for employers.  

The eligible employers represent a cross-section of the American economy – from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, local governments, union health plans, nonprofits and educational institutions from every state and the District of Columbia. HHS says that more applications to participate in the program are pending and new applications will be accepted. 

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post highlighted the looming deficit problems for states and localities and how it could mean a loss of nearly 300,000 teachers' jobs nationwide.

In the New York Times editorial, Saving the Teachers, they say:

Last year’s $100 billion education stimulus plan insulated the public schools from the worst of the recession and saved an estimated 300,000 jobs. With the economy still lagging and states forced to slash their budgets, Congress must act again to prevent a wave of teacher layoffs that could damage the fragile recovery and hobble the school reform effort for years to come.

In March, Representative George Miller, a Democrat of California, introduced a jobs bill that included a $23 billion school rescue plan. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, has since introduced a similar plan fashioned as an emergency spending bill. The House version is the better of the two.

The need for a second school stimulus plan was underscored on Monday by a new analysis from the American Association of School Administrators, which reported that cash-strapped districts were prepared to cut as many 275,000 jobs in the 2010-2011 school year.

The loss of that many paychecks — and the resulting decline in consumer spending — could kill off still more jobs in the communities where teachers and other school employees live.

(emphasis added)

Harold Meyerson wrote about the school recession in the Washington Post:

The worst recession since the 1930s is clobbering the nation's schools.

In Indiana and Arizona, the legislatures have eliminated free all-day kindergarten. In Kansas, some school districts have gone to four-day weeks. In New Jersey, 60 percent of school districts are reducing their course offerings. In Albuquerque, the number of school district employees is down 10 percent. In the D.C. suburbs, Maryland's Prince George's and Virginia's Prince William counties have increased their class sizes.

The Local Jobs for America Act allocates $23 billion this year to help states support 250,000 education jobs. And it does a lot more for local communities like funding for firefighters and police.

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post highlighted the looming deficit problems for states and localities and how it could mean a loss of nearly 300,000 teachers' jobs nationwide.

In the New York Times editorial, Saving the Teachers, they say:

Last year’s $100 billion education stimulus plan insulated the public schools from the worst of the recession and saved an estimated 300,000 jobs. With the economy still lagging and states forced to slash their budgets, Congress must act again to prevent a wave of teacher layoffs that could damage the fragile recovery and hobble the school reform effort for years to come.

In March, Representative George Miller, a Democrat of California, introduced a jobs bill that included a $23 billion school rescue plan. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, has since introduced a similar plan fashioned as an emergency spending bill. The House version is the better of the two.

The need for a second school stimulus plan was underscored on Monday by a new analysis from the American Association of School Administrators, which reported that cash-strapped districts were prepared to cut as many 275,000 jobs in the 2010-2011 school year.

The loss of that many paychecks — and the resulting decline in consumer spending — could kill off still more jobs in the communities where teachers and other school employees live.

(emphasis added)

Harold Meyerson wrote about the school recession in the Washington Post:

The worst recession since the 1930s is clobbering the nation's schools.

In Indiana and Arizona, the legislatures have eliminated free all-day kindergarten. In Kansas, some school districts have gone to four-day weeks. In New Jersey, 60 percent of school districts are reducing their course offerings. In Albuquerque, the number of school district employees is down 10 percent. In the D.C. suburbs, Maryland's Prince George's and Virginia's Prince William counties have increased their class sizes.

The Local Jobs for America Act allocates $23 billion this year to help states support 250,000 education jobs. And it does a lot more for local communities like funding for firefighters and police.

A New York Times' editorial today notes that the health care reform bill is already changing the behavior of the health insurance companies and that is a big win for consumers.

Americans are already starting to see the benefits of health care reform. The new law requires health insurance companies — starting in September — to end their most indefensible practice: rescinding coverage after a policyholder gets sick. In recent days insurers and their trade association have rushed to announce that they will end rescissions immediately.

That is very good news for the thousands of people who each year pay their premiums but lose their coverage just when they are likely to run up big medical bills.

...

The insurers were wise to short-circuit the criticisms and end rescissions now. This follows a recent agreement by many companies to start letting dependents stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, which isn’t required until September. Under pressure from the White House, the industry has also agreed to cover children with pre-existing medical conditions as soon as new rules are issued.

Many of the other major provisions of reform don’t kick in until 2014, but it is already changing the behavior of insurers. That means more security for many Americans who might otherwise find insurance unaffordable or unavailable.

Additionally, consumers in California in the individual market will see a reprieve of the 39% increase in their premiums by Anthem Blue Cross.

WellPoint Inc. said it would revise its request for steep rate hikes in California's individual market, after a state regulator said it found flaws in the company's application.

The proposed premium increases by the company's Anthem Blue Cross unit would have affected more than 700,000 consumers, who would have seen their rates go up by as much as 39%.

Learn more about the benefits of health insurance reform for you and your family.

On this blog, we have highlighted many of the benefits to all Americans under the new health reform law. Today the New York Times joins in, highlighting another key change, free preventative care under new plans. The new health reform law requires new private plans to cover preventive services with no co‐payments and with preventive services being exempt from deductibles.

As the New York Times reports:

The new law also aims eventually to improve health insurance for everyone. By now you have probably read or heard about big changes like the rules that will require insurers to cover everyone who applies, regardless of health status, and forbid them from dropping people when they get sick.

You may not yet be aware, though, of another notable improvement to insurance, a change that could save a consumer or family hundreds of dollars a year. Under the new law, insurers must offer preventive services — like immunizations, cancer screenings and checkups — to consumers as part of the insurance policy, at no additional out-of-pocket charge.

The idea is that healthy Americans will be less costly Americans.

“This is transformative,” says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit organization for large employers. “We’re moving from an insurance model that was based on treating illness and injury, to a model that’s focused on improving an individual’s health and identifying risk factors.”

The trend toward offering free preventive care has been gaining steam for a decade among large companies that provide employee health benefits. “Employers recognize that if they want to control costs, they have to persuade their workers to be healthier, including their children,” Ms. Darling said.

Three out of four large companies now offer free preventive health services to their workers, according to a 2009 survey by Mercer, a benefits consulting firm. Smaller employers, though, and individual health plans have been less likely to offer free care of any type.

Learn more about the new health reform law and how all Americans will benefit. Also, see this PDF for more information about preventing disease and improving the public's health.

This year, President Obama and a Democratic-led Congress have:

ALLOWED EXTENDED COVERAGE UNTIL AGE 26 THROUGH YOUR PARENTS: Reform allows you to stay on your parents’ health care plans until your 26th birthday (PDF). Between now and 2014, this only applies if your employer doesn’t offer you coverage. Beginning in 2014, it applies to all young people, even if you get insurance through your job. This will help to cover the one in three young adults who are uninsured.

LOWERED YOUR COSTS WITH FREE PREVENTATIVE CARE FOR BETTER HEALTH: Reform means free preventive care to all people insured under new plans (PDF), and invests in preventing illness and disease instead of just treating them when it’s too late and costs more. Simple prevention can stop a small health problem from getting worse as you get older.

GIVEN YOU NEW PATIENTS’ RIGHTS THAT SAVE YOU MONEY: This year, reform eliminates lifetime limits on how much insurance companies cover if you get sick, and tightly restricts yearly limits (PDF). In 2014, reform caps what insurance companies can force you to pay in co‐pays & deductibles, bans "gender rating" that allows women to be charged more for the same coverage, and bans new group plans from having eligibility requirements that have the effect of discriminating in favor of higher wage employees—who tend not be younger workers.

GIVEN YOU SECURITY THAT YOUR  HEALTH CARE IS NOT TIED TO A JOB: Reform means affordable health insurance is available to those without job‐based coverage, starting in 2014, and provides substantial premium assistance (PDF) to those who still can’t afford it. Young adults are just starting jobs and careers, and often don’t have access to job‐based coverage. Even when they do, they often can’t afford health insurance—or must endure a waiting period as a new employee.

ENSURE YOU HAVE HEALTH CARE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST – WHEN YOU'RE SICK: You can no longer be dropped from your plan if you get sick. If you have a “pre‐existing condition,” beginning in 2014, you can no longer be denied coverage or charged higher rates (PDF) —and between now and 2014, you can enter an interim high‐risk pool to get insurance. This year, discrimination is banned for children under age 19 who have pre-existing conditions.

PROVIDED YOU A CHOICE OF COMPETITIVE PRICES AND PLANS: Reform creates Health Insurance Exchanges, or marketplaces (PDF), you can shop in if you don’t get insurance through your job. Starting in 2014, you get the benefits of group purchasing power like big businesses have.7

MADE IT EASY WITH ONE-STOP SHOPPING: Insurance "Exchanges" or marketplaces will allow you to simply and easily compare prices and health plans online (PDF) and choose what’s right for you. The typical young adult risks losing coverage when you change jobs, move, or hold a part‐time or temporary job. Under reform, it doesn’t matter.

PAID FOR REFORM SO YOUR GENERATION’S NOT STUCK WITH THE BILL: Health insurance reform is actually projected to lower the deficit by $1.3 trillion (PDF) over the next two decades. It lowers health care costs over the long term—so it makes sense it lowers the cost to taxpayers.

Yesterday was a milestone for students and taxpayers. President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 into law.

The Denver Post reports:

President Barack Obama signed into law the last piece of his mammoth plan to overhaul health care Tuesday and, with the same pen strokes, achieved a far-reaching change in the way most Americas help pay the cost of a college education.

Both the health care provisions and revamping the loan program for college students were sandwiched into a single piece of legislation — the budget-reconciliation bill approved last week by the House and Senate.

The San Francisco Chronicle summarizes how students and taxpayers benefit from these new student loan reforms.

President Obama signed important and welcome changes to the nation's campus loan program. The reforms should save the country billions and give more students a crack at a college degree.

Why it took so long is a minor scandal. Since the 1970s, federal money was doled out to banks to lend to students. In practice, though, the banks collected a healthy fee and fobbed off the bad loans to the government. It was a no-lose deal for these lenders.

But it endured, largely through fierce lobbying from lenders such as Sallie Mae. This year, the dam broke. The Senate and House voted to put Washington in charge of the loans, a shift estimated to save $68 billion over 10 years. That will allow loan limits to rise slightly, expand Pell Grants to defray tuition bills for needy students and invest $2 billion in community colleges.

But the changes didn't come easily, despite the sustained and gallant efforts of Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

Which is what made the signing ceremony all that more enjoyable. The Washington Post reported on the "ebullient mood" of the signing ceremony:

Pelosi vigorously clapped back at the crowd as camera flashes popped. When Obama later singled Pelosi out, calling her "amazing," the crowd jumped to its feet again. (Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) got a standing ovation, too).

Learn more about the reforms to federal student loans as well as the fixes to the health care reform legislation.

The New York Times highlights the important of including the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act in the budget reconciliation package passed by the House last night to getting both health insurance reform and the federal student loan reform done.

The New York Times says:

Lots of Democrats can point to lots of different moments when they think the health care bill was brought back from the brink of collapse.

But for a number of senior House Democrats, the crucial turning point was a meeting the night of March 9 in the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was supposed to be a strategy session with Senate Democratic leaders about the budget reconciliation procedure that Democrats were planning to use to make final changes to the health care bill and push them through the Senate on a simple majority vote.

Instead, the session focused entirely on the question of whether to include another of President Obama’s top legislative priorities — a sweeping overhaul of federal student loan programs — in the reconciliation package.

The budget resolution approved by Congress last spring provided for completing both major health care legislation and major education legislation through reconciliation, which adjusts federal policy to meet specific goals for reducing the deficit.

A trio of House leaders — Representatives James E. Clyburn, the Democratic whip; George Miller, the chairman of the Education and Labor Committee; and Xavier Becerra of California, the vice chairman of the Democratic caucus — argued strenuously in favor of including the education proposal.

...

Although overshadowed by the larger health care fight, the inclusion of the education bill may have been a decisive factor, especially at a time when House Democrats were exceedingly distrustful of their Senate colleagues and were essentially being forced against their better judgment to approve the Senate’s health care bill as the base law to which they would later make changes.

The student loan overhaul was very popular in the House. And because it would save tens of billions of taxpayer dollars by ending subsidies to private commercial banks, it offered a purely populist message at a time when public anger at Wall Street is running high and many liberals were disappointed that the health care bill would not include a public option, or government-run insurance plan.

Mr. Clyburn, who as the whip is the party’s main vote-counter, argued forcefully that the student loan measure would help generate support for the health care package.

...

For some Democrats, the student loan plan is the hidden triumph in the health care fight, and the late-night meeting earlier this month was the crucial moment. “It was an fascinating conversation about what the Democratic Party represented,” one Democrat said.

“Members of Congress have a clear choice,” Mr. Miller said in a floor speech on Sunday night. We can side with the American people by making health insurance and college more affordable and accessible, while creating millions of jobs and reducing the deficit. Or we can side with the insurance companies and the banks. That’s it. That’s the choice. I’m siding with the American people.”

Learn more about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Chairman George Miller wrote two op-eds today about how the reforms to federal student loans fits well with the budget reconciliation and health insurance reform package being considered in Congress.

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Chairman Miller said:

If Congress makes the right call this week, students and taxpayers will win out.

In the coming days, the House and Senate will take a critical up or down vote on historic health insurance reforms. Tied to them will be the most significant reform of our federal student loan program in a generation. It will make federal aid more effective and cost-efficient for students, families, and taxpayers, without increasing the deficit.

Congress should support both measures.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Rep. Miller wrote:

Our bill is good for taxpayers. It would eliminate these needless subsidies and instead have the government initiate student loans, as it does today, and private banks service them. Consider that the government now funds 88 percent of all federal student loan volume. There's simply no reason to keep giving banks a handout.

Our bill is good for students. The federal government has already proved to be a more reliable lender for students in the midst of economic instability. All of the savings generated from switching to direct lending will go to help students pay for college and reduce our deficit.

Our bill is good for jobs. It would preserve private-sector jobs by allowing banks to compete for loan servicing contracts - and could even bring overseas jobs back home. Unlike loans made by banks, direct government loans must be serviced by U.S. workers.

Today's New York Times editorial asks, "what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation. Are [Americans] really satisfied with the status quo? And is the status quo really sustainable?"

It ends with:

If reform is defeated, it seems likely that most of the proposed experiments designed to cut costs — first within Medicare and then throughout the rest of the health care system — will die as well. The legislation needs to be passed to establish a structure to force continuing improvement over the years. That is the best chance of restraining soaring medical costs that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the federal government.

Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of “dangerous experiments” on the “best health care system in the world.” The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo.

Today's New York Times editorial asks, "what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation. Are [Americans] really satisfied with the status quo? And is the status quo really sustainable?"

It ends with:

If reform is defeated, it seems likely that most of the proposed experiments designed to cut costs — first within Medicare and then throughout the rest of the health care system — will die as well. The legislation needs to be passed to establish a structure to force continuing improvement over the years. That is the best chance of restraining soaring medical costs that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the federal government.

Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of “dangerous experiments” on the “best health care system in the world.” The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo.

Rep. Rob Andrews was on Fox News this morning talking about the health care summit at the White House tomorrow.