Congressman Sander Levin

Health Care Reform

On March 23, 2010 comprehensive health care reform legislation went into effect. As I said during the debate on the bill, “We come to the floor for thousands of votes each year, but no single vote comes with so many personal stories standing behind it.” This legislation is based on the work of generations of Americans, and was driven by the experiences of so many who have struggled with rising health care costs and suffered from a lack of health insurance.

Under the new law – for the first time in America’s history – all Americans will have access to quality, affordable health coverage. The new health care reform law builds on our employer-based, private health care system, reins in insurance company abuses, improves Medicare, and provides more affordable options for small businesses and individuals without insurance.

Key provisions starting this year:

Many of the benefits of the health care reform law will go into effect in the next few months. Below is a chart of the major reforms starting this year.

• Full list of new benefits
• Full timeline of health care reform implementation

How Health Care Reform Will Impact You

Now that health care reform has passed, many Americans and Michiganders are asking, “How will health care reform impact me?” If you currently receive insurance through an employer, that coverage will continue for the vast majority of Americans. If you are a small business owner, self-employed, or uninsured, you will have the option beginning in 2014 to purchase insurance through new state-based health insurance exchanges. Plans in the exchanges will not be allowed to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and will instead have to compete only based on price and quality. Small business owners and people with income below a certain level will get a tax credit they can apply to any of the plans in the exchange. If you are on Medicare, you will have the same benefits in traditional Medicare you have now, and some added benefits.

• Chart of how health care reform will impact different individuals and families

Health Care Reform and Seniors

The health care reform legislation signed into law maintains all benefits in traditional Medicare and adds additional benefits such as lower prescription drug costs and the elimination of co-payments for preventive services.

• More on how health care reform improves Medicare
• See new coverage options
• Special details for Michigan seniors

Health Care Reform and Small Businesses

All small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are completely exempt from any requirements to offer coverage under the reform legislation. However, if a small business currently offers coverage or chooses to offer coverage in the future, it will be eligible for new tax credits to pay up to 35% of the cost of coverage starting this year, and for tax credits of up to 50% of the cost starting in 2014.

• More on how health care reform assists small businesses

Additional Information

• Full Text of the Health Care Reform Laws
• Section by Section Summary of the Health Care Reform Legislation and the Reconciliation Changes
• Health Insurance Exchanges
• Full List of Insurance Market Reforms
• Revenue Provisions
  

Implementing Best Practices in Health Care

The United States has some of the best physicians, medical research, and health care facilities in the world. However, there are troubling gaps in translating medical research and best practices for health care delivery into bedside care. It currently takes an average of 17 years for an established clinical guideline to reach the bedside. In this time, countless patients suffer or die unnecessarily because they receive outdated treatment.

Michigan has been a leader in disseminating best practices in health care more quickly and effectively. In an effort to build on Michigan’s successes and spur faster dissemination of best practices in health care, I introduced H.R. 2948, the Healthcare Improvements for Generating High Performance Act, or HIGH Performance Act. Provisions based on this bill were incorporated into the health care reform legislation as Section 3501 of H.R. 3590 and signed into law by President Obama on March 23.

• More on my legislation to accelerate the implementation of best practices in health care
  

Modernizing our Health Infrastructure

Over the past twenty years, technology has become a growing part of our world and has been integrated into many facets of our lives. Our health care system has been a part of the technological revolution from the treatment perspective, but is deplorably outdated when it comes to using technology to track and coordinate patient care.

Many people have experienced the disorganization that results from our current paper-based system. They may have suffered from a medication error as a result of a prescription written by hand and then misread. Or they may have received duplicated tests because their doctors didn’t have the results from a previous test on hand. They know their doctors would be better able to help them if they could see all of their lab results, x-rays, and comments from other providers in one place.

• More on modernizing our health infrastructure
  

Health Research

Health care research is essential to improving clinical treatments and finding new cures. I believe that we must provide adequate funding for medical and health research if we are to continue improving health outcomes and enhancing the quality of life in America. To this end, I strongly support increasing federal funds for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country’s top-notch federal agency for supporting and conducting research on disease prevention, causes, treatment, and cures.

After years of underfunding by the Bush Administration, Congress acted definitively to increase funding for the NIH in 2008 and 2009. The Recovery Act included an additional $10 billion in funding for the NIH. These funds will enable thousands of new research projects that will create and maintain jobs around the country.

• More on health research
• Read the letter I signed encouraging increased funding for NIH

Lowering the Costs of Prescription Drugs

The past fifty years have seen a revolution in prescription medications. Not only do we now have access to a growing number of traditional chemical drugs, we are also seeing a rise in “biologics”, drugs made from living organisms or biologic processes. These drugs are fighting such diseases as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

Prescription drugs can save lives and improve patients’ quality of life. But to do so they must be affordable to the people who need them.

The new health care reform law signed by President Obama on March 23 wil reduce the costs of prescription drugs for seniors by giving them a $250 rebate this year if they fall into the "donut hole" prescription drug gap, providing a 50% discount on band drugs in the donut hole starting next year, and phasing out the donut hole entirely by 2020.

The new health care reform law also establishes a process for approving new generic drugs.

• More on lowering the costs of prescription drugs

Mental Health

According to the Surgeon General, only one-third of Americans with diagnosable mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression are receiving appropriate treatment. This statistic tells me that we have a lot of work to do in the area of mental health care. Many adults and children are unable to seek treatment because their private or public insurance does not cover mental health services or imposes additional costs or limits on care. Still others are among the 45 million people with no health insurance at all. I believe that all Americans should have access to mental healthcare when they need it, and I have made removing barriers to mental health treatment a top priority.

• More on increasing access to mental health care

Women’s Health

In 2005, I introduced the Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act, and the bill was signed into law in 2007. The bill is referred to as Johanna’s Law in honor of Johanna Silver Gordon, a Southfield high school teacher who died of ovarian cancer in 2000. The legislation created a federal education campaign to increase awareness and early detection of gynecological cancers. To view the website for the education campaign, housed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, please click here.

The new health care reform law also makes great strides for women by giving nursing mothers the right to reasonable accommodation to breastfeed at work, eliminating discrimination against women in health insurance plans and ensuring that women have the option to give birth in birth centers as well as in hospitals.

• More on my efforts to promote women’s health

(Updated November 4, 2010)