Making Health Care More Affordable and More Accessible

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. I proudly worked to pass this historic legislation because of all the ways it's improving our health care system here in Michigan and across America. In just two years since passing this bill, here's how it's impacted families in just our ninth Congressional District:

• 3,000 more young adults now have health insurance;
• 7,800 seniors have received prescription drug discounts worth $5 million, an average discount of $640 per senior.
• 72,000 seniors have received Medicare preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles.
• 39,000 children and 140,000 adults now have health insurance that covers preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles.
• 680 small businesses received tax credits to help maintain or expand health care coverage for their employees.
• 8,000 to 35,000 children with preexisting health conditions can no longer be denied coverage by health insurers.
• And, starting in 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny care for anyone based on a pre-existing condition.

To learn more about how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is working for you, visit http://www.healthcare.gov or click here to read more about how it's helping families across our district. Do you need assistance accessing health care services? Please view my Health Care Resources Guidebook or call my office at 248-273-4227 to speak with a member of my staff.

But there's still a lot of work left to be done - here are some of my other top health care priorities:

• Investing in the health of low income children: In 2009, I worked with President Obama to pass an extension and expansion of S-CHIP, also known as MIChild in Michigan. This common sense legislation has provided 83,000 low income children in Michigan with access to necessary health care coverage.
   
• Fighting against a plan to end Medicare as we know it: In Congress, the Republican Majority has put forth a budget that would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program. We simply cannot allow this to happen, that's why I'm fighting to stop this misguided plan and preserve Medicare for future generations.
   
• Ensuring patients can continue seeing their doctors by fixing the SGR: For far too many years, Washington has failed to develop a long term solution to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for Medicare reimbursements to doctors and hospitals. By failing to get it done, Medicare patients face an annual risk of being unable to continue seeing their doctors; this has gone on for far too long. I'm committed to working across the aisle to develop a long-term solution that will work for our doctors and our patients.