Healthcare

joe

Access to affordable, quality health care is an important issue that affects all Hoosiers.  For far too long, too many middle class families and seniors feared that one medical emergency could bankrupt their families. The Affordable Care Act addresses many of these challenges.  For example, the law lowers the cost of prescription drugs for our seniors by closing the Medicare “donut hole,” requires health insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions, allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26, and provides tax breaks for small businesses.

Over the last several years, Joe has also worked with both Republicans and Democrats to strengthen and improve the health care law. For example, he supported the elimination of the 1099 reporting requirement, which would have created additional bureaucracy and overly burdened Hoosier businesses.  In 2013, Sen. Donnelly and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced a bill that would change the definition of “full-time employee” in the law from someone who works 30 hours a week to someone who works 40 hours a week.  This change would help both workers and employers, as many employers in Indiana have cut their employees’ hours in order to follow the law, and that hurts the pocketbooks of many families across our state.  Senators Collins and Donnelly also asked the Obama Administration for transition relief for small businesses in June 2013.  They were pleased when the Treasury announced a year of transition relief for businesses in July 2013.

In addition, Sen. Donnelly has been a consistent supporter of eliminating the medical device tax and has made clear that he will not stop working to repeal the medical device tax until the job is done. The medical device industry is important to Indiana’s economy, and thousands of Hoosiers rely upon the jobs the industry provides.

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