Making Health Care and Higher Education Affordable; Now A Reality

“The Health Care reform bill which was passed on Sunday put our country on a better course for our livelihood and for our well-being. This week the Senate and House voted to pass a second piece of legislation, with minor modifications, on Health Care reform which includes the largest single investment in Education since the G.I. Bill.

These two bills combined will do so much for the residents of Congressional District 15. These are just a few benefits we will see from the Health Care Reform bill this year:

• 255, 000 South Texans will see improvements in their current health care coverage.
• 29,700 South Texans who can’t buy health insurance now because of a pre-existing condition will be able to obtain coverage.
• Up 187,000 South Texas families will get tax credits to help make health insurance affordable.
• Up to 10,800 small businesses in South Texas will get tax credits to help make health insurance more affordable for their employees.
• 90,000 Medicare beneficiaries will see better care and will pay less for prescription drugs because the Medicare Part D donut hole will be closed.
• 66,000 young South Texans will be able to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy until their 26th birthday.
• 194,000 uninsured South Texans will have access to health coverage.

In higher education, we are making sweeping changes to the federal student loan programs. We are cutting federal subsidies to lenders and we are investing money directly to our students and institutions of higher learning and we are reducing our deficit at the same time. This will cut out the middle man and make it easier for students to pay back their college loans.
These changes will make college more affordable and create jobs that stay in the U.S. at no cost to taxpayers. It will save $68 billion over the next 11 years. This is bigger than the G.I. Bill that helped so many after WWII.
Here are some of the provisions that will pave the way for future college students:

• Make college more affordable for millions of students by investing a total of $36 billion into the Pell Grant program over 10 years.The bill increases the maximum award from $5,550 next year to nearly $6,000 in the next few years.
• Keeps Jobs in America. Rather than force private industry out of the system, lenders will compete for contracts to service all federal student loans, which will guarantee borrowers high-quality customer service and preserve jobs.
• Invest $2.55 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions. This bill recognizes the important role that minority-serving institutions like the University of Texas Pan-American play in educating our country’s low-income and minority students. The funds will allow these critical institutions to recruit and graduate minority students, particularly in the fields of math, science, engineering and technology, that our nation needs to remain competitive.

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness, I am very proud that more students will be able to access and afford higher education because of this bill. As your Congressman I am proud to say that no-longer will the doors be closed to those needing health care and no longer will health insurance companies take advantage of a person’s pre-existing condition or drop health care coverage of a client who becomes seriously ill. History has been made and the change that will come from our Health Reform and Higher Education bills is a change for the better and a change for our future.

Rubén Hinojosa
U.S. Representative (TX-15)