Dear Mr. Hudkins:
Thank you for contacting my office in support of health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you. I am pleased to report that I supported final passage of this historic bill.
By passing this bill we have brought relief to millions of Americans one catastrophic illness or accident away from personal bankruptcy. We have improved the health care coverage of all Oregonians.
For those who have health insurance they like, they can keep it and the reforms will make it better and more secure. Those who don't have health insurance will have better, more affordable options to get it. For the nearly 600,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Oregon, they will have better benefits and improved access to health care services.
The bill outlaws the worst abuses of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries: no more discrimination by insurance companies for preexisting conditions, cancellation of a policy if the person becomes sick, small print, life time caps on health care coverage or health care coverage exclusions for specific health problems. It reduces the deficit, provides stability and security for Americans who currently have health insurance, and affordable, quality options for those who don't.
This bill will help the woman I met who had an individual insurance policy, on which she had faithfully paid her premiums, and was refused a renewal when she was diagnosed with cancer. She was told 'sorry, we don't renew policies of people with cancer. Thank you very much for your premiums.' For her, this legislation will finally put an end to that type of abusive practice.
Let me be clear; I had serious concerns with the Senate bill. It eliminated some of the most important reforms that I had fought to get into the House bill; allowing people without insurance to join a national pool that included a public option, removing the insurance industries antitrust exemption and overhauling the unfair Medicare reimbursement formula.
The insurance industry has operated beyond the reach of America's anti-trust laws since the McCarran-Ferguson Act was passed by Congress in 1945. This essentially means that insurance companies are free to collude amongst themselves to drive up prices and deny care. Since the Senate stripped these reforms from the final health care bill I successfully fought to have it passed as its own bill. It passed the House on February 24 by a vote of 406 to 19. I have spoken directly with Senator Pat Leahy, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee and he is pushing to have the bill brought directly to the Senate floor for a vote.
Because of a faulty 40 year old formula, Oregon suffers from one of the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the country, despite creating some of the highest quality and best outcomes. Many Oregon doctors and other providers refuse to take new Medicare patients because reimbursements are too low. Hospitals that treat Medicare patients are also under reimbursed and have to make up for this shortfall by shifting these costs to the privately insured.
The provision to fix this problem was to be included in the final bill but was apparently stripped out at the request of a few powerful east coast senators who represent states with extremely high Medicare reimbursements. As a result I told House leaders and the President that if this was not fixed, I would vote no. If we could not reform the flawed reimbursement formula hundreds of thousands of seniors in Oregon and millions more around the country would continue to suffer. I worked late into the night with the administration and congressional leaders and was able to secure language in the bill that would increase reimbursements to doctors and hospitals that are currently being underpaid for the next two years. We have a commitment in writing from the Secretary of Health and Human Services and verbal assurances from the President that they will implement permanent changes into law that will end this inequity once and for all by 2012.
This bill is not perfect and is lacking many provisions that we passed in the House bill that I felt were a better approach. I also don't believe that the bill has enough cost controls. But, if nothing is done, the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical companies will continue to do whatever they want to protect their profits at the expense of people's lives, health care and well-being. This bill is an important first step towards shutting down the special interests and putting the well being of people first.
Most importantly, the bill is fiscally responsible. When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House they passed the nearly one trillion dollar Medicare Part D program. None of it was paid for. Every single cent of it was simply added to the deficit. Furthermore, the bill gave massive subsidies to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and created the dreaded "donut hole".
The health reform bill the President just signed into law will immediately begin to phase out this doughnut hole, helping over 14,000 seniors in my district. It also will provide a 50% reduction on brand name drug prices for seniors while the donut hole is being transitioned out. More importantly, it does not add one penny to the deficit. In fact the bill lowers the deficit by $143 billion over ten years and by a staggering $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.
We must rein in the escalating health care costs and insure access to quality health care for all Americans. This bill, with all its flaws, achieves that goal.
Thanks again for contacting me. Please keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Rep. Peter DeFazio
Fourth District, OREGON
