Full Letter
Dear President Obama, Speaker Pelosi & Majority Leader Reid:
CC: Your Representative in the House
Tremendous progress has been made in advancing health care reform through the House of Representatives, and soon through the Senate. Delivering a health reform bill to the President’s desk will mark an historic achievement that will transform the lives of millions of Americans who, today, live in fear knowing they are one accident or illness away from bankruptcy.
In passing H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009, on November 7, 2009, the House of Representatives demonstrated that it is possible to establish a guarantee of more affordable, quality coverage for everyone in our country. This was achieved by requiring shared responsibility across families, businesses and government; injecting competition in the insurance market with the creation of a national public health insurance option available on day one; providing financial protections and assistance to low- and middle-income families; extending coverage provisions broadly to all U.S. residents; and securing needed revenues from those most able to contribute more.
The Senate soon will finish consideration of H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We look forward to the Senate completing its deliberations and moving to the conference process with the House of Representatives and the White House. To finish the job and deliver a health reform bill that meets the needs of America’s families, we urge conference leaders to resolve a number of critical outstanding issues. These issues may be summarized under two goals:
Making good health care affordable:
- Ensuring affordability in the workplace through true shared responsibility, with employers responsible for contributing to the cost of employee coverage for both full and part time workers.
- Including progressive financing and not imposing a tax on health plans that cost more simply because they serve employees who live in high-cost areas or are older or sicker.
- Improving affordability protections in the exchange to ensure low- and moderate-income families can afford health insurance coverage and access to medical services.
Holding insurance companies accountable:
- Creating a national, publicly-accountable public health insurance option available on day one across the United States.
- Establishing strong insurance regulations in all markets and effective implementation of coverage through federally-operated exchanges.
Thank you for your leadership in working together to reform a badly-failing health care system that locks out the sick, handcuffs health care providers and overcharges the rest of us. You have our full support in working to resolve these remaining critical issues to make health care more affordable and insurers more accountable before enacting this monumental legislation.
Sincerely,
