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COUNTERING
HEALTH REFORM MISINFORMATION
As the debate
over health care reform continues, special interest groups have begun
spreading rumors and misinformation designed to make the public doubt, or
even fear, reform. Below are real facts about our current system and
proposed reforms.
Why Health
Reform Works for You
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Our Current System
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Proposed Health
Reform
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You currently have health insurance through
- Your employer
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- VA
- The military
- Other
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You will be able to keep the health insurance that you have.
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You may be, or may become, uninsured:
- Your employer can change or end your
health insurance coverage at any time;
- You lose your job and are not eligible
for or can't afford COBRA health care continuation insurance;
- You do not have insurance through your
work place;
- You cannot afford private insurance or no private insurance
company will sell you a policy.
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You will be able to purchase health insurance through a Health
Insurance Exchange:
You will have a number of health plans from which to choose;
If you have limited income, you will receive assistance with the
cost of the premium.
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You have a pre-existing condition:
- Health insurance companies can refuse to sell you health
insurance;
- If health insurance companies sell you insurance, they may
not cover services they decide are related to the pre-existing
condition.
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You have a pre-existing condition:
- Health insurance plans will not be able
to deny you insurance;
- Health insurance plans will not be able
to deny coverage of claims based on pre-existing conditions.
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Health insurance companies can charge you a
higher premium based on:
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Health insurance plans will NOT be able to charge you higher
premiums based on:
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Health insurance plans can charge exorbitant
out-of-pocket expenses:
- High deductibles;
- High co-pays;
- Limits on how much they will pay in a year and
over a lifetime.
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There will be limits on out-of-pocket costs:
- No cost-sharing for preventive care;
- Annual out-of-pocket caps;
- No annual or lifetime limits on how much
coverage your insurance will provide.
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Insurance premiums and health care costs are
rising rapidly.
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Mechanisms will be in place to help contain costs;
- A public health insurance option that
competes with private plans will keep costs low as it encourages
innovation and efficiency in health care.
- Other health system reforms, including a
focus on prevention and coordination of health care, will help
reduce costs.
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Medicare
IS Public Health Insurance
44 years ago
Medicare was enacted into law. All of today's dire warnings about a public
health option - socialism and government barring the doctor's door - were
made in opposition to Medicare. Despite such opposition from
"conservative," leaders, Medicare passed because of some
courageous, principled law-makers.
Before
Medicare, 50% of everyone 65 or older had NO health insurance. Now, as a
result of Medicare, almost all older people are insured. Medicare, which is
national, government-run health insurance, succeeded in insuring older
people where private insurance failed. Further, until the Bush
Administration privatized Medicare with huge subsidies to private
"Medicare Advantage" and Part D plans, Medicare was also
remarkably cost-effective. It's private Medicare, not the
traditional, public program, that's bleeding taxpayers of billions of
dollars.
Medicare has
been a success, fiscally and morally. It took on the job of insuring health
coverage and care to people that private insurance had abandoned. Since
2003, on the other hand, private Medicare plans have cost us all tens of
billions of dollars that went to support the private insurance industry,
not to providing health care. In addition, private Medicare plans have too
often engaged in marketing abuses and restrictive coverage practices.
As numerous studies have shown, people with Medicare
love it. They do not want government to fool around with the traditional
program. Ironically, some people with Medicare are arguing against a public
health care reform option - while also telling the government "to keep
its hands-off their Medicare!" They, and their family members, (which
accounts for pretty much all of us), forget that the traditional
Medicare program is a public
health insurance option.
Meet
Medicare: Our 44 year-old public health insurance option that provides care
to all its enrollees everywhere in the country, and that has provided
health and economic security for millions of older people, people with
disabilities, and their families. For two generations, the public Medicare
program has shown what a true public insurance program can offer: health
insurance for the otherwise uninsured, at a price that taxpayers can
afford.
Now, for all generations, we need a public option in health reform!
For more information, contact executive
director Judith Stein in the Center for Medicare Advocacy's Connecticut
office at (860) 456-7790.
Learn from Medicare:
Support real health reform; support a public plan!
Have more to say? Blog
about it!
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