Current Campaigns
The health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law
by the President will make health care work for our country by lowering
costs for Americans and once and for all level the playing field
between American families and insurance companies.
Here are the immediate benefits that this new law will provide American consumers this year:
• Prohibits pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
• Prohibits dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
• Lowers seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
• Offers tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
• Eliminates lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
• Requires plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;
• Requires new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations;
• Ensures consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
• Offers uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions the choice of enrolling in insurance provided through a temporary high-risk pool;
• Requires premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with
high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the
percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.
Click Here
to download a detailed report card assessing the bill's
ability lower health care costs for consumers, taxpayers, and the
country as a whole.
How You Can Help
On March 22nd, 219 Members of the House of Representatives helped
make health reform the law of the land. Everyone of them now faces the
strong enmity of special interests. Tell them they did the right thing.
Overview
For years, Americans have paid more and more but got less and less when
it came to health care. It's happened because America’s health care
system is structured for the benefit of drug industry, insurance
company, and medical specialty profits, not for consumers and patients.
With your help, WashPIRG won federal health reform legislation
that can, if properly implemented, begin to deliver the increased
security and relief from rising costs that Americans need.
But our work is far from complete.
The same special interests who opposed strong reform are now working to weaken and cripple its implementation.
WashPIRG will be there to ensure reform succeeds at:
• Stopping insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.
•
Trimming costly red tape and overhead through simplified insurance
forms, information technology and insurer-efficiency standards.
•
Incentivizing preventive and high-quality care from your provider that
keeps you well, not just endless tests, procedures and emergency room
visits after you get sick.
• Giving every patient and doctor the most up-to-date information on which treatments and medicines work best.
•
Allowing Americans, who don't have quality employer-provided coverage,
to enroll in the kind of plans Members of Congress have through a new
health insurance exchange.
