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Dear Mr. JethroMania,
Thank you for contacting me in support of repealing health reform. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on this issue.
Health reform is making a difference in the lives of people in Illinois and across our nation. This historic bill extends affordable and stable health insurance coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this legislation is estimated to reduce the federal budget deficit by $143 billion in its first 10 years and $1.3 trillion in the second 10 years. The CBO also estimates that the growth of private health insurance premiums will slow by 8 percent over the next decade. Those savings go directly to individuals and small businesses.
Health reform has provided 144,000 small businesses across Illinois access to a small business tax credit to make insurance premiums more affordable. Seniors are now given the peace of mind of knowing we have begun to close the donut hole in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.
Health care reform protects consumers from arbitrary rate hikes and denials of coverage by insurance companies. As broad insurance reforms are implemented, it will extend the solvency of the Medicare program by nearly ten years and strengthen the Medicaid program. Health insurance plans also are prohibited from imposing lifetime and annual limits on the coverage they provide.
The law allows children up to the age of 26 to remain on their parent’s health insurance plan if they do not have access to employer-provided coverage on their own. More than 2.5 million children have gained health insurance through their parents’ plans as a result of health reform, including more than 100,000 young adults in Illinois.
Health reform also moderates the cost of coverage and protects people from insurance industry abuse. Insurance companies are required to put more of your premium dollars into actual benefits rather than using those dollars to supplement overhead costs and profit. Companies must publicly disclose the percentage of premiums applied to overhead costs. If a company spends more than 20 percent of its premium dollars on overhead and profit, it is required to provide a rebate to the consumer. Last year, nine million Americans received up to nearly $1.5 billion in rebates.
The new health reform law gives working families and the middle class a greater assurance that they can find and keep affordable coverage. Tax credits are provided to small businesses to help them cover employees, and starting next year, the law will give tax credits to working class Americans who cannot afford their insurance policies.
A repeal of the health reform law would be a step backwards for our nation. It would remove consumer protections that prevent insurance industry abuse and would cause millions of Americans to lose health care coverage. Additionally, repealing health reform would increase the federal deficit by $230 billion dollars over the next decade – a task both Republicans and Democrats have promised not to do.
The new law is not perfect; however, the law makes great strides in providing quality coverage to Americans and reducing the federal deficit. I stand by my support for health reform and will continue to work towards its implementation.
I recognize that we disagree on this issue, but I appreciate knowing your thoughts on it and I hope you continue to contact me on matters of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator
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Mr. Durbin,
Obamacare only provides health insurance to 30 million uninsured American's by forcing them to buy it, or by having the government pay for it through subsidies. That's not historic. You are living in la-la land if you think Obamacare is going to shave money from the federal budget deficit. We need to stop this out of control spending that is putting our country (our kids) in severe debt. Please reconsider, and ask Mr. Reid to put the congressional bill to a vote, and please vote YES to that bill. Then go back, and give us real health reform that does not center around health insurance, but centers around consumerism. Health insurance should be used for catastrophic health problems, not the occasional doctor visit. Health costs will continue to spiral upwards until the consumer is involved in paying for it directly. In other words, expand and encourage health savings accounts, and focus on making catastrophic health insurance more available and more affordable for the consumer.
Thank you,
JethroMania
