America's Health Care System

After more than a year of calls, letters, congressional visits, rallies and town halls, Americans won a momentous step toward comprehensive health care reform when on March 23, 2010, President Obama signed historic health reform legislation into law.

The legislation finally will put the country on a path toward quality, affordable health care for all Americans and long-term health security.

What does the bill IMMEDIATELY do for working families?

• Stops insurance companies from denying children health care because of pre-existing conditions (and this prohibition will apply to coverage for everyone in 2014).

 

• Immediately outlaws lifetime caps on benefits and the practice of dropping coverage for people who get sick.

 

• Allows young people to stay on their parents' plans up to age 26.

 

• Requires rebates from insurers if they spend more than 15 percent of premium dollars on marketing, profits, executive salaries or administrative expenses.

 

• Provides free preventive care under new private plans immediately, to those in Medicare beginning January 2011, and to those covered under all plans by 2018.

 

• Makes prescription drugs more affordable for seniors by providing a $250 rebate for seniors who hit the Medicare Part D doughnut hole this year. Beginning next year, provide a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs in the doughnut hole and begin phasing out the doughnut hole to close it completely by 2020.

 

• Reduces the cost of coverage for retirees who are at least 55 years old and not eligible for Medicare through a new program that helps offset costs of expensive health claims for retirees.

 

• Makes a new investment in training programs for primary care doctors, nurses and public health professionals.

What will the bill accomplish over the next decade and beyond?:

• Lowers premiums by 14 % to 20% for those who buy coverage on their own and overtime will lower costs for all plans.

 

• Expands coverage for 32 million Americans, with about half of them getting coverage through new "insurance exchanges" that provide coverage options under plans that must meet rules on benefits and premiums.

 

• Prohibits insurers from charging higher rates for women and limits the ability to set premiums based on age.

 

• Helps small businesses and uninsured individuals get affordable coverage with subsidies for low- and moderate-income workers.

 

• Projected to reduce the federal budget deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next two decades and to increase Medicare solvency by almost a decade.

 

• Pressure from working families resulted in the elimination of 85 percent of a tax on health care benefits that would have slammed working families, non-union as well as union, whose premiums are high because of factors they don't control.

 

• Instead, the bill substitutes a progressive tax on the wealthiest Americans, requiring that Medicare contributions be paid on unearned income. Working families' activism also helped make sure employers pay a fairer share of health costs for their employees.

How did Working America help achieve the health care victory?

Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, talked to more than 210,000 people at their front doors, generating 30,000 signatures for health care petitions, 31,000 phone calls to Congress, 40,000 e-mails and 75,000 letters urging lawmakers to pass reform.