Dear Lisa,

A woman recently lost her job as a copy editor, along with the health insurance that had covered her and her husband.  She tried shopping around on her own but was turned down by insurers because of a pre-existing condition: she is pregnant.

Instead of celebrating the news, they are terrified about how they'll afford all of her prenatal and maternity care bills without coverage.

I was proud to vote in support of the Affordable Health Care for America Act because in a nation like ours, this should never have happened.

This bill makes major, long overdue changes in the way insurance companies can treat their customers.  It prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, like being pregnant.  If your job offers insurance, you can get coverage regardless of your health.  But today, if you aren't offered coverage through work or become unemployed and need to buy your own, you can be turned down for anything, including diabetes, cancer, or cataracts to name just a few.  Morton from Tinicum told me of his otherwise healthy wife who was denied coverage because she took medication to treat her high blood pressure. 

An insurer can also charge higher rates because of those conditions or a host of other reasons, including being female or a victim of domestic violence.  Insurance companies have gotten away with this for far too long and reform would put a stop to it.

Many folks who have insurance report that they are happy with it, but too often that coverage is taken away just when it is needed most.  Today, an insurer can look for any excuse to terminate your plan should you become "too expensive."  Jay of Langhorne never expected to be uninsured, but when he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, his insurance company promptly kicked him off his plan.  Reform gives Americans secure and stable coverage, stopping insurers from the worst of the worst practices: taking away coverage when someone gets sick or hurt.

Insurers get away with many of these abusive practices because there's virtually no competition in the insurance industry.  The House reform bill includes a strong public option to compete with private companies.  I've been an outspoken supporter of the public option because I believe the added competition will drive down prices, improve the quality of services and finally introduce some real transparency in the market.  I promise to keep fighting to make sure the public option is included in the final version of the bill.

In addition, the bill repeals the insurance companies' outdated and unfair exemption from anti-trust laws that they've enjoyed for 60 years.

What about folks on Medicare? Opponents of reform have targeted their worst scare tactics at seniors, claiming that this bill included everything from death panels to euthanasia when in fact reform strengthens Medicare and improves benefits.  It finally closes the Medicare Part D "donut hole" that leaves seniors, like David Jones of Warminster, paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for prescription drugs.  David and his wife Cynthia worked hard and saved their whole lives.  But when he recently developed Crohn's disease, his medication bills began racking up and he falls into the donut hole by April each year.

Seniors will also have access to lower cost prescription drugs, as the government will now be allowed to negotiate with manufacturers to get better deals on medications.  And Medicare beneficiaries will have free preventive care services to help them stay healthy and active.

That's why this bill has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, as well as AARP which stated, "We've read the Affordable Health Care for America Act and we can say with confidence that it meets those goals with improved benefits for people in Medicare and needed health insurance market reforms to help ensure every American can purchase affordable health coverage."

The bill also cracks down on Medicare fraud and drains billions of dollars from the system.  It includes a bill I introduced, the IMPROVE Act, which closes a major loophole in Medicare fraud.  It has been endorsed by the AARP and the National District Attorney's Association, which stated that the bill gives law enforcement the tools they need to track down scammers and protect taxpayer dollars.

Finally, I support reform because the bill meets the essential financial requirements I laid out months ago: it does not add a dime to the federal deficit and in fact lowers the deficit by over $100 billion.  Pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other industry groups - who will see millions of new customers - are chipping in hundreds of billions of dollars to contribute to the cost of reform.

It has been 16 years since Congress' last attempt at reform.  Since then, over 700,000 people have died because they lacked access to affordable coverage and premiums have more than doubled, rising four times faster than wages.  We simply cannot afford to fail again.

For these reasons, I was proud to stand with AARP, the American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association to support health insurance reform that improves coverage for all Americans and gives them peace of mind knowing that they and their families have access to secure and stable healthcare coverage.

Sincerely,

MEMBER OF CONGRESS