Attorney general prepares lawsuit while Obama, Klein extol historic health care bill passed by Congress

While President Barack Obama and local representatives are extolling to virtues of the health care bill finally passed after months of

Barack Obama talking after the passing of the health care bill., White House Photo, Lawrence Jackson, 3/21/10

debate, Florida attorney general Bill McCollum, along with nine other states are preparing a lawsuit against the bill.

“The health care reform legislation passed by the U. S. House of  Representatives this last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and  infringes on each state’s sovereignty,” said Attorney General McCollum. “On behalf of the State of Florida and of the Attorneys General from South  Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota,  South Dakota and Alabama if the President signs this bill into law, we  will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and the interests of American  citizens.”

Despite the threat of lawsuits, on late Sunday night, both Obama and local Representative Ron Klein were extolling the landmark legislation that Congress has been trying to pass for years, and actively working on for the past year since Obama came into office. Follow this topic on Twitter!

“Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever,” said President Obama after Congress passed the bill. “And we’ll finally start reducing the cost of care — creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.”

Click here to see a copy of the bill on OpenCongress.org (though unsure if it’s final bill or not).

Prior to the bill officially passing, Klein sent out fact sheets that outlined the bills impacts on families, small businesses and seniors.

According to Klein, these are some of the benefits of the bill for small business owners:

• Health care reform will help small businesses obtain health insurance. It allows small businesses with 100 employees or less to pool their risk and benefit from group rates and a greater choice of insurers.
• Reform means tax credits for small businesses. Small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $50,000 will qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. Reform will provide tax credits to 23,200 small businesses in Florida’s 22^nd District alone.
• Health care reform will help create jobs and will play a critical role in our economic recovery. Reform will allow small businesses to add an estimated 80,000 new jobs nationwide.
• Health care reform is fiscally responsible. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for, in large part by eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and excessive profits for private insurers. The legislation will reduce the deficit by over $100 billion over the next ten years and by about $1 trillion over the second decade.
• Tax credits. Thousands of small businesses in our community will be eligible for tax credits of up to 50 percent of the cost of providing health insurance for their employees. Reform means money in your pocket.
• Spread the risk. Small business owners know that the cost of health insurance is constantly skyrocketing. To bring down costs, even for the smallest companies, health care reform allows them to join a larger pool, which will spread the risk and allow them to benefit from group rates and more choices. [poll id="4"]

“From the beginning, I have been committed to strengthening and protecting Medicare and fighting for families and businesses,” Klein said. “I also believe strongly that the doctor-patient relationship is at the center of any discussion on health care, and that no one — not the government or private insurance — should ever come between a patient and the doctor of their choice. South Floridians will see real, tangible benefits from reform, and many of these benefits will be immediate. Seniors will finally have real relief from the burden of prescription drug costs, with those who fall into the Part D donut hole receiving a rebate check of $250 in the mail this year and seeing savings of more than $3,000 in the years ahead.”

For seniors, Klein outlined what he saw as direct benefits for the 130,000 seniors in his district in South Florida.

• Health care reform improves care and benefits under Medicare and extends the life of Medicare.
• Reform will not cut Medicare benefits for seniors. The reform saves money by cracking down on inefficiency, fraud and waste in Medicare – targeted at private insurance companies, not beneficiaries.
• This reform strengthens Medicare.  Much of the cost savings achieved are reinvested into Medicare – improving benefits and extending the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by nine years.
• Health care reform reduces the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. Congressman Klein successfully fought to make sure the House bill closed the prescription drug donut hole and lowered costs for seniors.
• Better benefits, including lower prescription drug costs, free preventive care and greater access to the doctor of your choice. Health care reform eliminates the gap in drug coverage by closing the donut hole, ends deductibles and co-payments for preventive services like cancer screenings and invests in expanding the medical workforce so seniors will have more doctors to choose from and an easier time getting an appointment.
• A stronger Medicare. Health care reform extends the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by nine years.

In addition, Klein outlined what he saw as benefits of the bill for families in general.

• Health care reform will ban insurance companies from discriminating based on “pre-existing conditions” like diabetes, cancer and more. This takes effect immediately.
• Reform includes the largest middle class tax cut in history. Over 100,000 working families in our community will receive tax cuts, worth as much as $5,800 per family of four.
• Health care reform will allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plan until they are 26.
• Reform will invest in community health centers, strengthen our hospitals and protect families from bankruptcy due to medical bills.
• No more insurance companies abuses. Bipartisan action already ended the ability of health insurance companies to get around anti-trust laws and unfairly set prices. Now, health care reform will ban other abuses, like dropping patients because they get sick, putting lifetime caps on care or charging huge premiums to people with “pre-existing conditions.” These reforms take effect immediately.
• Tax cuts for working families. Reform provides middle class families with incomes up to $88,000 for a family of four with tax credits to help pay for coverage. A family of four making $50,000, would receive an average tax credit of approximately $5,800.

The White House has provided this Web site with more information: http://www.healthreform.gov/.



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Posted by Andrea Freygang on Mar 22 2010. Filed under Broward County, Families, Federal Government, Fort Lauderdale, Health, Local news, Tallahassee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.