A Rare Second Chance

Friends -- We don't get second chances very often in life, so let's not waste the one the Supreme Court handed us last week regarding healtcare.  Here are some talking points to help you defend the bill, which is imperfect, but nontheless far superiour to doing nothing. (Sources for these points came from Paul Krugman, the Center for American Progress, Healthcare.gov, and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

We’re All Winners with the Affordable Healthcare Act  

Think about it: who doesn’t like the Affordable Healthcare Act:

Insurance Companies, Pharmaceutical Industry, the Chamber of Commerce, the Koch Brothers.

What have they done for you lately?  Or ever?

Costs: 1/3 of the Bush-era tax cuts

With the ACA, insurance companies must spend money on patient care, not bonuses and marketing. This August, Americans will begin to receive rebate checks if their insurance provider spends more on executive pay and marketing instead of things like quality care improvements or patient services.

Health Care Reform Will Lower Premiums By $2,000 Per Family Over The Next Decade.  Health care reform "will save $590 billion or more in national health spending over 2010-2019 and lower premiums by nearly $2,000 per family, according to the Center for American Progress, The annual growth rate in national health expenditures will be slowed from 6.3 percent to 5.7 percent."

Without ACA, healthcare costs would have more than doubled by 2020. Increasing from $4,800 to $10,300 for single policies and from $12,100 to $25,600 for family policies.

Lifetime Limits: Gone

Pre-existing Conditions: Don’t Matter

Young Adults Are Covered to Age 26

Preventive Care is Free (including mammograms)

Prescription Drug Discounts For Seniors

In Virginia, we have work to do: don’t let Ken Cuccinelli, Bob McDonnell, and Virginia House majority ledader Morgan Griffith take healthcare coverage from the poor (they say they will). Ask them to take the federal dollars to expand Medicaid to include the working poor.