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Talking Points: The Benefits of President Obama’s Health Insurance Reform Legislation

Building Momentum

· We’re seeing more and more members of Congress who opposed the bill step forward and announce their support for this legislation which will rein in insurance companies, bring down costs, help small businesses and reduce the deficit.

· We’re also gaining the support of newspapers and advocacy groups around the country – endorsements have ranged from the National Catholic Reporter to the Washington Post and LULAC to the Federation of American Hospitals. We’ve seen more than 250 groups join us in the call to pass health insurance reform now – doctors, nurses, consumer groups, clergy, small businesses, farmers, seniors and young people have all spoken out in support of reform. You can find a full list here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/support

Putting Americans In Control Of Their Own Health Care

This health insurance reform legislation will:

· Take away control from the insurance companies and put it in the hands of American families and small business owners.

· Reduce premiums and out-of-pocket expenses

· Include the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, making insurance affordable for small businesses and middle class families.

· Create a new competitive health insurance market that will keep costs down by giving millions of Americans the same choices members of Congress have.

· Hold insurance companies accountable – they will no longer be able to jack up premium rates, deny care or drop coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

· Lower out-of-pocket expenses and improve care for seniors – it will finally close the prescription drug donut hole, provide better chronic care and free preventative care, and it will increase the solvency of Medicare for another decade.

· Reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion in the next 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the next 20 years by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, and ending overpayments – we’ll be paying for quality of care, not quantity of care.

This bill improves the legislation passed in the Senate last December by:

· Including the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history – making insurance more affordable for middle class families.

· Making consumer protections stronger.

· Making the biggest effort in more than a decade to reduce the deficit.

· Closing the prescription drug donut hole in Medicare, which leaves a gap in drug coverage for seniors, and extending the solvency of Medicare.

· Ensuring 95% of Americans have health insurance, expanding coverage to 32 million Americans.

Cutting The Deficit

· This bill will be the largest deficit reduction in more than a decade.

· According to the CBO, it will cut the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years and by more than $1 trillion in the next twenty.

· Improvements on the Senate bill have increased cost-control and deficit reduction.

· This will transform our health care system, putting an emphasis on providing higher quality care at lower costs – it will boost the bottom line for businesses, families and the federal government. It will expand coverage to 32 million Americans while offering new choices and new consumer protections for those who are already insured.

· This bill will pay for itself, representing an important change in the way things are done in Washington these days – we’re paying for what we propose.

· This is a new fiscal era – we are committed to paying for new initiatives and working to restore fiscal responsibility by reining in health care costs – the biggest single strain on our economy.