We won. Health Care is the law of the land. Its important to stay on message no matter how "crazy" the opposition gets. We need to get information out to the average, non-politically obsessed voter what the immediate benefits of the new Affordable Care Act are.
Matt Yglesias makes this point:
"the narrative progressives should really want people hear today is one about the content of the Affordable Care Act rather than a political story about which bunch of politicians is more terrible."
Here is an EXCELLENT website with State by State Health Care Reform Benefits of Health Care by State from dpc.senate.gov
Benefits are summarized on the website, then the user can click on their own state. This would be a great site to share with people who are looking for facts and not ideological philosophy. Tons of people just want information because they haven't been following the details and are just now payng attention. We need to have the facts ready for them. We need to be the party that is calm, rational, in control and ready with the information.
Also, This year's benefits are summarized below, from a Memo from Nancy-Ann Deparle summarized below Here she repeats the immediate benefits which President Obama spoke about prior to signing Health Care into law:
•This year, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. •This year, health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday. •This year, insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. This year, restrictive annual limits on coverage will be banned for certain plans. Under health insurance reform, Americans will be ensured access to the care they need. •This year, adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool.•This year, we'll also establish an independent commission to advise on how best to build the health care workforce and increase the number of nurses, doctors and other professionals to meet our country's needs. Going forward, we will provide $1.5 billion in funding to support the next generation of doctors, nurses and other primary care practitioners -- on top of a $500 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Health insurance reform will also curb some of the worst insurance industry practices and strengthen consumer protections:
•This year, this bill creates a new, independent appeals process that ensures consumers in new private plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions made by their insurer. •This year, discrimination based on salary will be outlawed. New group health plans will be prohibited from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that discriminate in favor of higher-wage employees. •Beginning this fiscal year, this bill provides funding to states to help establish offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals in the process of filing complaints or appeals against insurance companies. •This year, small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable. •This year, new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no deductibles for preventive services. And beginning January 1, 2011, Medicare will do the same. •This year, this bill will provide help for early retirees by creating a temporary re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age 55-64. •This year, this bill starts to close the Medicare Part D 'donut hole'
I hope everyone can find a few people to share this info with. Lets spread the facts !