Today, exactly one year since President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL) will hold a town hall meeting focused on the enactment of health care reform.

“Those opposed to health care reform charged this law would mean socialized medicine, death panels for seniors, and devastating job losses,” said Congressman Deutch. “Now, a year later, we see new protections for patients, cheaper prescription drugs for seniors under Medicare, and 1.5 million new private sector jobs – over 240,000 of which are in the health care industry.”

EVENT DETAILS

Town Hall Meeting in Tamarac
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
King’s Point Clubhouse, 7620 North Nob Hill Road, Tamarac, Florida

BACKGROUND

Florida hosts our nation’s second largest population of uninsured Americans, a crisis that drives up costs even for those with coverage. As rising premiums force employers to cut benefits or lay off workers, the number of uninsured Floridians has grown. In 2000, 17 percent of Floridians lack coverage. Today, that number is over 22 percent. The cost of caring for 4.1 million uninsured Floridians is passed on to those with insurance in the form of higher premiums.

While the implementation of health care reform will not be complete until 2014, several important reforms have already been enacted, including:

Reducing costs for seniors and strengthening Medicare.
More than 255,996 Florida residents who hit the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” received $250 tax-free rebates, and will receive a 50% discount on brand-name prescription drugs when they hit the donut hole this year. By 2020, the law will close the donut hole completely. All Medicare beneficiaries, including 3.3 million in Florida, can now receive free preventive services – like mammograms and colonoscopies – as well as a free wellness exam.

Offering new coverage options.
Insurance companies are now required to allow parents to keep their children up to age 26 without job-based coverage on their insurance plans. An estimated 78,000 young adults in Florida could gain insurance coverage as a result of the law. Additionally, most insurance companies are now banned from denying coverage to children because of a pre-existing condition. An estimated 960,000 kids with a pre-existing condition in Florida will be protected because of this provision.

Lowering costs for small businesses.
The law provides $40 billion of tax credits to up to 4 million small businesses, including up to 289,995 in Florida to help offset the costs of purchasing coverage for their employees and make premiums more affordable.

Improving the quality of coverage.
All Americans with insurance are now free from worrying about losing their insurance due to a mistake on an application, or having it capped unexpectedly if someone is in an accident or becomes sick. The law bans insurance companies from imposing lifetime dollar limits on health benefits – freeing cancer patients and individuals suffering from other chronic diseases from having to worry about going without treatment because of their lifetime limits. The law also restricts the use of annual limits and bans them completely in 2014. This will protect 9.3 million million Florida residents with private insurance coverage from these limits.