The House bill would ensure that the 36 million Americans who currently do not have healthcare insurance will have access to quality medical care. It would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition or charging higher premiums based on gender or medical history. It would put a cap on out-of-pocket expenses and eliminate co-pays and deductables for preventive care, thereby keeping costs down.
If someone chooses to buy their own plan, group rates would be available through a national pool or health insurance exchange, while those who are happy with their current physician and healthcare plan will be able to keep the coverage they have. Doctors will be in charge of making health care decisions, not the insurance companies, and the public option which is included in the bill will offer more choices and promote competition and transparency, according to Meeks.
“I want you to know that our office is there for you,” the congressman said. “Please, if there are any issues, questions, whether its healthcare or otherwise, please feel free to call the office or come by the office. We are located right there at 153-01 Jamaica Avenue. Get to know our folks because we have a lot of issues we’re going to have to deal with and together we can overcome and we will win. We’re going to make sure we have a stronger and better district in the 6th Congressional District and a stronger and better America.”
In that one district alone, the healthcare reform bill would provide coverage for 60,000 uninsured residents and improve employer-based coverage for 377,000 residents, according to the literature distributed by Meeks’ aides at the meeting. It would protect up to 600 families from filing for bankruptcy due to unaffordable healthcare and reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospital and healthcare providers by $98 million.
Since Meeks could not attend the town hall discussion in-person because he was in Washington, his senior legislative assistant, Kim Fuller, gave a presentation about the bill, answered questions from the roughly 20 attendees and stressed the urgent need for reform.
Health insurance costs for the average family will increase by $1,800 per year if there is no reform, Fuller explained. More than 60 percent of bankruptcies that were filed last year were due to medical expenses. This year more than half of all Americans postponed medical care or did not purchase medication because they could not afford to pay for it.
“There have been so many misconceptions about the bill and so many myths and lies, and people don’t know a lot about what’s included in the bill,” Fuller later said. “We have been doing these all over the district so that people know what it is. It’s an opportunity for people who don’t like to ask questions in bigger crowds to get the most out of the briefing.”
Many residents who attended the meeting, mostly women, were not shy about asking questions. For example, Paulette Decade of Springfield Gardens was concerned that the bill would allow the government to monopolize the health insurance industry over time.
The object of the public option is to encourage insurance companies to lower their rates in order to remain competitive, according to Fuller. The public option is designed to pay for itself through the premiums, which will not be cheap but rather set at an affordable or marketable rate. Since it will be a self-sustaining nonprofit program, insurance companies should be able to lower their rates in order to be comparable, Fuller explained. At the basic level, the public option will offer benefits that the health and human services secretary has set as standards of basic care such as vaccinations for children, a mamogram every year for women over 40 or a colonoscopy every five years for individuals over 50, and the private insurers will have to minimally provide those services, according to Fuller.
Sophia Hill of Rosedale wanted to know if the health insurance exchange would offer more competitive rates than the ones currently offered by employers and how one would go about switching their coverage.
Employers have the opportunity to cover their employees through the exchange, which would be a cheaper option for them, according to Fuller. If they chose not to participate workers can drop the employer coverage and go to the exchange and purchase the insurance on their own.
One attendee, Natalie Taylor, came all the way from Piscataway, N.J. to participate in the discussion.
“I think this is a very, very good forum and it should be done everywhere,” she said. “It benefits everyone — the providers, the people who need the care — I think it’s wonderful because they have a person here to answer the questions people need know.”
Taylor, who currently has Aetna as her insurance provider, has seen her rates go up every year while her care coverage has gone down. Recently her 19-year-old daughter was denied coverage for an OB/GYN visit because she had already met her preventative care maximum when she had her annual physical.
“I was appalled that her basic care wasn’t being covered,” she said.
Taylor is intrigued by the choices that will become available through the public option.
“I will look into it, and I may choose it for my family if they offer comparable coverage at a reasonable cost,” she said.
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