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Rep Anna Eshoo

Second Anniversary of the Historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

March 23, 2012
e-Newsletters

Today marks the second anniversary of the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act being signed into law by the President. This is an extraordinary achievement for our country and I'm very proud to have been part of the effort.

When I cast my vote, I thought about the millions of hard-working Americans who struggle to pay for rising premiums; of the young people who have an increasingly tough time finding a job that offers health insurance; of those who were dropped by insurers because they became ill; and about my constituents who asked me if the Medicare program they paid into would still be around when they need it. Our economy could not sustain the rising costsof healthcare, or the tens of millions of Americans who had fallen through the cracks and left without any insurance whatsoever.

The law created a "three-legged stool" approach. Insurers are required to cover everyone. In return, everyone is required to buy insurance, creating a pool of healthy and sick people. Subsidies will be provided to lower-income families to help them purchase coverage. We will no longer have a system where the costs of the uninsured are shifted to those who pay for coverage, causing their premiums to rise at unsustainable rates.

Some elements of the Affordable Care Act are currently in place, and others will be implemented by 2014. Here are some important benefits in place today in our Congressional District:

  • 4,800 young adults are now covered by their parents' insurance policy up to
    the age of 26.

  • Up to 36,000 children with preexisting health conditions can no longer be denied coverage by health insurers.

  • 35,000 children and 140,000 adults now have health insurance that covers preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles.

  • 280,000 are free from insurance-imposed lifetime limits on their coverage.

  • 520 small businesses received tax credits to help maintain or expand healthcare coverage for their employees.

  • 7,500 seniors received prescription drug discounts worth $4.5 million, an average discount of $600 per senior.

  • 56,000 seniors have received Medicare preventive services without any out of pocket costs, coinsurance, or deductibles.

The most significant impacts of health reform will be experienced in 2014, when all Americans will be required to have health insurance. For most, nothing will change at all. If you have good health benefits from your employer, you keep them. If you don't have health insurance, you'll have a choice of quality, affordable coverage through the new competitive insurance marketplace known as the "Exchange." Exchanges in every state will offer a range of plans at different price points, including access to the same plans that Members of Congress have.

Health reform expands coverage, increases services covered by insurance, and reigns in skyrocketing healthcare costs. The non-partisan Congressional Budget projects the law will save $210 billion over the next ten years, and more than $1 trillion over twenty years. Under the Affordable Care Act:

  • Doctors will be rewarded for providing quality and efficient care by allowing them to share in demonstrated savings.

  • Hospitals are rewarded for keeping patients healthy so they won't be readmitted for a preventable reason, saving enormous sums of money.

  • $500 billion will be saved by taxpayers over the next ten years by rooting out waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.


While my Republican colleagues in Congress have called for repealing health reform, I remain a steadfast supporter of the important patient protections included in the Affordable Care Act, including the new benefits for Medicare patients that will improve care and keep the program viable for generations to come:

  • Reduces drug costs for seniors by closing the prescription drug "donut hole."

  • Provides seniorsfreeMedicare coverage of key preventive services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

  • Provides seniors a free annual wellness visit each year.

  • Provides new tools to crack down on waste and fraud in Medicare. In 2011, a joint anti-Medicare fraud task force recovered more than $4.1 billion in fraudulent Medicare payments on behalf of taxpayers.

  • Helps seniors remain at home and stay out of nursing homes, allowing states to offer home-based services to disabled individuals through Medicaid, rather than institutional care.

  • Provides nursing home residents with more protections from abuse.

My constituents and every American deserve a first-rate healthcare system that's available to everyone. I'm proud of the significant progress we're making, and despite the demonization and inaccurate information which have accompanied the effort, I can't help but think that the state of our union will be healthier and our economy stronger.

As always, should you have any comments or questions, let me hear from you.

All my best,

Image removed.

Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress

I've included more information on how the Affordable Care Act affects my constituents:

How Health Reform Benefits Seniors

How Health Reform Benefits Women

How Health Reform Benefits Young Adults and Children

How Health Reform benefits Small Businesses

How Health Reform Contains Costs

Timeline of Health Reform