The Real Facts About Healthcare Reform and Our Community

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    Notes on slide 1

    Script: The battle is on. In town hall meetings this month, and on the airwaves, right-wing corporate funded so-called grassroots groups are distorting the debate about health care reform. Ask audience: What have you heard? Here’s some of the things we’ve heard [see text of slide-read it back to them]: All of the claims on the PowerPoint are flat out false, as we’ll explain soon. Some of the myths out there, like the one about rationing of health care, maybe reflect the fact that the issue is complicated, and that health care is so critical to our lives that it involves strong emotions. Some, however, like killing your grandmother – “government-encouraged euthanasia” – reflect deliberate attempts by enemies of reform to distort the facts and scare people. Either way, these claims deserve an answer. The purpose of this presentation is to present the real facts so you can make your own decision about reform. We think when the facts are fully out, people will continue to overwhelmingly conclude that health care reform is critically needed in our community.

    Script: [Go over points 1-2 above.]

    Script: Let’s begin with a “snapshot” of health care in New York State to remind everyone here why reform is necessary: health insurance premiums are going way up in NYS: millions lack insurance or have bad coverage, and tens of thousands are filing bankruptcy due to medical bills. Whether families have health insurance or whether they don’t, people are frightened because they’re sick or because of the possibility they or a family member will become sick. We need Congress to act to make sure all people have health insurance they can count on so they are protected from high medical bills and that they can get the health care they need.

    Script: Right now, Congress is considering different pieces of legislation. Of course, in the end, for the bill to become law, the House of Representatives have to come up with the same bill, and the President has to sign it. The two main bills right now are being worked on by the so-called “Tri-Committee” -- actually 3 committees with jurisdiction over health care working together in the House [Ways and Means; Energy and Commerce; and Education and Labor] -- and the HELP [Health, Education, Labor & Pensions] committee in the Senate, run by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut in light of Senator Kennedy’s illness and death. We’re going to talk about now what these bills have in common. When I don’t say “House” or “Senate” bill in this presentation, I mean something that’s in both bills. If something’s in both bills, it has a good chance to pass in the end – although you can never know for sure. It’s important to mention that the Senate Finance Committee hasn’t come up with its bill yet and they have a lot of influence over health care, particularly in the area of revenue! Now, let’s discuss what the House and Senate proposals have in common, with a couple of points about the key differences.

    Script: As I just mentioned, these complex bills have a few key features in common. They’re a broad plan in which individuals, business, and government all have a role in making sure as many people as possible get quality, affordable coverage. And, depending on who you are – an employee who has coverage, an individual who purchases his or her own coverage, a low-income person, etc. you have different ways to obtain coverage, hopefully at an affordable price – that’s the goal. [Read/outline slide] Additions: FPL [Federal Poverty Level] is $73,240 for a family of 3 in 2009, and $88,000 for a family of 4

    Script: [read/outline first two bullets – and continue as follows:] The income levels to qualify for Medicaid, a current program that provides coverage for the poor and the disabled, would be raised, allowing people with slightly higher incomes to enroll, an important step to expand coverage for low-income people. Here in New York, our Medicaid program already admits people up to 150 percent of the FPL. Additions: 150% FPL: $33,075 for a family of 4 and $27,465 for a family of 3 133% FPL: $29,326.50 for a family of 4 and $24,352.30 for a family of 3

    Script: : A central feature of the bill is the requirement that every individual get coverage. In general, the people that are most directly impacted by this requirement are people who don’t have employer-provided coverage or a public program like Medicare or Medicaid. The requirement that everyone get coverage is critical to the plan under each bill. As you know, it was a major point of disagreement in the contest for the Democratic nomination – President Obama was against such a requirement, and Hilary Clinton was for it. One key reason for an “individual mandate” is that we need everyone – including the healthy – to pay into the system to keep costs down. Just like even safe drivers have to have auto insurance, we need an individual health insurance mandate, the argument goes. At the same, the bills try not to impose unreasonable penalties for people who simply can’t or won’t get insurance. The penalty for not obtaining coverage is $750 per year for the Senate, for example. And, as you can see from the slide, there’s no mandate: where affordable coverage is not available (presumably in the region) in the case of the Senate, and financial hardship (presumably by the individual) in the case of the House.

    Script: The main mechanism the Congress has selected to help and to provide incentives for businesses to provide health insurance to their employees where they don’t have it now is outlined on this slide and the next two slides. Its generally called the “pay-or-play” provision – businesses, with exceptions, have to either provide insurance for their employees -- to “play” – or to pay a penalty that will help employees get coverage if they don’t want to do that. The amount they are required to contribute under the House bill, as you can see here, is 72.5% of their employees’ coverage for individuals, but only 65% for families. And the penalty you have to pay varies based on the size of the business’ payroll on a sliding scale, with smaller businesses paying less and big businesses paying more. Businesses with payroll less than $500,000 for the year don’t have to pay a penalty: they are not required to obtain coverage for their employees. Businesses at the low end – with payrolls of $500,000 to $585,000, would have to pay 2% of payroll, and those at the high end – over $750,000 – have to pay 8% of payroll. (The Senate bill has slightly different amounts – I’ll discuss this under the next slide.) Smaller businesses are not left on their own: they will get a significant tax credit that will enormously help that with the cost of providing health care for their employees, if they choose to do that rather than paying the penalty. And its also important to know that the business that are NOT subject to the penalty – those with payrolls under $500,000 can get this tax credit if they choose to provide insurance to their employees. As this slide shows, contrary to the rhetoric out there, very few small businesses are negatively affected by this bill: it was previously estimated that about 4% of small businesses would be subject to the pay or play penalty – and that calculation was made before House leaders reached an agreement to exempt businesses with payrolls below $500,000 – the 4% number is based on the earlier exemption level of $250,000.

    Script: As you can see here, the Senate plan is somewhat different from the House plan. For example, rather than requiring employers to cover 72.5% of premium costs for single coverage, and 65% for family coverage, the Senate only requires that employers to cover 60% of their employees’ premium costs.

    Script: As the slide shows, under both the House and Senate plans, smaller employers – those with less than 50 employees in the case of the Senate and 25 in the case of the House – will get a tax credit to help them cover their employees. For both houses of Congress, only employers with smaller average payrolls – in other words, who don’t have mostly highly paid employees, like law or accounting firms – can get this credit. In case of the Senate, the average payroll must be less than $50,000, and in the case of the House, it must be less than $40,000. In the case of the Senate, the credit is equal to $1000 per employee with single coverage and $2000 for family coverage, and phases out as firm size increases. In the case of the House, the 50% credit is available for firms with 10 or fewer employees, and average wages of $20,000 or less. It phases out as firm size and average wage increase. The benefits to small businesses in our state are shown by the statistics on the slide as to how many businesses would quality for the small business credit: 471,300 businesses in the state would qualify for the House credit.

    Script: If you have to buy health insurance on your own – for example, your employer doesn’t provide health insurance – you can get credits to help you pay for you and your families’ health insurance, as long as your annual income isn’t above a certain level:400% of the federal poverty level, or about $88,000 per year. The credit limits your insurance premium to a certain percentage of your income: the lower your income, the less you have to pay for your health insurance premium each year. For example, as shown on the slide, if a family of 4’s annual income is $29 to $33 thousand dollars, your premium can’t be any higher than 1.5% to 3% of your income. [Go through other examples on the slide if time]. If you make more than $88,000, your health insurance premium can’t be subsidized under either than House or Senate bills. Additions: Source of Federal Poverty Level data (Georgetown University): http://ccf.georgetown.edu/index/cms-filesystem-action?file=statistics/2009%20federal%20poverty%20guidelines.pdf

    Script: Today, and under health care reform, the costs you pay are not just the monthly premiums we’ve been talking about already. People pay huge amounts in out of pocket costs for co-payments on prescription drugs, and for deductibles. If you’re seriously ill, the costs could range in the thousands of dollars per year – and more. Its shocking to say that many of the people we’ve talked about already who are filing bankruptcy due to high medical cost are INSURED. So, both the House and Senate bills have limits on your “out-of-pocket” costs, which insiders and experts sometimes call “cost-sharing.” The idea is to prevent people from facing severe financial distress or even bankruptcy just because you or your family gets seriously ill. Let’s discuss these cost sharing limits now.

    Script: This chart gives you a few illustrations give what certain types of individuals at certain types of income levels will experience under the House bill as an illustration, based on the calculations of the Center for Policy Analysis, a public policy organization that specializes in health care. As you can see from the right column, the annual cost-sharing limits for each year are capped at $5000 for an individual, and $10,000 for a family. That’s admittedly a lot, but the hope is that its not so high that it will cause families to go bankrupt if they face high medical expenses during a short period during their lifetime. [Go through chart quickly.] The family of 4 that makes $90,000/year [bottom box] is not entitled to a subsidy that limits their health insurance premiums, as they earn more than $88,000, 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. However, if you’re over that economic level, at least the $10,000 out-of-pocket limit will you avoid financial disaster.

    Script: Here’s our best information to do as to the provisions of the bills concerning the exchanges and the public plans. [Now follow slide.]

    Script: If you’re currently covered by Medicare, the program for seniors and the disabled, you will continue to be covered, and a few significant improvements will be made to the program. Under the House bill: The so called “donut hole” – in which when you spend a certain amount for your Part D prescription drugs in a year and then suddenly have to pay ALL of the prescription drug costs until your spending really gets enormous – will be closed in a number of years, and 215,200 seniors in New York State will save up to 50% of the donut hole costs in the short term. To encourage preventative services, all out of pocket costs will eliminated for these services. Additions: Explanation of “donut hole” from Wikipedia: “The term "donut hole" refers to a coverage gap within the defined standard benefit under the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. Under the defined standard benefit package, there is a gap in coverage between the initial coverage limit (around $3000/year) and the catastrophic coverage threshold. Within this gap, the beneficiary pays 100% of the cost of prescription drugs before catastrophic coverage kicks in. If you get asked about the $500 billion in Medicare cuts the opponents of reform are discussing, say: “The House changes were recommended by a non-partisan expert advisory body called the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission set up to advise Congress. One of the biggest changes is reducing the overpayments to private health plans in the program – called ‘Medicare Advantage.’ We have to eliminate waste in the system to keep it solvent over the long term – you’ve heard the problems with solvency of Medicare. We can’t protect these overpayments to insurance companies, like under the Medicare Advantage program.”

    Script: : The opponents of health care reform and of immigrants have attempted to split our communities by calling for the most punitive approaches to health care and immigrants. While we don’t have enough time tonight [today] to fully cover this issue, its important to say that its both the most humanitarian course and the best health care policy to cover immigrants – both documented and undocumented, children and adults. Immigrants, for example, pay taxes, such as sales taxes and many pay employment based taxes, like Social Security and the Medicare payroll tax. Refusing them coverage under health care reform, will believe, will have negative consequences for society as a whole, like greater costs for hospitals as sick immigrant adults and children go emergency rooms. Its simply doesn’t make sense to exclude immigrants from basic health care coverage. Nevertheless, to clarify the state of the bills in Congress, here are the true facts about immigrant coverage: [Go over the slides.] We will continue to urge Congress not to cut back on the limited benefits and rights immigrants have been provided under the current bills, and to expand benefits and protections in the current bill for the immigrant community.

    Script: It isn’t just the specific groups I’ve mentioned that will benefit from reform, but our entire community. We’ve provided two examples in this slide on how the House bill would benefit the people in our state in general. First, every year, hospitals and other providers incur thousands of dollars in costs because people without insurance seek treatment, primarily by coming to the emergency room, often for things that could be treated by a primary care physician. Hospitals have to treat these individuals by law. With the funding in the bill, hospitals and other health care providers in New York State will be relieved of billions of dollars every year in reimbursements for this care, called “uncompensated care”, helping them shore up their budgets and protecting health care jobs. And Its estimated that 1.7 million people now without insurance in New York State will be covered. Addressing the problems of health care, therefore, will significantly help all local residents, even those with good health care, and our area economy!

    Script: [Go through slide.] Additions: To quote professor Jacob Hacker, the primary theorist for the public/private plan that HCAN supports and is the basis for the House and Senate bills: “ The public Medicare plan’s administrative overhead costs (in the range of 3 percent) are well below the overhead costs of large companies that are self-insured (5 to 10 percent of premiums), companies in the small group market (25 to 27 percent of premiums), and individual insurance (40 percent of premiums).” Jacob S. Hacker, The Case for Public Plan Choice in National Health Reform , Institute for America's Future (undated but apparently completed in December 2008), p. 6, at http://institute.ourfuture.org/files/Jacob_Hacker_Public_Plan_Choice.pdf (June 25, 2009).

    Script: Time doesn’t permit us to go through every single myth that’s being spread out there, but here’s a few ones that we didn’t have time to discuss. [Read the 3 bullets.] Since the opponents of the bill are apparently going to continue their campaign of distorting the bills in Congress, and outright lying, we need to consult sources of reliable information. A few of them are listed on the slide. Additions: Links to reliable sources on the bill will be posted on the web page of Citizen Action’s sister organization, www.citizenactionny.org.

    Favorites, Groups & Events

    The Real Facts About Healthcare Reform and Our Community - Presentation Transcript

    1. The Real Facts About Health Care Reform and Our Community August, 2009 Public Policy and Education Fund, www.ppefny.org Fiscal Policy Institute, www.fiscalpolicy.org New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, www.abetterchoiceforny.org
    2. Myths About Health Care Reform
      • What have you heard?
      • Some things we’ve heard:
        • Your health care will be rationed
        • Reform will create a big government bureaucracy
        • Reform will lead us down a path towards “government-encouraged euthanasia”
      • More on these myths later, but these 3 claims are all untrue!
    3. What We’ll Discuss
      • 1. House and Senate Bills: The major provisions and the facts as to how they impact you and me: e.g. insured and uninsured, small business owners
      • 2. Debunking the myths: What the right-wing opponents of reform are saying and the truth
    4. A Picture of the State of Health Care in NYS
      • Health care premiums going way up – 7 times greater than earnings
        • premiums up 81% from 2000 to 2007
        • premium increase of $7,000 to almost $13,000 for family coverage during this period
      • 2.6 million lack insurance (as of 2007)
      • Over 45,000 personal bankruptcies in NYS – many due to medical bills (as of 2008)
        • nationally, 3 of 5 bankruptcies are related to medical bills
    5. Overview of Health Care Reform and Congress
      • There are two major bills:
        • Senate HELP Committee: Affordable Health Choices Act
          • Senate Finance Committee has issued policy papers, but no bill
        • House “Tri-Committee:” H.B. 3200 (America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009)
      • Next: What these proposals have in common, and a
      • few differences…
    6. Overview of the Bills
      • All individuals must obtain coverage
      • “ Exchanges” will be set up through which individuals and smaller employers can purchase health coverage:
        • like “shopping malls” where you can buy the health care you need
        • a means for small businesses and individuals, who pay the highest costs, to pool their resources to get cheaper health insurance
        • all plans subject to same standards
        • subsidies provided for individuals/families up to 400% of FPL (about $88,000/year) to buy insurance
    7. Overview of the Bills (continued)
      • “Exchanges” offer a choice of public and private plans
        • Problem: exchanges and therefore the public plan won’t start going into effect until 2013 (under House bill)
      • Employers must offer coverage or pay a fee towards providing coverage (“pay-or-play”)
      • Medicaid expanded: to 150% FPL (Senate) or 133% FPL (House)
    8. Individual Mandate
      • All individuals must obtain coverage with penalties if you don’t:
        • maximum tax penalty of $750 in Senate plan
        • under House plan penalty is based on your income, which is capped at the cost of the average premium
      • Exemptions from mandate:
        • where affordable coverage isn’t available (Senate) or
        • financial hardship (House)
    9. Health Insurance for Employees: House Bill
      • Most employers must “pay” or “play”. They must either:
        • contribute 72.5% of premium costs for single coverage (65% family coverage) for their employees or
        • pay 2% to 8% of payroll into the exchange to ensure employees get coverage (depends on payroll size)
      • Keep in mind: small businesses with workers that don’t have high average wages will get help in the form of a tax credit to pay for their employees’ health insurance
      • Exemptions from “pay or play:”
        • annual payroll less than 500,000
        • employers negatively affected by job losses as a result of the pay or play requirement
      • Less than 4% of small businesses are subject to the penalty for not obtaining coverage for their employees
    10. Health Insurance for Employees: Senate Bill
      • Most employers must “play” or “pay”. They must either:
        • contribute 60% of premium costs or
        • pay $750 for each employee not offered coverage
      • Exemptions:
        • employers with 25 or fewer employees
    11. Tax Credits for Small Businesses
      • Smaller employers (less than 50 employees, Senate; 25 employees, House) with smaller average payrolls will be eligible for a tax credit to help them cover health insurance costs for their employees
        • House credit: up to 50% of insurance premiums
      • 471,300 small businesses in New York State would quality for the House credit
      • If you work for a company that doesn’t provide insurance under the law, you can always go the health insurance “exchange” (shopping center) to purchase insurance on your own. That’s next…
    12. Subsidies for Individuals to Buy Coverage: House & Senate Plans
      • Individuals, families up to 400% of the FPL (about $88,000 a year for a family of four) get subsidies, on a sliding scale that caps how much you have to pay for premiums based on your income
      • Examples of the premium subsidy in the House bill:
        • family of 4 annual income of $29,000-$33,000: your premium limited to 1.5% - 3% of income
        • family of 4 annual income of $44,000-$55,000: your premium limited to 5.5% – 8% of income
        • family of 4 annual income of $88,000: your premium limited to 12% of income
      • Senate premium subsidy:
        • family of 4 annual income of less than $33,000: your premium limited to 1% of income
        • family of 4 annual income of less of $88,000: your premium limited to 12.5% of income
        • *All income levels have been rounded off to the nearest $1000
    13. Subsidies (cont.): Limits on “Out-of-Pocket” Expenses
      • House and Senate both also limit how much individuals and families will have to pay each year “out-of-pocket”
        • Examples: deductibles, drug costs
      • Intent of the limits: to avoid bankruptcy or other financial disasters due to medical bills
      • These limits on “out-of-pocket” costs, called “cost-sharing” limits, are generally based on your income (see next slide)
    14. Examples of What You’ll Pay: House Bill as Example 30% of medical costs up to $10,000 No subsidy to limit premium $90,000 Family of 4 30% of medical costs up to $10,000 $7,920 (11% of income) $72,000 Family of 3 15% of medical costs up to $10,000 $2450 (7% of income) $35,000 Couple 3-5% of medical costs up to $5000 $480 (3% of income) $16,000 Single Annual Limits on Out of Pocket Costs (Based on Purchasing “Basic” Plan) Annual Premium Limits Income If you are
    15. Choice of a Public Plan Through the Exchange
      • Exchanges, once established, will offer a public plan which meets the same requirements as private plans concerning benefit levels, provider networks, consumer protections, costs, etc.
      • Theory: to compete with the private plans and keep costs down
      • Who Can Enroll in Exchange and Public Plan:
        • House bill: Eligibility for exchanges, and therefore public plans generally limited to those not covered by existing private insurance, employer-coverage, Medicare or Medicaid
        • Senate bill: Eligibility for exchanges, and therefore public plans generally limited to those not eligible for employer-sponsored coverage, and those who have Medicare or Medicaid
    16. Choice of a Public Plan Through the Exchange (cont.)
      • Problems: There are problems with the current public plan provisions in addition to the limitations on enrollment in the previous slide. For example, under House bill:
        • you can’t enroll in an exchange and therefore a public plan until at least 2013
        • the number of employers that can participate is very limited:
          • In 2013, only employers with 10 or fewer employees can participate
          • In 2014, only employers with 20 or fewer employees can participate
          • Beginning in 2015, federal agency administering public option may, but isn’t required to, expand to larger employers
        • Generally, if you have coverage through your employer, you can’t enroll. People with employer coverage, however, can get assistance with the employee share of the premiums if they are too high (at least under the House bill)
      • Despite the problems, we must fight to:
        • stop the attacks on the public plans by the opponents of reform
        • keep the public option provisions as strong as possible
    17. Next Section – Impact on Certain Groups
      • We’ve already dealt with certain major groups of consumers, for example, individuals insured through their employer
      • Now, we’ll cover:
        • uninsured or people without employer insurance
        • people who already have employer-provided insurance
        • people with Medicare
        • immigrants
        • our community as a whole!
    18. If You Need to Purchase Insurance on Your Own or are Uninsured
      • If who purchase insurance on your own (“direct-pay”) rather than through a group, you pay the most of everyone
        • And everyone’s insurance is going up and up: 81% from 2000 to 2007 in NYS
      • The bill expands eligibility for Medicaid – so if you previously made too much to qualify, you might under the new law
      • If you still make too much for Medicaid, the House and Senate plans subsidize health insurance for individuals purchasing through the health insurance “shopping mall”
      • Bottom line: you can get insurance, and if you already have it, your health insurance costs should go down significantly
      • You don’t need to worry anymore about being denied coverage for a pre-existing condition
    19. If You Already Have Insurance Through Your Employer
      • You will be able to keep the plan your employer provides. (In fact, you’re generally not eligible to enroll in the exchange.)
      • However, you will enormously benefit from the reform legislation in Congress:
        • new rules like banning pre-existing coverage limitations and rescissions will protect you too
        • the competition from other plans in the exchange, including the public plan, will keep your premiums down
        • people with employer coverage can get assistance with the employee share of the premiums if they are too high (at least under the House bill)
    20. If You Have Medicare
      • You will continue to be covered by Medicare and the program is being improved
      • Under the House bill:
        • 215,200 seniors in New York State who have hit the “donut hole” will save 50% on their drug costs in the short term
        • and the donut hole will be closed over a number of years
        • co-payments and deductibles will be eliminated for preventative services
      • Greater focus on prevention and management of chronic diseases will lower program costs, protecting the program long-term
    21. If You Are An Immigrant
      • We think it’s the right thing for Congress to help all people -- including undocumented immigrants -- connect with quality, affordable health care and ask them to pay their fair share
      • Immigrants pay taxes; it’s not fair to exclude them from purchasing insurance through exchanges or Medicaid
      • The current health care reform bills:
        • explicitly prohibit federal dollars from being used for health insurance for undocumented workers, including for subsidizing health insurance through the exchanges (bad provision)
        • keep the current five-year waiting period for Medicaid for lawfully residing immigrant adults (also bad provision)
        • apparently allow undocumented immigrants to purchase insurance through the exchanges, but without the subsidy others will get (mixed provision)
        • allow subsidies to purchase insurance for lawfully residing (documented) immigrants (good provision)
    22. Impact on Our Entire Community
      • Impact in New York State of the House bill:
      • hospitals and health care providers in New York State receive billions in aid to care for the uninsured (“uncompensated care”)
      • 1.7 million uninsured in the state covered
      • Health care for all will significantly help both our residents and our economy!
    23. Debunking the Myths
      • Right-wing politicians and well-funded lobbyists and “Astroturf”
      • activists are spreading myth after myth about reform. 
      • Let’s review a few ones we haven’t discussed yet…
    24. Myth: Your Health Care Will Be Rationed
      • This claim is seriously misleading .
      • The current bills expand the number of people covered and the benefits people will receive
      • Under current system, care is “rationed” every day by private insurers through:
        • pre-existing conditions and rescissions
        • unaffordable policies and unaffordable care
        • arbitrary decisions by insurance companies
      • These practices would be ended or limited
    25. Myth: Public Plan Will Result in a Big Government Bureaucracy
      • Again, this claim is seriously misleading .
      • Do you like the current system in which private insurance company bureaucrats stand between you and your doctor?
      • Under current system, insurance company “bureaucrats:”
        • deny coverage despite what your doctor says
        • search people’s private health records to charge high premiums
        • enforce pre-existing coverage limits
      • Study after study: government programs like Medicare are more efficient
      • Government’s role will be to set standards, not make individual decisions on coverage. Government is more accountable than profit-maximizing insurance companies
    26. Myth: Next step is Canadian-Style “Single-Payer” System
      • Not true .
      • While many of us feel single-payer is highly desirable, the reality is that single-payer is not being considered seriously by Congress
      • There will an American solution to health care – a mixture of public and private providers
      • Congress is considering a choice of a public plan and a private plan. No one will be forced into the public plan
      • If private insurance companies provide competitive services, there’s no reason to fear a government plan will put them out of business
    27. Myth: “Government-Encouraged” Euthanasia
      • Not true .
      • FactCheck.org: The claim the House bill “may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia” is “nonsense . ” Neither is there any basis to the claim that Congress is setting up “death panels” to decide which patients to euthanize!
      • The bill permits medical professionals who perform counseling on issues like living wills at the patient’s request to be reimbursed, as with other medical services
        • Source of myth: Republican House Leader John Boehner & others  
    28. Myth: Small Businesses Will Be Hurt By Reform
      • Not true: nearly all will be helped .
      • Under the present system, small businesses are being hurt by:
        • increased costs for health care every year
        • high administrative costs making small business coverage unaffordable
      • The bills will address these threats to small business
      • Once again:
        • health insurance “shopping centers” (the exchanges) will help keep small business costs down because exchanges will enable them to pool resources and get better rates
        • small businesses will have significant subsidies to help them pay for insurance for their employees
        • less than 4% of small businesses (House bill) are subject to the penalty for not obtaining coverage for their employees
    29. Other Myths
      • These other claims are also not true :
        • Private plans will be outlawed
        • Health reform will pay for abortions (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
        • Reform will give government access to everyone’s bank accounts
      • Opponents will keep engaging in distortions and outright lying. Solution: consult these good sources for truthful information:
        • Congressional committees
        • Kaiser Family Foundation
        • Media Matters
        • Health Care for America Now
    30. Summing Up
      • Health care for all will have a positive impact on our community
      • The facts show that reform will help:
        • people who currently have insurance and those without
        • people who purchase insurance on their own
        • seniors
        • small business owners
        • hospitals and health care providers
        • our community as a whole!
      • We need to ignore the scare tactics of insurance companies, corporations and lobbyists with a vested interest in opposing change
    31. Selected Major Sources
      • House Committee on Ways and Means
      • Kaiser Family Foundation
      • Center for Policy Analysis
      • Health Care for America Now
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