PAT ON THE ISSUES:
Should Georgia implement federal health care reform?
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 18, 2010
YES: With the fight over, officials must come together to make reform work.
By Pat Gardner and Nan Orrock
Some in Washington and Georgia want to derail health insurance reform. Our Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a candidate for governor, even went so far as to reject the opportunity to set up the high-risk insurance pool called for in the bill.
Our constituents deserve better than a system that so easily turns their health and financial future into a political football. The nonstop campaign grandstanding for today’s 24-7 news cycle shows why the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act President Barack Obama recently signed into law is so important to the security of the hard-working people we represent.
The historic legislation, while not perfect, is an important first step toward making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.
For legislators in Georgia and every other state, the passage of federal health care reform also began a process that will be crucial to the families affected by our current health care crisis. That’s because the bill leaves many critical decisions on implementation to the individual states.
As elected representatives and state lawmakers, we have been entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that these new federal reforms work for our families. Unfortunately, Commissioner Oxendine and some other Georgia politicians have engaged in partisan attempts to refuse to implement the law and leave it to the federal government, or to repeal the law.
While that may score political points, it is not good for our state. Instead, we should be working together to help the families across Georgia who face bankruptcy due to lack of coverage or whose claims have been denied due to pre-existing conditions, or who simply can’t afford to pay the skyrocketing premiums insurance companies charge.
The new federal law ends some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry, including the practice of denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, dropping coverage for individuals after they get sick, charging women more than men and imposing annual or lifetime limits. In return, and coupled with subsidies for families who need help to afford insurance, the law will also eventually require that those who can afford to buy insurance do so.
This prevents people from taking advantage of the system by signing up for insurance only after they get sick. This “mandate” is less of a burden than the “mandate” the current broken system places on families whose illness could mean financial ruin and the “mandate” that those of us who have insurance pay higher premiums to pick up the tab for those who don’t.
Health care reform is projected to reduce the federal deficit by over $1 trillion in the coming years. It will also be a great deal for Georgia. The expansion of Medicaid, which will cover about half a million Georgians currently without insurance, will be fully paid for with federal funds for its first three years (beginning in 2014); after that, Georgia’s contribution will remain low, inching up to only 10 percent after 2020. With fewer uninsured patients having to use emergency rooms, all of us will save money. The reforms will also reduce the tax burden on many Georgians, providing tax credits to individuals and to small businesses to help them afford coverage for themselves or their employees.
The goal is quality affordable health care coverage that can never be taken away. It willnot come about by accident. It will only happen by design.
It is time to put aside partisan politics and get together as a state to address the urgent challenge of implementing and improving these reforms for our families.
State Rep. Pat Gardner and state Sen. Nan Orrock are both Democrats from Atlanta.
Pat's 2009-2010 Legislation
Health Care Reform Update: Click here to read a letter from
from U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius regarding the Affordable Care Act and outlining the first steps in implementation of the following provisions: Adult Child Coverage, Pre-existing Conditions, Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, Rescissions, Small Business, Lowering Premiums, and the Medicare Part D Doughnut Hole. Read more...
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