Pennsylvania Democrats Ready To Battle Big Insurance
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 1:19PMSenate Democrat Robert Casey (Pa.) blasted health insurance companies due to reports that indicate they will end sales of child-only policies just before healthcare provisions that ensure children with preexisting conditions are granted insurance take effect saying it is “inexcusable” and “immoral”.
“I’m going to do everything on my part to let those insurance companies know that we will not tolerate this kind of conduct,” Casey said. “We have a lot of ways to make sure that they know that we’re very serious about making sure that children get the coverage that they need.”
Thursday will mark the six-month anniversary of the passage of the comprehensive healthcare reform,
while also celebrating the implementation of new health protections for consumers. These new protections guarantee access to coverage for children with pre-existing conditions, give Americans a better opportunity to choose their doctor and prohibit insurers from canceling policies.
Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, discussed how the upcoming health provisions will benefit those without health insurance or who are having difficulties paying for health insurance premiums. The latter will be eligible for “advance-able, refundable and sliding scale tax credit,” he said. Those who have limited tax liability or have greater tax credit than liability will be eligible for a refund. Additionally, he announced that approximately 28.6 million people will be eligible for tax credit by 2014 around the nation, including almost one million Pennsylvanians. In that year alone, taxes are expected go down by $3.8 billion.
“We need the private sector to work with us to implement the reforms and to acknowledge that tomorrow is when a number of significant health provisions go into effect,” said Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa).
Panel Argues Suits Against Health Reform Lack Substance
By Kyle LaFleur - Talk Radio News Service
A panel discussion between activists from the Center for American Progress, Washington and Lee University and the National Senior Law Center focused their thoughts on lawsuits filed by Florida and Virginia state Attorneys General against the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act.
Tim Jost of Washington and Lee University Law School spoke on the Florida case which, in part, accuses the the health reform provision mandating Americans to acquire insurance coverage by 2014 to be unconstitutional.
“Basically it says that if you can afford health insurance, if you don’t have a religious objection to it, if you’re not otherwise insured, if you been insured for more then three months and if it wouldn’t otherwise work a hardship on you, you would have to buy a very basic insurance policy,” said Jost. “This is something I think every responsible person should do and it’s a little bit hard to understand why the states find this such a terrible provision.”
Virginia, according to Jost, has its own statute and claims that the individual mandate is not enforceable.
“Under our federal system, under the Supremacy Clause, if the statute is constitutional then it’s enforceable in Virginia. The state can’t nullify a federal law, we fought a war over that and the federal government won,” said Jost.
The federal government tried to dismiss the Virginia case in August but the court found that Virginia had a plausible claim with an arguable legal basis. The case is being briefed on summary judgement and oral arguments over these judgements will begin at the Justice Department Monday.
“To quote the case ‘It will certainly not be the final word’,” said Jost.