The effort for affordability continues
When Sen. Reid submitted a merged healthcare bill to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring last week, I flagged the important issue of affordability provisions in the bill. Unbeknownst to me at the time, faith groups were analyzing the legislation as well, and on Friday they voiced serious concerns about the Senate bill and called on Majority Leader Reid to address them:
Today, 160 organizations from 39 states, including faith, labor, consumer, public health and patient organizations representing millions of American families, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging him to reject a proposal that would increase premiums for low-wage working families, and instead to ensure that Senate legislation makes insurance more affordable for precisely these families who have been hardest-hit by the economic downturn.
The letter — which is endorsed by more than a dozen national religious organizations and denominations, as well as several nationwide community organizing networks — states in part:
We believe it is vitally important that – as you work to develop the best possible health reform legislation that can pass the Senate – you do everything possible to lower premiums and out-of-pockets costs on low-wage working families who are least able to bear the brunt of an individual mandate. That is why we are alarmed by reports that suggest that your merger proposal may not make significant improvements in affordability for low-wage working families, and may in fact increase premiums on people at lower-income levels.
Our faith, labor, consumer, public health and patient organizations represent millions of American families who actively support health reform, but they need to know that reform will make coverage affordable not place an unsustainable burden on those who today lack coverage. As many interests vie to influence the health reform process, it is important that working families not be left with the short-end of the stick.
Amen.