Healthcare 2011

Healthcare_2011

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." -Martin Luther King Jr.
To reference 2007-2009 LWV-LPC Healthcare activities, click on our Healthcare Archive page to the left.

Upcoming Events.  Legislative Alerts/News.  US Healthcare Legislation/News.  CO Healthcare Legislation/News.  LWVUS Healthcare Positions 2011.  LWVCO Healthcare Actions.  La Plata actions.  Member Letters.  News Items.  Healthcare References.  Past Events.

Upcoming Events

Legislative Alerts/News

US Healthcare Legislation/News

*12/16/11 NY Times:Health Care Law Will Let States Tailor Benefits By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON -- In a major surprise on the politically charged new health care law, the Obama administration said Friday that it would not define a single uniform set of "essential health benefits" that must be provided by insurers for tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it will allow each state to specify the benefits within broad categories.
The move would allow significant variations in benefits from state to state, much like the current differences in state Medicaid programs and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
By giving states the discretion to specify essential benefits, the Obama administration sought to deflect one of the most powerful arguments made by Republican critics of President Obama's health care overhaul -- that it was imposing a rigid, bureaucrat-controlled health system on Americans and threatening the quality of care. Opponents say that the federal government is forcing a one-size-fits-all standard for health insurance and usurping state authority to regulate the industry...

*11/14/11 Reuters:Obama Health Care Law Case Reaches Supreme Court (Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by Eric Beech)
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide the fate of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, with an election-year ruling due by July on the U.S. healthcare system's biggest overhaul in nearly 50 years.
The decision had been widely expected since late September, when the Obama administration asked the nation's highest court to uphold the centerpiece insurance provision and 26 states and a business group separately asked that the entire law be struck down.
The justices in a brief order agreed to hear the appeals. At the heart of the legal battle is whether Congressoverstepped its powers by requiring that all Americans buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a provision known as the individual mandate...

*11/8/11 Durango Herald:Appeals court upholds Obama health care law> By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press
A conservative-leaning appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law, as the Supreme Court prepares to consider this week whether to resolve conflicting rulings over the law's requirement that all Americans buy health care insurance.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a split opinion upholding the lower court's ruling that found Congress did not overstep its authority in requiring people to have insurance or pay a penalty on their taxes, beginning in 2014. The requirement is the most controversial requirement of Obama's signature domestic legislative achievement and the focus of conflicting opinions from judges across the country. The Supreme Court could decide as early as Thursday during a closed meeting of the justices whether to accept appeals from some of those earlier rulings.
The suit in Washington was brought by the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson. It claimed that the insurance mandate is unconstitutional because it forces Americans to buy a product for the rest of their lives and that it violates the religious freedom of those who choose not to have insurance because they rely on God to protect them from harm. But the court ruled that Congress had the power to pass the requirement to ensure that all Americans can have health care coverage, even if it infringes on individual liberty...

*10/31/11 Durango Herald:New effort to reduce drug shortages a small step By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer
Unprecedented drug shortages are threatening the lives of cancer patients and other seriously ill people, and the Obama administration's plan to tackle them is but a small step toward solving a complex problem. President Barack Obama ordered the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to take new steps to send out early warnings about looming shortages and try to avert them.
"Even though the FDA has successfully prevented an actual crisis, this is one of those slow-rolling problems that could end up resulting in disaster for patients and health care facilities all over the country," Obama said.
There's already a crisis in the eyes of many frustrated doctors and hospitals who are scrambling for supplies of medicines ranging from common chemotherapies, to anesthetics used in surgery, to the electrolytes that are crucial to IV feeding in intensive care. Fifteen deaths have been blamed on shortages. Patients have had treatments delayed, surgeries canceled, or had to use second-choice medications. Hospitals are reporting price-gouging - such as a drug that usually costs $26 being offered for $1,200.

*9/21/11 Huffington PostObama Health Care Law Sees Nearly 1 Million Young Adults Gain Coverage: Poll by RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
WASHINGTON -- At least one part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has proven popular. With the economy sputtering, the number of young adults covered by health insurance grew by about a million as families flocked to take advantage of a new benefit in the law.
Two surveys released Wednesday + one by the government, another by Gallup + found significantly fewer young adults going without coverage even as the overall number of uninsured remained high.
The government's National Center for Health Statistics found that the number of uninsured people ages 19-25 dropped from 10 million last year to 9.1 million in the first three months of this year, a sharp decline over such a brief period.
New data from an ongoing Gallup survey found that the share of adults 18-25 without coverage dropped from 28 percent last fall to 24.2 percent by this summer. That drop translates to roughly 1 million or more young adults gaining coverage...

*10/18/11 NYTimes:Administration Seeks to Roll Back Hospital Rules By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration moved Tuesday to roll back a number of rules governing hospitals and other health care providers after concluding that the standards were obsolete or overly burdensome to the industry.
Among other things, the proposals would allow hospitals to save money by sometimes using qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants in place of better-paid doctors, allowing doctors to focus more on patients and helping address "impending physician shortages."
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposed changes would save providers nearly $1.1 billion a year without creating any "consequential risks for patients."
The proposed rules would apply to more than 6,000 hospitals.
Other proposals would roll back rules for doctors' offices, kidney dialysis centers, organ transplant programs, outpatient surgery centers and institutions for people with severe mental disabilities...

*10/18/11 NYTImes:Behind the Class Act, a Numbers Game By PAULA SPAN
Let the post-mortem on the Class Act begin. The health and human services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, charged with carrying out this first-ever national program of voluntary long-term care insurance, made official on Friday what had been speculated for several weeks: the administration was shutting down Class. After 19 months of research and consultation, "we have not identified a way to make Class work at this time," she said.
But was it really unsound? Was it impossible to offer to those who needed help with the activities of daily living a $50-a-day benefit ($18,000 a year) that would help ease the huge financial burden of long-term care? The insurance industry veteran hired to serve as the program's chief actuary, Robert Yee, begs to differ -- or at least, he begs to defer judgment.
Mr. Yee, whose dismissal last month first signaled that the program was in trouble, told me on Monday that when it came to setting benefits and premiums, planning for Class remained at a fairly early stage. It would have taken another six months, he said, to come up with the numbers. But "from an actuarial perspective, we can make it work," he said.
The primary stumbling block, as Class critics have pointed out since it was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, was the potential for so-called adverse selection -- the chance that too many people needing benefits (because they were already sick or disabled or soon would be) would enroll without enough younger, healthier people joining up, paying premiums and balancing the risk...

*10/3/11 Durango Herald:Supreme Court may rule on health Verdict could come by June 2012 By Mark Sherman Associated Press
WASHINGTON + The nine justices of the Supreme Court, who serve without seeking election, soon will have to decide whether to insert themselves into the center of the presidential campaign next year.The high court begins its new term today, and President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, which affects almost everyone in the country, is squarely in its sights.
The Obama administration's request last week that the justices resolve whether the health-care law is constitutional makes it more likely than not that they will deliver their verdict by June 2012, just as Obama and his Republican opponent charge toward the fall campaign...

*9/28/11 WHITEHOUSE.GOVObama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Lawsuit
Tens of millions of Americans are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, including the parents of children with preexisting conditions, women getting mammograms with no out-of-pocket cost, seniors saving hundreds of dollars on their prescription drugs, and one million young adults now newly insured through their parent's plan. And the law also tackles costs, requiring insurance companies to justify their plans to raise premiums and give consumers a rebate if they spend too much of your premium dollar on overhead instead of health care. But even as millions enjoy the benefits of reform, opponents continue to try and give control back to the insurance companies by challenging the law in court.
There has been no shortage of lawsuits regarding the Affordable Care Act. Of course, whenever our nation is undertaking fundamental reform, legal challenges like this are nothing new. Just as challenges to the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act all failed, challenges to health reform are failing as well. The Administration has already prevailed in cases heard in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Unfortunately the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Affordable Care Act's individual responsibility provision. We strongly disagree with their decision and today, the Obama Administration will ask the Supreme Court to hear this case, so that we can put these challenges to rest and continue moving forward implementing the law to lower the cost of health care and make it more secure for all Americans. We hope the Supreme Court takes up the case and we are confident we will win...

*8/12/11 New York Times:Appeals Court Rules Against Health Law Mandate By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal appeals panel struck down the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul Friday, moving the argument over whether Americans can be required to buy health insurance a step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Congress overstepped its authority when lawmakers passed the so-called individual mandate, the first such decision by a federal appeals court. It's a stinging blow to Obama's signature legislative achievement, as most experts agree the requirement that Americans carry health insurance -- or face tax penalties -- is the foundation for other parts of the law.
Chief Judge Joel Dubina and Circuit Judge Frank Hull found in a 207-page opinion that lawmakers cannot require residents to "enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die."...

*8/2/11 Durango Herald:Health coverage with no co-pay extended to birth control By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A half-century after the advent of the pill, the Obama administration on Monday ushered in a change in women's health care potentially as transformative: coverage of birth control as prevention, with no co-pays.
Services ranging from breast pumps for new mothers to counseling on domestic violence were also included in the broad expansion of women's preventive care under President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul. Since birth control is the most common drug prescribed to women, health plans should make sure it's readily available, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Not doing it would be like not covering flu shots," she said.
Officials said the women's prevention package will be available Jan. 1, 2013, in most cases, resulting in a slight overall increase in premiums. Tens of millions of women are expected to benefit initially, a number that is likely to grow with time. At first, some plans may be exempt because of an arcane provision of the health-care law known as the "grandfather" clause. But those plans could face pressure from their members to include the new coverage...

*7/15/11 Chicago Tribune: Once politically taboo, proposals to shift more Medicare costs to elderly are gaining traction Noam N. Levey, Reporting from Washington
The heated debate over the federal deficit has pumped new life into controversial proposals for requiring Americans on Medicare to pay more for their healthcare, raising the possibility that seniors' medical bills could jump hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.
It remains unclear if any of the proposals, which congressional Republicans have demanded to cut trillions of dollars from the federal budget, will be enacted this year, given the continued stalemate over government spending.

*6/29/11 Los Angeles Times:Appeals court declares health law constitutional by Noam Levey and David Savage
President Obama's healthcare overhaul survived its first test before a federal appellate court, as the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati concluded that the law's insurance requirement is constitutional. "We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause," a 2-1 majority of the panel concluded, rejecting a challenge by the conservative Thomas More Law Center.
Notably joining the majority opinion was Judge Jeffrey Sutton, an appointee of President George W. Bush and a former law clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Sutton is the first Republican appointee on the federal bench to affirm the constitutionality of the so-called individual mandate.
The Thomas More lawsuit has not attracted as much attention as two other legal challenges being pushed by GOP state officials in Virginia, Florida and other states. Those suits are being reviewed by federal appellate courts in Atlanta and Richmond, Va...

*6/22/11 Durango Herald:Glitch would provide free health insurance to millions By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Associated Press
WASHINGTON + President Barack Obama's health-care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed.
The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department.
After downplaying any concern, the Obama administration said late Tuesday it would look for a fix...

*3/17/11 NYTimes:American Life Span Edges Longer By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Life expectancy in the United States has hit another high, rising above 78 years. The estimate of 78 years 2 months is for a baby born in 2009, and comes from a preliminary report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts do not believe there is one simple explanation for the increase, but better medical treatment, vaccination campaigns and public health measures against smoking are believed to be having an impact. The infant mortality rate hit a record low of 6.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, a drop of nearly 3 percent from 2008. Male life expectancy is roughly 75.5; for females, it is about 80.5...

*2/16/11 New York Times:OP-CHART - The Health of Reform By JACOB S. HACKER and CARL DeTORRES
Health reform, in short, is very much a work in progress. This report examines the progress on three dimensions - Roll-out, Reactions and Results...

*1/20/11 Durango Herald: House votes to repeal Obama's health care GOP fulfills campaign pledge; measure sure to fail in the Senate By David Espo AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON + Swiftly honoring a campaign pledge, newly empowered Republicans pushed legislation to repeal the nation's year-old health-care overhaul through the House on Wednesday night, brushing aside implacable opposition in the Senate and a veto threat from President Barack Obama.
The 245-189 vote was largely along party lines, and cleared the way for the second phase of the "repeal and replace" promise victorious Republicans made to the voters last fall. GOP officials said that in the coming months, congressional committees will propose changes to the existing legislation, calling for elimination of a requirement for individuals to purchase coverage, for example, and recommending curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits.
Republicans also intend to try to reverse many of the changes Democrats made to Medicare Advantage, the private alternative to the traditional government-run health-care program for seniors...

Colorado Healthcare Legislation/News

*11/21/11 Durango Herald:Colorado's uninsured rises 22% La Plata, nearby counties see an increase of 34% By Dale Rodebaugh Herald Staff Writer
The 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey shows that the poor economy has made carrying health-care coverage increasingly difficult. The most recent survey shows 829,000 state residents are uninsured, a 22.3 percent rise from two years ago. "That's 151,000 additional Coloradans who are uninsured. That would be as if the entire city of Grand Junction lost health insurance all at once," said Dr. Ned Calonge, president of The Colorado Trust, which funded the survey. "That's a remarkable increase and it's a serious issue."
In Region 9, which includes La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores, Archuleta and San Juan counties, the number of uninsured rose 33.7 percent, from 16,400 in 2009 to 21,922 in 2011. In the same period, the percentage of people in the region who regularly turn to hospital emergency rooms for routine care rose from 11.9 percent to 16.8 percent, an increase of 41.5 percent...

*Healthcare Reform in Colorado Colorado.Gov

*7/27/11 Colorado Adults' Health Insurance Status: 2011 update Colorado Health Institute

*6/2/11 Durango Herald:Governor signs insurance reform Exchange will help businesses cut costs for health coverage By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
LAKEWOOD + Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law Wednesday a health-insurance exchange that backers believe will lower costs for thousands of small businesses.
The exchange will include a website where people and business owners can compare and buy policies and pool their buying power to get better prices.
The federal health-insurance law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010 calls for states to create exchanges, and seven states have done it so far. "We were the only states where it was done in a bipartisan way, where both Republicans and Democrats signed up," Hickenlooper said. Had Colorado not created an exchange, it would have been put into a national exchange + something that business groups wanted to avoid...

*6/1/11 Durango Herald:Gov. Hickenlooper vetoes first bill Health fee would have billed needy families monthly charge By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed a bill Monday that would have charged needy families up to $50 a month to get government health insurance for their children.
Health-care advocates had urged Hickenlooper to veto Senate Bill 213. It passed with bipartisan support, but Democrats quickly regretted the vote.
Hickenlooper said it made sense to expect families to share some of the cost of their health care, but he worried that the monthly fee would force families to drop their insurance. "At a time when employers large and small are struggling to continue to provide health insurance to workers, it doesn't make sense to heap additional costs on the health-care system in the form of uncompensated care," Hickenlooper wrote in his veto letter to the Legislature.
It was Hickenlooper's first veto of a bill, and it angered Republicans who insisted on the fee as part of a deal to pass the state budget...

*3/22/11 Durango Herald:Shop for a health plan? State moves ahead with exchange bill By Kristen Wyatt Associated Press
DENVER + Colorado appears poised to join other states planning expanded marketplaces for health insurance under a compromise deal announced Monday by Democrats, Republicans and Gov. John Hickenlooper.
A bill to be introduced in the Senate sets up a health exchange, which is an insurance marketplace where customers can comparison shop. Supporters say health exchanges pull down prices, because they allow individuals and small businesses to pool risk and get rates usually available only to large businesses.
Health exchanges are a key component of last year's health-care overhaul. The federal law says states have until 2014 to create exchanges, or else the federal government will establish them.

*2/7/11 Durango Herald: Colo. Medical Society president says U.S. needs to focus on costs By Ann Imse Colorado Public News
With America already short $38 trillion needed to pay for Medicare insurance for the elderly over the next 75 years, the nation must focus on controlling health-care costs, according to Dr. Michael Pramenko, president of the Colorado Medical Society.
The U.S. economy can't afford to see the share of gross domestic product spent on health care spiral from today's 17 percent to a projected 34 percent in a generation, Pramenko said in a presentation at Colorado Public News.
"Other countries + not socialist + are covering all citizens and doing it for half the cost," said the family doctor from Grand Junction. The United States spent an average of $7,290 per person on health care in 2009, while nine other major developed countries spent $2,581 to $4,417 per person...

*2/6/11 Durango Herald: Is it carbon monoxide again? Maybe, maybe not
It is the old tip-of-the-iceberg thing: For the 1,000 or more annual deaths in the U.S. from carbon monoxide poisoning, it is estimated that there are 40,000 nonfatal exposures.
The latter are likely underreported, underrecognized and underdiagnosed. As in my November column, the word for carbon monoxide, or CO, is insidious: "working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner, treacherous."...

LWVUS Healthcare Positions 2011

LWVCO Healthcare Actions

LWV-La Plata Actions

*11/8/11 Durango Herald:Local health-care education is urged Exchanges being set up to help customers get most out of money By Dale Rodebaugh Herald Staff writer
The more people and small employers know about the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the easier it will be for them to find the best health-insurance plan for themselves or their employees, an organizer for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group said Monday. Keelin Kelly is in the Durango area through today to discuss health-insurance exchanges that will allow consumers to better compare insurance policies. She made a presentation Monday in the conference room at 700 Main Ave.
The creation of health-insurance exchanges is one of the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, which, among other things, prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. Many of the law's provisions take effect in 2014.
Kelly will make her last appearance at 6:30 p.m. today at the Durango Public Library, 1900 East Third Ave. She held meetings earlier in downtown Durango, Ignacio and Fort Lewis College. In La Plata County, 27 percent of adults don't have health insurance, and scores of businesses can't afford it for their employees...

Letters from our Members

News Items

*9/26/11 The Weekly Standard:The Medicare Monster An entitlement problem too big to ignore By Yuval Levin, Hertog fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the editor of National Affairs
It is gradually dawning on Washington that a meaningful reform of the Medicare program will be unavoidable in the coming years. Medicare is at the center of both our health care dilemma and our fiscal crunch, and it will be very difficult to avoid a calamitous debt crisis without making changes to the program's basic structure.
Medicare's problem is not just overspending. In a sense, the program's travails mirror (and severely exacerbate) those of our economy and welfare state more generally: The stifling of competition and innovation creates a crushing inefficiency that makes the system unsustainable​--​giving off a strong whiff of institutional decline, and intimations of a terrible crash to come. Yet correcting the problem, in Medicare's case as with our broader predicament, presents an enormous political challenge, because recipients of benefits are powerfully resistant to change.
Democrats have long used the prospect of changes to Medicare as a way to scare older voters, and Republicans have long responded by avoiding serious talk of reform. But this spring, Republicans in the House of Representatives broke with this pattern and passed a bold and promising reform as part of their annual budget resolution, produced by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan. Democrats, however, have stuck to their pattern and sought to use the Republican proposal as election-year ammunition. When she was asked in May what the Democrats' top three election issues would be in 2012, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said they were "Medicare, Medicare, and Medicare." ...

*9/18/11 Durango Herald:On the edge without a net High number of uninsured Hispanics strains economy, families By Heather Scofield Herald Staff Writer
Two years ago, doctors told Myriam Balaguer she needed immediate hip surgery. Lacking health insurance, she never had the operation and has lived in pain every day since. Her husband, Ruben, a substitute teacher in Durango, worries about her often. "She can't walk for long distances, and she has a lot of pain," Ruben Balaguer said. When medical attention is necessary, "it's very hard because it costs a lot of money."
The Balaguers are among 41 percent of Colorado Hispanics who live without health insurance. Nationwide, nearly 31 percent of Hispanics are uninsured. Those numbers have serious implications because of the important roles Hispanics play in the economy, advocates say.
And the problem is worse in Colorado, where state and local economic-development officials say economic and educational disparities also are greater than the national average...

*5/29/11 NY Times:The Changing Politics of Doctors By TARA PARKER-POPE
Doctors were once overwhelmingly male and conservative. But today the politics of the medical profession are changing, as more doctors abandon independent practice for salaried jobs and more women are graduating from medical school, reports Gardiner Harris in the latest installment of his Doctors, Inc. series.
No national surveys track doctors' political leanings over time, but as more doctors move from shopkeeper to shift-worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine to South Dakota and from Arizona to Oregon, according to doctors' advocates in those and other states.
This could have a profound effect on the nation's health care debate. Indeed, the American Medical Association supported last year's health legislation after opposing almost every major reform proposal for nearly a century because the law would provide health insurance to the vast majority of the nation's uninsured, improve competition and choice in insurance, and promote prevention and wellness, the group said...

Healthcare References

*Colorado Health Care Law Blog QUICK READS: Healthcare Law In the News

Past Events

*Wednesday 9/7/11 Health Insurance Exchange:
What does it mean to employers and organizations?
Learn more about Health Insurance Exchanges:
http://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/cohiex
http://www.colorado.gov/healthreform

12:00 noon - 1:00 pm

Recreation Center, Sunlight room
(brown bag luncheon, drinks provided)
2700 Main Avenue

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

LPEA Boardroom
(light snacks and drinks provided)
45 Stewart Street

*7/26/11 Durango Herald:Heart Safe La Plata to offer trainings
Heart Safe La Plata will offer these CPR trainings:
An adult CPR/AED class will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority station, 142 Sheppard Drive in Bodo Industrial Park. The costs of the training is $50 for a two-year certification.
CPR for the Healthcare Professional "Renewal" will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority station. The cost is $65 for a two-year certification.
Heart Safe La Plata offers classes on the first Thursday of every month. Instructors also are available to teach at businesses or service clubs.
For more information on how to participate, visit http://www.heartsafelaplata.org or call J.T. Coyne at 769-7473.

*Thursday, April 21, Durango Public Library, 11am-12:30pm, Community Conversation on Health and Healthcare in La Plata County
You are invited to attend a presentation facilitated by Dr. Emily Burns, MD,. MSPH, and presented in conjunction with Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center (AHEC). Please bring your energy and ideas for improving health in our communities and hear updates aboput health care programs in La Plata County. Light refreshments will be provided.

*3/23/11 LWVUS: Happy Birthday, Affordable Care Act!

You're 1 today, and wow what a year it has been. Since last year:

• Children are no longer denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions
• Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on coverage
• Young adults can stay on their parents' health plans until age 26

  Together, we've made a lot of progress in the last year to ensure that more Americans have access to better, more affordable health care. But if some members of Congress have their way, our progress will be lost. No more coverage for children with pre-existing conditions. No more unlimited coverage. No more insurance for young adults getting on their feet.
  The cost of repeal will be vast.
  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would add $230 billion to the national deficit over the next ten years and leave about 54 million Americans without insurance.
  And that's why we must spring into action once again. In the coming year, we have a lot to look forward to: new innovations to bring down health care costs, increased access to home and community care for the disabled and expanded access to high-quality care for more American residents.
  We have too much to lose to go back to where we started. We will not back down now. We will continue our work with local Leagues and volunteers to ensure true health care reform and coverage for all.
  So Happy Birthday, Affordable Care Act. You've come a long way, and you still have so much to achieve. We're here to make sure that happens.
  Sincerely,
  Elisabeth MacNamara, President, LWVUS

  1/17/11 LWVLPC request for legislative action: Dear LWVLPC members, This coming week the US House of Representatives is planning to introduce and vote on a bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act of 2010. LWV has taken a strong position opposing this repeal, and we are all urged to contact our Representative to tell him that repealing the act is not the way to go forward - many Americans have already received needed benefits, which they would once again lose. Please take action by clicking act now on your healthcare legislation

  Ellen Park Legislative Chair, LWVLPC

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