This is a guest post by Darren Rippy. Darren is a graduate student in the Master of Public Policy program at the College of William & Mary. He is a summer policy fellow at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
The new health reform law is Good Business for Virginia’s Small Businesses because it provides tax credits to lower health care costs for Virginia’s small businesses.
About a week ago, a Hampton School Lunch Lady known as “Miss Barbara” was buried after dying from cancer. She died early (in her 50’s) because as a low-income person, she had no access to health care and eventually gave up. Unfortunately her death came just before her life insurance kicked in so her family wasn’t even able to pay for her funeral.
Luckily, community members came together, in the best spirit of what it means to be Americans, and raised money to cover the cost of her funeral.
To my amazement, a slew of letters to the Richmond Times Dispatch shows at least a few Virginians are suggesting they voted for our Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. It’s been harder and harder to get those confessions even from Republicans with his constant screes.
There is also a spate of well-conjectured letters claiming health insurance reform opponents still have shot at losing that debate again. Must be hard to hear that the over-financed campaign to keep the health care industry broken has lost with all that yelling going on at tea parties.
Below is a video of Beth Kimbriel, who’s family had to choose between food and doctor visits because they were denied coverage for a pre-existing condition. She’s shocked that Ken Cuccinelli would want to take health reform away from her family and force them into that desolate situation again.
Health reform has passed and the weather is gorgeous, there are many reasons to feel blessed! But as we start pulling out the spring/summer clothes, many of us will have to come face to face with the dreaded: “winter weight.” Indeed, weight gain and obesity are related to our health care crisis. In Virginia, the statistics are disturbing:
In 2008, over 60% of Virginia’s adults were overweight or obese.
There are many factors that can cause these alarming statistics. Our friends at The Lutheran Blog are raising some important issues about health care, nutrition and wellness with their new “Spring into Life” series. America is struggling with an obesity epidemic and our Faiths call us to be faithful stewards of our bodies.
There’s a lot of huffing and puffing about how the individual mandate in health insurance reform is unconstitutional. Is the individual mandate a liberal assault on the constitution? Or are these lawsuits about something else?
Virginia small business owner Jocelyn Tice talks about how her business gets tax credits to afford health insurance. This will let her reinvest savings from lower health care costs into expanding her business and creating jobs. She doesn’t understand why Gov. McDonnell and Attorney-General Cuccinelli want to take these away from her.
Health reform provides tax credits for up to 93,400 Virginia small businesses to help make coverage more affordable.
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 50% of employee premiums. And these small businesses would be exempt from any employer responsibility provisions.
Further more, small businesses offering coverage to retirees aged 55-64 would be eligible for subsidies in a new re-insurance pool that could help mitigate the financial risk for this higher cost population.
It is unfortunate that our Attorney-General Ken Cuccinelli wants to keep playing partisan games while hard working Virginians suffer in our broken health care system. We are grateful that Virginians will finally be protected from some of the worst health insurance industry abuses.
National health reform briefly took the spotlight away from the grim budget situation our Commonwealth is in. A new study out by The Commonwealth Institute shows that the budget will likely cost Virginia 37,000 jobs and $2 billion in lost GDP.
Virginia’s lawmakers responded to this crisis with an approach that is not balanced and relies most heavily on cuts to programs such as education and health care in order to close the budget shortfall.
The approach was definitely not balanced. As people of faith we are mindful of our enduring responsibility to care for one another. As it says in the Bible:
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 2:4-5
Congressman Tom Perriello supported his constituents by voting in favor of health insurance reform. Below is a breakdown of how health insurance reform will improve health insurance for folks in his district:
Give tax credits for up to 15,200 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 50% of employee premiums.
Guarantee that 10,700 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Health Insurers cannot deny children health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. A ban on the discrimination in adults will take effect in 2014.
A temporary high-risk pool will be set up to cover adults with pre-existing conditions. Health care exchanges will replace the program in 2014.
Allow 55,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.
The cut-off age for young adults to continue to be covered by their parents’ health insurance rises to the age 26.
Improve coverage for 409,000 residents with health insurance.
Insurance companies can no longer cut someone off when he or she gets sick.
Insurers must now reveal how much money is spent on overhead.
Any new plan must now implement an appeals process for coverage determinations and claims.
Non-profit Blue Cross organizations will be required to maintain a medical loss ratio — money spent on procedures over money incoming — of 85 percent or higher to take advantage of IRS tax benefits.
Improve Medicare for 130,000 beneficiaries.
Seniors will get a rebate to fill the so-called “donut hole” in Medicare drug coverage, which severely limits prescription medication coverage expenditures over $2,700.
As of next year, 50 percent of the donut hole will be filled.
Medicare payment protections will be extended to small rural hospitals and other health care facilities that have a small number of Medicare patients.
Protect 1,200 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
New plans must cover checkups and other preventative care without co-pays. All plans will be affected by 2018.
Lifetime caps on the amount of insurance an individual can have will be banned. Annual caps will be limited, and banned in 2014.
Call your member of Congress now & ask them to support health care reform: (202) 224-3121
I received another threatening letter today from Anthem, the Virginia Interfaith Center’s health insurance provider. I have a policy for me, my wife, and two children.
Anthem is demanding detailed “pre-existing condition” information on my youngest daughter who is adopted so they can decide what they will and will not cover. She is 12 months old. Adopted. Since December she has seen the doctor 4 times for shots and check ups. To date, they have not paid the doctor’s office for those visits.
We have no medical history on my daughter but they don’t seem to care.
It is illegal to deny insurance based on pre-existing conditions of an adopted child. Does not matter.
Anthem is just trying to do just about anything to refuse covering anyone who actually uses health care. Anthem sees my daughter as a revenue center who should not become a cost center.
Congressman Tom Perriello’s announcement supporting health reform will help his constituents. Earlier this week I blogged about a Virginia Veteran from Charlottesville and how his family suffered from our broken system.
Improve coverage for 361,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 203,000 families and 12,200 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 134,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 48,500 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 10,800 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 800 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 55,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.
Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 44 community health centers.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $59 million annually.
Hannah Anderson from Christiansburg VA writes movingly about health reform:
Moral principles of major world faiths consistently declare that people should not be simply left to suffer because they cannot afford a basic necessity. Just as those without money to pay for food should not be left to starve, those without health care insurance should not be made to suffer physically and financially.
Call Congressman Boucher now and ask him to vote in favor of health care reform: 202-225-3861
Virginians in Congressman Glenn Nye’s district are hurting because of his refusal to support health reform. Several months ago we held a large “Faith & Health Reform” townhall meeting at a Synagogue in Norfolk and heard from Virginians of faith in the 2nd Congressional district. Overwhelmingly we heard that health care is a shared responsibility and must be affordable to all.
Below are some specifics of how health reform would benefit Virginians in the 2nd Congressional district:
Improve coverage for 472,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 136,000 families and 13,900 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 78,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 30,500 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 8,000 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 1,200 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 61,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents’ insurance plans.
Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 12 community health centers.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $18 million annually.
Watch Rabbi Roz Mandelberg of Temple Ohef Sholom in Norfolk Va talk about health care as a shared responsibility and right for all:
A moving story of a Virginia Veteran and his family who struggle in our broken health care system.
Health reform will prevent discrimination based on pre-existing conditions so folks like MJ and Jeremy won’t have to suffer as much. A recent report spells out more health reform benefits for Virginians:
Under health reform, 707,000 Virginia residents will gain coverage by 2019. The path to coverage will depend on each resident’s situation: Some will enroll in coverage through their employers, while others will obtain coverage through a new marketplace, called an exchange, in which insurers must play by new rules to make sure that consumers receive quality coverage.
Today, heads of major Catholic women’s religious order in the United States representing 59,000 Catholic Sisters across America, sent a letter to Congress asking them to support health reform and firmly denying false rumors that reform has tax funded abortions:
It will invest in preventative care. It will bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. It will make crucial investments in community health centers that largely serve poor women and children. And despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. It will uphold longstanding conscience protections and it will make historic new investments – $250 million – in support of pregnant women. This is the REAL pro-life stance, and we as Catholics are all for it.
I write as a minister and Bible teacher to urge pro-life members of Congress to vote for health insurance reform.
A recent study estimates that 45,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health insurance. That figure does not count the number of pregnancies that end in miscarriage or the number of children born with life-threatening conditions because the mother lacks access to prenatal care. According to the 2009 CIA World Fact Book, the United States ranks dead last among industrialized countries in infant mortality rates. We are just behind Guam, Cuba, Italy, and the Isle of Man.
Rev. Lowery makes an important point. A recent report showed that 6,000 Virginians died because of a lack of health care over the past 15 years. By 2019, without reform, we could lose another 5,600 lives. We must reform our broken system to save lives in Virginia.
I consider it an honor that someone of Pat McSweeney’s stature would respond to my recent LegisLink article.
If you don’t know Mr. McSweeney, I don’t know him personally, he was the former Chair of the Republican Party in Virginia about 20 years ago. The blog Mason Conservative refers to as someone who has lost his mind. Additionally, he advises the Virginia Christian Alliance, a new fringe religious group that recently hosted the now-infamous press conference where Bob Marshall claimed disabled children are punishment from God for abortions. (hear it here)
Many Virginians will be glad that Governor Bob McDonnell has changed his mind on the Recovery Act. Several news stories today report how Gov. McDonnell supports more Recovery Act money to help prevent deep cuts to the states Medicaid program.
As Virginians of faith, we are concerned with how we treat low and middle income Virginians in these lean economic times. Now is when our principles will be tested. We are glad to hear that Governor McDonnell has seen how valuable the Recovery Act was to protecting health care for children, pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled.
The article below is a reminder of how important good health care and a loving spouse really are! Even though Mr. Verga thinks the best way to expand coverage for health care is to do away with those pesky hospital regulations, a position we strongly disagree with, we wish him and his wife all the best during this dangerous procedure and hope it is a tremendous success.
Republican congressional candidate Laurence Verga might take a temporary break from the campaign trail to receive a kidney from his wife.
Verga, one of eight GOP candidates hoping to face Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, in the fall, was diagnosed as having polycystic kidney disease in his early 40s. He is 46 now. His father had the disease, and it claimed the life of a great-grandfather, a grandfather and an uncle.
The disorder is a genetic condition in which cysts form in the fabric of both kidneys, impeding their ability to cleanse impurities from the body. The disease occurs in an estimated one out of every 20,000 people.
“Other than the kidney challenge, I am in excellent health,” Verga said. “My doctor says I’m like a Ferrari with a bad battery.”
Verga has been on a waiting list for a donated kidney for a little more than a year. However, wait times for organs in Virginia often can last four to seven years.
