What the Senate Health Care Legislation Means for Patients

The American Heart Association supports those specific provisions in the Senate's health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that make health care coverage more accessible, affordable and adequate for the 80 million Americans living with heart disease and stroke, including:

• Prohibiting insurance companies from denying or dropping coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition;


• Prohibiting insurance companies from charging women and those with pre-existing conditions higher premiums and limits the amount more that insurance companies can charge older Americans for their coverage;


• Abolishing lifetime caps and unreasonable annual limits in insurance coverage;


• Protecting families from medical bankruptcy by limiting out-of-pocket costs to $5,800 for an individual or $11,600 for a family. Low and moderate-income families would have lower caps on the amount they would have to spend for their out-of-pocket costs;


• Requiring that essential categories of services be covered, including hospital and doctors visits, emergency care, preventive services, prescription drugs, and rehabilitative care;Requiring all private health plans and Medicare to cover preventive services with no deductible or other cost-sharing;


• Requiring that health plan networks include an adequate number and type of providers; and


• Requiring that consumers be given uniform, understandable information about their health plan coverage, costs, and quality.
  

The AHA believes that the many patient-centered provisions of the Senate legislation are a significant step towards meaningful health reform and encourages all Senators to support the key procedural votes needed to allow the Senate to pass its bill so progress can continue.

Tell your Senators to put patients first by voting "YES" on the three critical upcoming procedural votes by visiting http://www.heartsforhealthcare.org/ today!