Congressman Sander Levin

Health Care Hub

I am committed to health care reform that keeps the best of our current system and fixes what is broken. This is an important debate that impacts all of our families. I want you to have the most up-to-date and accurate information on the proposals being considered so that you may participate in this national dialogue on the future of our health care system.

• Click here for a 2-page summary of the House proposal
  

How Health Care Reform Would Impact You

As we consider reform proposals, we all need to ask how they would impact us and our families. Under the proposal currently being considered in the U.S. House, the starting point is if you get insurance through your employer today, you will continue to do so.  If you are self-employed or uninsured, you will have the option to purchase insurance through a new Health Insurance Exchange. The Exchange would be a one-stop-shopping location where there would be a range of private plans and a proposed public plan. If your income is below a certain level, you would get a voucher that you can apply to any of the private plans or the proposed public plan. If you are on Medicare, that will stay exactly the same, with some improvements in benefits.

• Click here for a chart of how health care reform would impact different individuals and families

The proposal prohibits insurance companies from denying care because of pre-existing conditions and expand coverage. It also establishes maximum out-of-pocket deductibles, co-payments, and other costs in all health insurance plans to protect all families from burdensome high costs.

The proposal maintains all current Medicare benefits and strengthenes Medicare by eliminating copayments on preventive care and lowering prescription drug costs.

• Click here for a fact sheet on how health care reform impacts seniors with Medicare.

Setting the Record Straight

I also want to be clear about some misconceptions about the proposal. First, the proposal is not, as some have claimed, “socialized medicine” or a “government takeover” of health care. Socialized medicine is a system in which the hospitals are owned by the government and doctors are employees of the government. Under the proposals under consideration in Congress, most Americans will continue to receive insurance through private insurers, from private hospitals, and from doctors in private practice.

Some people have argued that the proposed public health insurance plan is a government takeover of health care. This claim is simply false. Under the House proposal, people who do not get insurance through their employer will have the choice of signing up for a private insurance plan, or the public health insurance plan. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that only about 3% of Americans will be covered by the proposed public plan.

• Click here for information about some of the false claims about health care reform

(Updated November 6, 2009)