NHDP Chair Ray Buckley on the House of Representative's Historic Vote to Pass Health Insurance Reform

Concord -- New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley issued the following statement on the historic vote in the House to pass comprehensive health insurance reform:

"The House passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act brings our country another step closer to guaranteeing comprehensive health care for all Americans. This legislation reins in the insurance companies' worst practices while extending coverage to 36 million Americans and cutting the deficit by more than $100 billion in ten years.

"In the Granite State alone, more than 140,000 people are uninsured, and the number grows daily as rising premium costs make it more difficult for middle class families to afford quality health insurance.  Earlier this year, WellPoint Insurance announced that premiums for New Hampshire residents would increase 12 to 13%.

"This landmark reform could not have been possible without the hard work of New Hampshire's Democratic congressional delegation - Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Congressman Paul Hodes, and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.

"Specifically, the legislation includes four key cost savings provisions that Senator Shaheen authored, including measures that will help Americans access more affordable prescription drugs, prevent costly hospital re-admissions, improve the coordination of care, and protect access to comparative effectiveness research so that patients and doctors can make more informed decisions.

"The bill also includes provisions that prevent insurance companies from cutting important coverage for women.  Congressman Hodes refused to stop fighting until mammograms, mastectomy stay coverage, direct access to OB/GYNs, and maternity care coverage could not be cut from the plans currently held by 80% of New Hampshire's insured women.

"And thanks to the effort led by Congresswoman Shea-Porter, the Affordable Health Care for America Act will fully close the Medicare 'donut hole.' Eliminating this coverage gap is long overdue, and will alleviate the financial burden placed on thousands of senior citizens in the Granite State, many of whom are on a fixed income and rely on their Medicare coverage to survive."

NHDP - Ayotte Still Silent on Insurance Rate Hikes

Kelly Ayotte is the Only NH Senate Candidate to Stay Quiet on Plan to Protect Consumers from Insurance Company Premium Hikes
 
CONCORD- As the health care debate heats up this week, Republican senate candidate Kelly Ayotte has remained dead silent on whether she supports President Obama's proposal to create a Rate Increase Authority that would keep insurance companies accountable and protect New Hampshire consumers from arbitrary and exorbitant premium increases.
 
Every other senate candidate in New Hampshire voiced their opinion on the proposal as soon as it was released, but Ayotte has refused to take a position [Union Leader, 2/25/10]. Without reform, insurance premiums in New Hampshire are estimated to jump nearly 50 percent, or $500/month, over the next five years [Hodes Press Release, 2/25/10].
 
"Kelly Ayotte has gone out of her way to avoid telling New Hampshire where she stands on keeping insurance companies accountable," said Emily Browne, Press Secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "Given her track record, it's not surprising she'd prefer to stay quiet. As a candidate for US Senate she's proven she's more interested in derailing real health care reform to protect insurance company profits than in coming up with real solutions for the middle-class families and small businesses in New Hampshire who desperately need reform."

OFA - NH Director Tim Arsenault Calls on Insurance Industry to Choose Between Consumers and Profits

Organizing for America is Working in New Hampshire for Reform that Puts Families Before Profits

 

Organizing for America (OFA)-New HampshireDirector Tim Arsenault today released the following statement regarding the choices before the health insurance industry:

 

“With each coming year, Americans see their insurance rates rising and each hike is cause for more and more Americans to drop their coverage to make room for mortgage payments, college tuition bills for their children and groceries. Growing with these premiums is the divide between New Hampshire families and their insurance companies—the people they trust with the lives and health of their loved ones.

 

“Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said it best when she told the insurance industry this week that they have a choice to make. They can either launch their next multi-million dollar media campaign to defeat reform and ensure that rates continue to rise for families and business, or they can direct that money toward giving Americans some relief. Instead of putting profits before people, insurance companies should work with the President and Congress to strengthen the aspects of the President’s proposal they like.

 

“The choice is clear, and the time to act is now. OFA volunteers in New Hampshire have made their choice, and they will continue the ‘Final March for Reform’ to ensure that health insurance reform is passed this year.”

 

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Organizing for America (OFA), a grassroots project of the Democratic National Committee, has launched its “Final March for Reform” in an unprecedented national push to pass comprehensive health insurance reform that expands access to quality, affordable care. OFA's network of volunteers and staff is actively working in all 50 states to promote the President's proposals to strengthen America's middle class by creating jobs, passing health insurance reform, building a clean energy economy, improving education, and reining in the excesses of Wall Street.



ALG Blasts Obama for "Lying about the Increased Cost of Premiums" under Plan at Health Summit

"The American people have had enough of Barack Obama and Congress' lies. It's time to scrap this bill once and for all."—ALG President Bill Wilson.

February 26^th, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today condemned the Obama Administration for "lying about the increased cost of insurance premiums as reported by the Congressional Budget Office at his fraudulent 'bipartisan' health takeover summit."

"Yesterday, Barack Obama flat out lied to the American people, claiming that his plan would, according to CBO, lower the cost of insurance premiums," Wilson said.

Wilson pointed to the relevant Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which stated, "CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law… Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law."

The CBO also reported, "About half of those enrollees would receive government subsidies that would reduce their costs well below the premiums that would be charged for such policies under current law," which formed the basis of Obama's claim, responding to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), stating, "Lamar, when you mentioned earlier that you said premiums go up, that's just not the case, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

Wilson said Obama was "misleading the American people.  This is not a case where Obama and Alexander were 'both right.' Obama was wrong."

Wilson explained, "Subsidizing premiums does not lower the cost of health care, it shifts the burden of the price of health coverage increasingly to taxpayers.  At the same time, ObamaCare increases the minimum requirements for insurance coverage, which forces premiums up, as noted by the CBO."

The CBO report also stated, "the average insurance policy in this market would cover a substantially larger share of enrollees' costs for health care (on average) and a slightly wider range of benefits. Those expansions would reflect both the minimum level of coverage (and related requirements) specified in the proposal and people's decisions to purchase more extensive coverage in response to the structure of subsidies."

"Because of the subsidy, Obama wants to claim that individuals would be paying less for premiums, and that therefore the cost of health coverage is somehow being reduced," Wilson said, adding, "This is like claiming that subsidized housing and mortgage loans are causing the price of housing to go down, or that subsidized student loans are causing the price of education to go down, which of course is absurd."

"In fact, subsidies across the economic spectrum have been directly linked to housing inflation, education inflation, and other asset bubbles, because the subsidies inflate demand artificially, which directly causes prices to increase," Wilson explained.

"These sorts of blatant lies explain exactly why the American people are completely opposed to this bill.  For example, Harry Reid claimed yesterday that 'no one' was considering the use of reconciliation when he himself was speaking of it publicly.  Or, Obama claiming in his address to the joint-session of Congress that his bill would reduce the deficit when the entire entitlement will be operating in the red within less than 20 years, costing over $2.5 trillion from 2014 to 2023," Wilson added.

"It just goes on and on.  The American people have had enough of Barack Obama and Congress' lies.  It's time to scrap this bill once and for all," Wilson concluded.



NHDP - Ayotte Refuses to Take Position on Plan to Protect NH Consumers from Massive Premium Increases

As Opponents Address President's Plan to Block Excessive Rate Increases by Insurance Companies, Ayotte Refuses to Take a Position

CONCORD - While every single one of her senate opponents took positions on President Obama's plan to block excessive rate increases by insurance companies, GOP senate candidate Kelly Ayotte refused to address the proposal [Union Leader, 2/25/10]. Her silence on the plan to protect New Hampshire consumers comes after refusing to say whether she would support the bipartisan jobs bill which passed the senate earlier this week.

President Obama's proposal would create a Rate Increase Authority which would protect consumers across the country by blocking excessive and arbitrary rate increases by insurance companies. Last week, news broke that major insurance companies were hitting unsuspecting consumers with rate increases of up to 39 percent [LA Times, 2/14/10].

"Once again, Kelly Ayotte is silent on the two biggest issues facing New Hampshire's middle-class families - jobs and healthcare," said Emily Browne, Press Secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "First she ignores the landmark, bipartisan jobs bill passed earlier this week, and now she won't take a position on a health care provision to keep insurance companies accountable.

"She's running to be New Hampshire's next US Senator but refusing to tell the people of the Granite State how she'd get them back to work or protect them from the profit-hungry insurance companies that continue to slam unsuspecting consumers with massive premium increases."