Health Care Reform – On a District Level

Health care reform legislation is moving through Congress. A report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states that the bill in the House of Representatives would add health coverage for 23 million people in 2013, the first year of implementation, and 37 million by 2019, the last year for which the CBO provided data.

For Pennsylvania, this means that an additional 957,000 individual will have health care coverage by 2019.

The House bill accomplishes this in several ways.
  • It stops insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing health conditions.
  • It offers substantial, sliding-scale subsidies so people can afford health coverage.
  • It limits the out-of-pocket costs families pay when a loved one gets sick.
  • It strengthens the safety net for our most economically vulnerable families.
  • It will lower health premiums for those people who currently have insurance. It will do this by reducing the so-called “hidden health tax” that gets tacked on to insurance premiums to pay for the care received by the uninsured – a hidden surcharge that averaged $1,017 for family coverage in 2008.
Many people are concerned as to how these changes will affect them. The Committee on Energy and Commerce completed an analysis on the impact of the legislation on small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured for each legislative district. Click on your representative’s name below to see how this legislation would affect your district. If you are unsure of which district you are in please click here. For an analysis of districts outside Pennsylvania, please click here.

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