Health care reform is making a real difference in Virginia

June 4, 2012

In the Richmond Times-Dispatch today, a registered nurse with over 20 years' experience editorializes, "Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being signed into law, it grieved me to watch patients and their families strain to pay medical bills, struggle with complicated paperwork or, worst of all, be denied coverage and care. Yet, within the past two years, I have seen firsthand how much the ACA has helped patients from all backgrounds."

Progressive Point: All Virginians deserve the same quality health care protections that our Members of Congress get. While conservatives in Congress want to take these new benefits away, we are seeing how health care reform is making a real difference in Virginia.

Today insurance companies can't deny children with pre-existing conditions coverage or drop you when you get sick. Seniors' prescriptions costs and Medicare premiums have become more affordable. Small businesses have tax credits that help them cover their employees and the right to band together to get the same rates as big corporations--meaning lower taxes and lower premiums. Virginians are benefiting from and need to keep control over their health care.

Get the Facts: Via the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

• "The Affordable Care Act has provided insurance to nearly 50,000 Americans who had been locked out of the insurance marketplace because of a pre-existing condition such as asthma, hypertension or diabetes. What's more, by 2014, these protections will be extended to everyone."


• The reform has provided 32.5 million seniors with accesss to free preventive care benefits.


• Also due to reform, "more than 20 million women receive preventive services, such a mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, without a co-pay, deductible or any other out-of-pocket expenses. And these benefits come with a fair price tag, as the ACA ends the unconscionable discriminatory practices against women that have allowed insurance companies to charge women higher premiums -- even up to 150 percent more -- than men. "


• Under the law, benefits have also been extended to 2.5 million young adults under age 26.

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