Health Care
House Democrats are committed to expanding access to quality, affordable health care coverage, strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and lowering prescription drug prices and the cost of health care overall.
Under President Biden and Congressional Democrats, the uninsured rate is at an all-time low. While Republicans vote against legislation to lower health care costs, House Democrats are working to bring down the overall costs of health care and increase access to health care coverage.
With the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, House Democrats took direct action to reduce health care costs for millions of Americans. For the first time, Medicare will be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for high-cost drugs. The law also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients at $2,000 annually and establishes a $35 cap for a month’s supply of insulin. The Inflation Reduction Act also protects progress made under President Biden to expand access to quality, affordable health care coverage by continuing the expanded premium tax credits originally passed in the American Rescue Plan, which lowered health care premiums for millions of working families.
This built upon the Affordable Care Act – enacted by President Obama and Congressional Democrats in 2010 – that has put American families in control of their own health care and ended a system that put profits ahead of patients. Since its enactment, 35 million Americans have gained access to quality, affordable health coverage. Americans with pre-existing conditions can no longer be discriminated against by insurance companies. Parents can now keep their children on their insurance plans up to age twenty-six. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to put annual or lifetime limits on coverage or drop people when they get sick. Additionally, thanks to the law, Medicare costs – from premiums and deductibles to overall program spending – have slowed to well below the levels projected before the law passed.
These reforms were crucial, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck but more action was needed. That’s why House Democrats worked to enact legislation right away - without any Republican support - to ensure that testing, treatment, and vaccinations for COVID-19 would be covered with no out-of-pocket costs to Americans.
House Democrats remain committed to the goal of affordable, accessible health care for all.
“The signing into law of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act today represents a significant victory for students and their families,” Whip Hoyer said.
“The Obama Administration’s new rules requiring parity for coverage of mental health and physical health care services finally ends an unfair disparity in our nation’s health care system.
MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC WHIP
This week, the budget conference held its first official meeting, an important step forward in bipartisan negotiations.
While Republicans continue to try to undermine the Affordable Care Act, a new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll shows that despite their very best efforts the American people want it to continue:
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) and Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) released the following statements following Senate passage of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act
“I am very pleased that the Senate unanimously passed the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act today – legislation I have been pushing the Congress to adopt for several years. This bill, which I introduced with Rep. Dr. Phil Roe and which passed the House earlier this year, will save lives and provide parents and educators with peace of mind that students with food allergies will be safe at school.
“Today, House and Senate conferees will begin negotiations on a farm bill – negotiations Democrats have been requesting for months. I strongly urge the conferees to produce legislation that supports economic and jobs growth in rural America while protecting critical Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding for low-income families.
“By approving the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which will save lives by ensuring that students suffering from food allergies have access to life-saving epinephrine, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee today took an important step toward its enactment into law.
We hope you read today’s column from Dana Milbank which provides a withering critique of how, after shutting down the government in a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans’ new strategy sadly looks all-too familiar:
As the Republican government shutdown continues on day 14, wanted to make sure you saw comments on the Sunday shows from Republican senators admitting that shutting down the government over defunding or delaying the Affordable Care Act was bad policy: