Health Care Reform
I supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which took an important step toward a decades-old goal of leaders across the political spectrum: making sure every American has access to affordable, quality health care. Because of this legislation, families who already have health insurance will no longer have to face arbitrary lifetime or annual coverage limits; denial of coverage for needed care based on pre-existing conditions, gender or other factors; exorbitant out-of-pocket costs; or insurance plans that hide cost increases and coverage limits in jargon and legalese. They will have access to affordable preventive care with no out-of-pocket costs.
It will also help provide affordable coverage for millions of Americans – about 1.3 million of them in Michigan – who do not now have health insurance. And it will help American small businesses that want to provide coverage for their employees do so affordably.
These important goals were accomplished while taking important steps to rein in health care costs, a huge factor in the federal budget deficit and a strain on the budgets of American families. Reforms of the insurance market will help stem sky-rocketing insurance costs for families and businesses. And the independent Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will reduce the federal deficit by $140 billion in its first ten years, with additional savings in following decades.
Those who opposed health care reform have sought to weaken or repeal the law. I will oppose those efforts, which would leave Michigan families once again subject to the abuses of insurance companies, and would increase deficits at a time when we badly need to reduce them.
Senator Levin’s Record on Health Care Reform
- Feb. 29, 2012 – Sen. Levin opposes ‘assault’ on health coverage
Sen. Levin helps defeat an amendment that would allow employers and health insurers to deny workers access to health services, saying the legislation "would grant an employer the right to substitute his moral convictions for those of his employees."
- March 25, 2010 - Sen. Levin supports historic health reform
Sen. Levin votes for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which takes concrete steps to make health insurance more dependable and affordable for families who already have it and will coverage available for the first time to millions of uninsured Americans. The law also includes measures to help small businesses provide coverage for employees and to strengthen Medicare.
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