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Dear Mrs. Haytko:
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue.
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark piece of legislation to reform America’s health care system. This legislation will expand access to health care for millions of Americans while reigning in growing health care costs.
As a public official, and particularly as a United States Senator, I have sought to support a consistent and comprehensive ethic of life and to pursue the common good as best I can understand it. I am pro-life, and I believe that life begins at conception and ends when we draw our last breath. I also believe that we must protect and nurture life at every point in that process. My actions as a United States Senator have been consistent with this philosophy. Being truly pro-life means protecting the dignity and sanctity of every human being—including the poor, the disenfranchised, the vulnerable—both before and after birth, throughout every stage of life.
During the Senate debate on health care reform, I worked extensively to develop meaningful language that would meet the requirements of long-standing prohibitions on federal funding of abortion and to apply it to the new structures created in health care reform. I cosponsored, spoke on the Senate floor and voted for the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment, which mirrored the language included in the House-passed bill, but was defeated in the Senate.
The language in the final Senate bill addresses federal funding of abortion in state exchanges by requiring segregation of private premium funds from federal taxpayer subsidies, with segregation of funds conducted by insurance companies and subject to annual audits by state insurance commissioners. I also added language that removed provisions that would have required one plan with abortion and one plan without abortion in every exchange. In addition, states will be able to opt out of providing abortion coverage through their exchanges by passing a law to prohibit such coverage. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act further provides strong conscience protections by prohibiting discrimination against an individual health care provider or health care facility because of its unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of or refer for abortion.
We cannot say we are pro-life without providing support to women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term. My amendment, the Support for Pregnant and Parenting Teens and Women Amendment, will provide states with $250 million in funding over the next ten years to help pregnant and parenting teens and college students with such basic necessities as child care, housing, education and more. Funding will also assist pregnant victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault and other sexual crimes.
The Senate bill provides new services at no cost, including prenatal care and preventive care - like vaccinations - to newborns. It also preserves the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a 12-year success story that has provided coverage to over 7 million low-income children and is on track to cover a total of 14.1 million children by 2013. With my amendment to assist vulnerable pregnant women, along with the numerous supports for pregnant women and their children in the Senate bill and in CHIP, we can provide a seamless network of support and services from the time a woman becomes pregnant until the time her child reaches adulthood.
Another of my amendments that was included in the final bill increases the Adoption Tax Credit by $1,000 for the next two years and makes it refundable. This increases federal support for adoption by $1.2 billion over the next two years. I believe that this combination of support for pregnant women and incentives for adoption will significantly reduce the number of abortions in our country.
Another concern that has been brought to my attention is the fear that health care reform will lead to rationing of care. Health care reform will not lead to rationing of care for older Americans or those with serious health problems. In fact, the consumer protections included in health care reform will make it easier for people with health problems to buy health insurance and will protect them from being dropped from their health insurance if they get sick. Health care reform also prohibits lifetime caps and unreasonable annual caps on the amount of care an individual can receive, ensuring that individuals who need care the most will have access to their doctors and medical providers.
For more information, and to read the text and summaries of the bills, please visit my website athttp://casey.senate.gov. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
Thank you for taking the time to contact me about health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you about this issue.
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark piece of legislation to reform America’s health care system. This legislation will expand access to health care for millions of Americans while reigning in growing health care costs.
As a public official, and particularly as a United States Senator, I have sought to support a consistent and comprehensive ethic of life and to pursue the common good as best I can understand it. I am pro-life, and I believe that life begins at conception and ends when we draw our last breath. I also believe that we must protect and nurture life at every point in that process. My actions as a United States Senator have been consistent with this philosophy. Being truly pro-life means protecting the dignity and sanctity of every human being—including the poor, the disenfranchised, the vulnerable—both before and after birth, throughout every stage of life.
During the Senate debate on health care reform, I worked extensively to develop meaningful language that would meet the requirements of long-standing prohibitions on federal funding of abortion and to apply it to the new structures created in health care reform. I cosponsored, spoke on the Senate floor and voted for the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment, which mirrored the language included in the House-passed bill, but was defeated in the Senate.
The language in the final Senate bill addresses federal funding of abortion in state exchanges by requiring segregation of private premium funds from federal taxpayer subsidies, with segregation of funds conducted by insurance companies and subject to annual audits by state insurance commissioners. I also added language that removed provisions that would have required one plan with abortion and one plan without abortion in every exchange. In addition, states will be able to opt out of providing abortion coverage through their exchanges by passing a law to prohibit such coverage. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act further provides strong conscience protections by prohibiting discrimination against an individual health care provider or health care facility because of its unwillingness to provide, pay for, provide coverage of or refer for abortion.
We cannot say we are pro-life without providing support to women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term. My amendment, the Support for Pregnant and Parenting Teens and Women Amendment, will provide states with $250 million in funding over the next ten years to help pregnant and parenting teens and college students with such basic necessities as child care, housing, education and more. Funding will also assist pregnant victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault and other sexual crimes.
The Senate bill provides new services at no cost, including prenatal care and preventive care - like vaccinations - to newborns. It also preserves the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a 12-year success story that has provided coverage to over 7 million low-income children and is on track to cover a total of 14.1 million children by 2013. With my amendment to assist vulnerable pregnant women, along with the numerous supports for pregnant women and their children in the Senate bill and in CHIP, we can provide a seamless network of support and services from the time a woman becomes pregnant until the time her child reaches adulthood.
Another of my amendments that was included in the final bill increases the Adoption Tax Credit by $1,000 for the next two years and makes it refundable. This increases federal support for adoption by $1.2 billion over the next two years. I believe that this combination of support for pregnant women and incentives for adoption will significantly reduce the number of abortions in our country.
Another concern that has been brought to my attention is the fear that health care reform will lead to rationing of care. Health care reform will not lead to rationing of care for older Americans or those with serious health problems. In fact, the consumer protections included in health care reform will make it easier for people with health problems to buy health insurance and will protect them from being dropped from their health insurance if they get sick. Health care reform also prohibits lifetime caps and unreasonable annual caps on the amount of care an individual can receive, ensuring that individuals who need care the most will have access to their doctors and medical providers.
For more information, and to read the text and summaries of the bills, please visit my website athttp://casey.senate.gov. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
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