Action Alert!

Access to Health Care

What You Can Do:

Call your State Senator before May 31 and ask him/her to support SB 1137 and HB 2005 and bring them to the floor for a vote. You can find your senator’s telephone number by entering your zip code in the “Find Your Elected Officials” box in the lower left-hand corner of the LAMPa website (www.lamp.org).

Make discussing Health Care Access a priority in your home, church, and workplace. One way to do this is to join a local coalition of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN), www.pahealthaccess.org. Call the LAMPa office to learn more about PHAN, to explore your involvement in PHAN and health care access advocacy.

Background

Our health care system is the most expensive in the world. Yet as a system, it fails to come close to providing the best health care in the world. Medical costs currently consume 16 percent of our national income and are expected to grow to 20 percent by 2015. This has become a heavy economic burden. Many employers are trying to shed this cost by shifting the cost of health insurance to their employees or by abandoning health insurance coverage altogether. Thus, a growing percentage of people living in the United States are uninsured. Despite Medicare, the Veterans Administration, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, there are still approximately 800,000 adult Pennsylvanians, below age 65, that do not have any health insurance and are not eligible for government-funded insurance.

Thanks to the efforts of advocates like you, two health care reform bills passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and are now before the Pennsylvania State Senate. If we act now, these bills can be brought up for a vote and be enacted by the end of June. Together, these bills will make it easier for Pennsylvanians to keep or obtain quality health care.

SB 1137 creates PA Access to Basic Care (PA ABC), a program that will enable over 200,000 currently uninsured people to purchase good health insurance at an affordable price. This legislation would reduce costs for those of us who have insurance as well. For more information, see the SB 1137 Issue Brief on the LAMPa website.

HB 2005, the Health Insurance Reform bill, lowers costs for existing health plans. This legislation will stop insurance companies from denying affordable coverage to people with existing medical conditions or women in child-bearing years. Additionally, it will guarantee that 85% of insurance premiums go to providing health care, not administrative costs and advertising. For more information, see the HB 2005 Issue Brief on the LAMPa website.

ELCA Policy Base: Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor, 2003; Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All, 1999