Senate plan provides ‘Starter Home’ for Americans’ health care needs

By Sen. Tom Harkin

The Senate recently passed landmark legislation to reform America's health care system. With its passage, we say that for every member of our family, access to quality, affordable health care should be a right, not a privilege.

Understandably, people have been dismayed by the raucous debate and legislative process surrounding health reform. However, it bears remembering that the debates leading up to passage of Social Security and Medicare were no less turbulent and partisan.

Today, we understand why earlier attempts at comprehensive health reform failed. We have seen that the health insurance industry and other interests are extraordinarily powerful. By passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we will finally break their stranglehold. And we will usher in three landmark reforms:

l We are going to extend access to quality, affordable health care to every American.

An estimated 30 million Americans who do not have coverage will get it, thanks to this bill. This is a historic achievement.

l This bill has an array of provisions cracking down on abuses by health insurance companies.

These abuses leave most Americans, even those with health insurance, just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. This bill will extend coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, and it eventually will ban the practice of denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. It will stop insurers from canceling the policies of people who get sick. It will put an end to lifetime limits on benefits, while restricting the use of annual limits. And it will end the insurance industry's systematic discrimination against women, who now pay premiums that are up to 48 percent higher what men pay.

l A third great reform is something that I have championed for many years: provisions to jump-start America's transformation into a genuine wellness society.

For example, the bill requires reimbursement for recommended preventive services such as mammograms without deductibles or other cost-sharing requirements.

Our aim is to transform our current sick care system into a true health care system ­- one focused on preventing chronic disease and keeping people out of the hospital in the first place. This will save lives and money - indeed, it is the key to holding down future health care costs.

In addition to these larger reforms, Iowa in particular will see a number of advancements. One creates a dedicated funding stream for community health centers and a grants program to recruit health professionals to underserved rural communities. For seniors, the bill adjusts low Medicare reimbursement rates for low-volume hospitals, which has caused some Iowa facilities to struggle to keep their doors open. For small businesses, it provides tax credits to make employee coverage more affordable.

This legislation is the opening act in health reform, not the final act. When Social Security and Medicare were originally passed, they had significant gaps in coverage. Subsequent Congresses built on the foundation of those original reforms.

Likewise, today, I think of the current health reform bill as something of a “starter home.” It has a solid foundation of coverage and protections for every American. And it has plenty of room for additions and improvements.

We can learn one final - and hopeful - lesson from the history of Social Security and Medicare. Those programs originally pitted Democrats against Republicans. But, today, they are hugely successful programs that enjoy overwhelming bipartisan support.

I predict the same eventual bipartisan support for the health reforms now before the Senate.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.