Obama: Details of the President's plan

Dear Arnaldo:

Our records show that you currently live in California's 30th Congressional District.

President Obama just released a new health reform proposal -- and our political director sent me an overview that I wanted to share with you.

Here's the bottom line: It's a plan that puts Americans in charge of their own health care, bridges the gap between the Senate and House bills, and adds additional ideas from both parties to fight waste and abuse.

The plan will serve as a starting point for discussion at a major bipartisan meeting this Thursday between the President and congressional leaders to discuss Republican and Democratic ideas for improving our health care system. And if there are more areas of agreement, they'll be added to the plan.

Ultimately, we're going to move forward with a bill that lowers costs, increases competition, provides relief for families and small businesses, and covers the uninsured -- and we'll need your help to do it.

Please take a look below at the details of the proposal so that you'll have all the info you'll need for the fight ahead. And if you want to find out more about how the proposal would affect you, click here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting

Thanks,

Mitch

----Original Message----

From: Addisu Demissie, Political Director
To: Mitch Stewart, Director
Subject: Details of the President's plan

Mitch --

FYI, here's a quick overview from the White House of the President's just-released proposal on health reform. Exciting stuff.

It builds on legislation passed by the House and Senate, bridging the differences in those bills while adding new provisions.

The most notable addition is the creation of a new "Health Insurance Rate Authority," which would give the federal government the power to review unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices by the big insurance companies.

The policy experts I speak to think this is a really strong improvement -- and would help a lot of people in places where insurers are jacking up rates like they are in California, Maine, and around the country.

-- Addisu
*******
Overview of the President's Proposal
The President's Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care.

-- It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today -- and makes coverage more affordable for many more.

-- It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.

-- It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

-- It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

-- It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years -- and about $1 trillion over the second decade -- by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

It includes a targeted set of changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate-passed health insurance reform bill. Key changes include:

-- Eliminating the Nebraska Medicaid provision and providing significant additional federal financing to all states for the expansion of Medicaid;

-- Closing the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" coverage gap;

-- Strengthening the Senate bill's provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families;

-- Strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid;

-- Increasing the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and starting it in 2018 for all plans;

-- Improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to provide federal assistance and oversight to states in conducting reviews of unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans.

For more information, check out:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting