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Our Guiding Principles
Make Health Insurance Affordable & Better
Let us keep our employer-provided health insurance if we want to but also have a public health insurance option if we cannot afford private insurance. Assist small businesses with incentives that allow them to provide coverage to their employees.
No bans on receiving coverage if we have a pre-existing condition. Give us stronger consumer protections in private health insurance plans.
End health disparities
Improve health outcomes for all communities by promoting care that is appropriate to us! We need programs that promote prevention, address cultural and linguistic differences, place health providers in underserved communities, recruit more minority health professionals, and collect health data on Latinos.
No discrimination
Coverage for all children with U.S. citizenship, regardless of their parent’s immigration status and no exclusion of families with mixed immigration status.
Fairness in health care for the Americans of Puerto Rico by including them in the health insurance exchange, and ensuring equal Medicare benefits since they contribute equally like everyone else.
No five year ban on legal immigrants accessing federal health care services. Like citizens, they pay taxes and contribute to Medicare.
No burdensome verification requirements that prevent low income, elderly and minority American citizens and legal residents from accessing health care services they rightfully deserve.
Truth and Myths
Myth: Health reform will take away the health insurance you get through your employer and replace it with government-run medicine.
Truth: Under all the plans passed by Congressional committees, if you're satisfied with your job-based coverage, you can keep it. Employers who don't offer insurance would either start to provide it or contribute to a fund that helps employees buy it on their own. Some small businesses would be eligible for subsidies to offset the cost. And every policy would offer at least a standard, easy-to-understand, comprehensive set of benefits.
Myth: Health reform is too costly and will bankrupt the country.
Truth: The biggest cost we’ll face is if we do nothing. Under the status quo, health care costs have been rising at three times the rate of inflation. The amount we spend on health care could increase from $2.4 trillion per year to $4.4 trillion by 2018 if nothing is done to rein in expenses. Healthcare reform will pay for itself over the long run by cutting down on waste, overhead, and price gouging, reducing preventable errors, and ending big subsidies to private insurance companies.
Myth: Illegal immigrants will be provided with free health insurance at taxpayer expense.
Truth: Opponents of health reform are using divisive rhetoric in their desperate attempt to block health reform. The bills approved by various Congressional committees explicitly prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving federally-subsidized health insurance. Current law already prohibits the undocumented from participating in government healthcare programs.
Myth: Healthcare reform will hurt Medicare.
Truth: None of the healthcare reform proposals being considered in Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase seniors’ out-of-pocket costs for Medicare services. Instead, the proposals would eliminate billions of dollars in taxpayer overpayments to insurance companies that do nothing for patients and only boost insurers’ profits. Healthcare reform will protect seniors' access to their doctors, reduce the cost of preventive services, and lower the prescription drug costs for people in the Medicare Part D coverage gap or "doughnut hole" so they can get better afford the drugs they need. Healthcare reform will also reduce costly, preventable hospital readmissions, saving patients and Medicare money. So rather than weaken Medicare, healthcare reform will strengthen the financial status of the Medicare program.
Myth: Government-run death panels will decide which seniors live or die.
Truth: Healthcare reform will NOT give the government the power to make life-and-death decisions for anyone regardless of their age. Those decisions will be made by individuals, their doctor and their family. Healthcare reform isn't about putting the government in charge of difficult end-of-life decisions. It's about giving individuals and families the option to talk with their doctors in advance about difficult choices every family faces when loved ones near the end of their lives.
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IN THE NEWS:
The H1N1 Flue (Swine Flu) is no laughing matter. Protect yourself and others. Good health habits can help prevent the spread of germs. Follow these simple steps to protect yourself and others:
1. Avoid Close Contact with Others! Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.
2. Stay Home When You Are Sick! If possible, stay home from work, school, errands when you are sick. You will help protect others from catching your illness.
3. Cover Your Mouth & Nose! Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick.
4. Clean Your Hands! Washing your hands often will protect you from germs.
5. Avoid Touching Your Eyes, Nose or Mouth! Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his/her eyes, nose, or mouth.
6. Practice Other Good Health Habits! Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.
*Content form Coordinating Center for Infectious Disease
Need more information? Please Visit the CDC's Swine Flu General Information Website.