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Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Exist Act

hmoroz — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:18:44 -0500

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The middle class

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Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009

hmoroz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:04:32 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Number of uninsured Americans in 2008: 45.7 million

Estimated number of uninsured Americans after passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act: 18 million

Percentage growth in the uninsured between 2004 and 2007 that came from lower- and middle-income families: 70

Average annual worker contribution to health insurance premiums in employer-sponsored coverage in 1999: $1,543

Average annual worker contribution to health insurance premiums in employer-sponsored coverage in 2008: $3,354

Savings to a low-income family and a higher-income family, respectively, from the Affordable Health Care for America Act because they do not have to buy private, nongroup insurance: $9,000, $1,260

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Middle Class Supports. Skyrocketing health care costs have created a vicious and destabilizing trap for middle-class Americans in which employer-sponsored coverage is offered less frequently and private coverage is increasingly unaffordable. Meanwhile, successful public programs that effectively cover children (SCHIP), the poor (Medicaid), and the elderly (Medicare) are unavailable to middle-class adults. Almost 46 million nonelderly Americans lack health insurance, the majority of whom are low- and middle-income, and the rate of the uninsured has grown significantly since 2000. At the same time, the average worker’s health care premium has increased 128% (to $3,515) since 2009. One study has even found that just shy of two thirds of all bankruptcies are due to medical expenses even though the vast majority of these bankruptcies involve families who have health insurance. Because employers, too, have had to absorb similar premium increases, employer-sponsored insurance – the type of insurance most middle-class Americans obtain – has declined significantly in each of the last eight years. The economic downturn has exacerbated this situation and experts estimate that each percentage point increase in the unemployment rate results in substantial increases in the number of uninsured Americans. Given the high costs of obtaining insurance in the private, non-group market, which is nearly impossible without steady employment, many Americans have simply given up coverage over the last several years. In short, a perfect storm of increasing health care costs and a down economy has undermined the financial stability and endangered the wellbeing of the middle class and the aspiring middle class.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act would do much to relieve the financial stress placed on these households by high health insurance costs while also extending health coverage to millions of Americans. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reckons that the bill would reduce the number of uninsured to 18 million, leaving just 4 percent of the population without health coverage. Expanding Medicaid to cover low-income adults is one of the most effective and cost-efficient means of covering more aspiring middle-class Americans. The expansion would enroll about 15 million individuals in Medicaid, providing an important public backstop for low-income families. Indeed, public programs have successfully kept millions of children from becoming uninsured, while the lack of such programs for low-income childless adults has led to increased numbers of the uninsured among this population. Similarly, coverage in the Health Insurance Exchange would reduce health care costs for tens of millions of households: the savings range from more than $9,000 for a low-income household of four which receives payment assistance to $1,260 for a higher-income family making more than $90,000 that does not receive such assistance. Such savings are targeted at the very groups that need the most help. The inclusion of a public option in the Exchange, in which a relatively meager 6 million individuals are expected to enroll, will create competition with the Exchange’s private insurance plans driving costs even lower.

At the same time as it helps reduce health care costs for middle-class and aspiring middle-class Americans, the Affordable Health Care for America Act greatly improves health coverage by enacting strict requirements for the type of insurance that is offered. The bill prevents the nightmare scenarios of being denied coverage just because you have become sick or being forced to pay higher premiums because of a preexisting condition (in many policies, being a woman is effectively considered a preexisting condition). Eventually, it will define minimum benefits and cost limits that must be included in all health insurance plans, not just ones offered by the Health Insurance Exchange. And it will ensure that health insurers do not use premiums to pay for administrative costs and profits, instead of medical care. In this way, affordable and adequate health insurance that protects individuals and their families during both normal medical events and extraordinary medical hardship will be available to all aspiring middle-class and middle-class households.

Finally, the Act contains cost-cutting strategies to reduce the impact of health care costs on the budget deficit and additional measures to reorient health care delivery to quality, preventive care and away from costly and unnecessary overtreatment. Eliminating overpayments to Medicare Advantage, the ill-advised, Bush-era privatization of a chunk of Medicare, and empowering the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate Medicare drug prices are effective ways to cut costs without weakening coverage. The tax surcharge on the wealthiest Americans, who benefited most from the economic growth of the 2000s and who are weathering the current economic downturn best, is a sensible method of increasing access to and the affordability of health insurance coverage in a fiscally responsible manner.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Health Reform,” from the Kaiser Family Foundation

“House Health Reform Bill Expands Coverage And Lowers Health Cost Growth, While Reducing Deficits,” from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

“Competitive Health Care: A Public Health Insurance Plan That Delivers Market Discipline,” from the Center for American Progress Action Fund

“The Treatment,” A Health Care Reform Blog from The New Republic

Emergency Influenza Containment Act of 2009

hmoroz — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:36:33 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

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Beyond this Bill

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Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009

hmoroz — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:57:51 -0500

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Effective date of most provisions of the originally introduced version of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act: 3 months after passage

Effective date of most provisions of the version of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act that was signed into law: 9 months to 15 months after passage

Percentage of credit cards from the 12 largest banks that use practices deemed “unfair or deceptive” by the Federal Reserve: 100

Median advertised range of APRs for credit cards issued in December of 2008: 9.99%-15.99%

Median advertised range of APRs for credit cards issued in July of 2009, after the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act’s passage: 12.24%-17.99%

Maximum annual fee instituted by Citigroup in August that is imposed when a cardholder does not spend enough: $90

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Middle Class Supports. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act was a major step forward for consumer protections. The legislation ended the most insidious practices employed by credit card companies, protecting consumers from policies that can keep them mired in debt despite their best efforts to dig themselves out. However, the Act delayed implementation of these vital consumer protections for over a year in some cases, allowing card companies to raise interest rates, increase fees, and jack up minimum payments in the meantime. The Pew Safe Credit Cards Project finds that many credit card companies worsened their treatment of consumers in anticipation of the legislation. The Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act would ensure that these unfair and deceptive practices end immediately. Although the bill will not aid consumers whose interest rates and fees have been raised in recent months, the Act will prevent card companies from continuing to intensify the financial strain on households already struggling to make ends meet.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“H.R. 2382, the Credit Card Interchange Fees Act of 2009 and H.R. 3639, the Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act,” Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee

“Still Waiting: ‘Unfair or Deceptive’ Credit Card Practices Continue as Americans Wait for New Reforms to Take Effect,” from Pew Safe Credit Cards Project

“Modernizing Consumer Protection in the Financial Regulatory System: Strengthening Credit Card Protections,” from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Protecting America’s Workers Act of 2009

hmoroz — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:56:38 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

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Injustice Facts

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Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009

hmoroz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:27:18 -0400

Legislation

The middle class

Supports

Video Summary

Injustice Facts

Number of Americans unemployed for six months or more: 5.4 million

Percentage of unemployed workers who cannot find jobs within receiving their first six months of unemployment benefits: 50.7

Number of unemployed workers who will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits by the end of 2009: 1.3 million

Average number of unemployed workers losing their unemployment insurance benefits each day in the absence of an extension of benefits: 7,000

Number of jobless workers for every job opening in the United States at the beginning of the recession: 1.7

Number of jobless workers for every job opening in the United States at present: 6

Overview/Summary

Middle Class Position Analysis

Middle Class Supports. While economists see signs of economic recovery, 15.1 million unemployed Americans still cannot find work. The unemployment rate continues to rise and now stands at 9.8%. Recent extensions of the duration of unemployment benefits have been necessary but insufficient: 400,000 unemployed workers exhausted their benefits at the end of September, a number that will increase to a devastating 1.3 million by the end of the year. Middle-class Americans thrown out of work cannot be allowed to lose their unemployment lifeline at a time when there are six workers for every available job.

The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act would ease the financial pain associated with long-term unemployment. Unemployment benefits provide direct assistance to the current and aspiring middle-class Americans likely to be hardest hit during the economic downturn, people who want to work but have lost their means of support through no fault of their own. With extended benefits, many families can stay in their homes, keep the lights on, and put food on the table. Unlike the House version of the legislation, the bill would protect all workers from running out of benefits while providing additional protection to the most vulnerable in the worst-hit states- places like Michigan.

In addition to the benefit to individual households, unemployment insurance provides significant economic stimulus. The unemployed tend to spend all of their benefits and quickly, providing an important economic jolt. Allowing unemployment benefits to expire for hundreds of thousands of families would undermine the successes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and slow the nation’s economic recovery.

In contrast, extending the tax credit for first-time homebuyers and, particularly, expanding the credit to wealthier households and to current homeowners would do little to stimulate additional economic activity. The credit, included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has primarily benefited households which would have purchased a home even without the tax benefit. This means that the credit is poorly targeted and an inefficient use of government funds at a time of increasing concern about budget deficits. It also continues the federal government’s subsidization of homeownership, which helped cause the housing crisis. The carryback loss provision is a also a poorly targeted provision, receiving a “C” in the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the stimulative effect of tax measures. Aid to state and local governments, along with legislation that targets aid to those suffering most from the economic downturn, would be a much more efficient use of federal funds.

Quotes from Experts

Beyond this Bill

Additional Resources

“Unemployment Insurance Benefits: Where Do We Go From Here?” from the Senate Finance Committee

“Unemployment Insurance,” from the National Employment Law Project

“Harsh Labor Market Conditions Justify Extending Unemployment Benefits In Hard-Hit States,” from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Legislation RSS Feed

Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Exist Act

Legislation

The middle class

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Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009

Legislation

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Emergency Influenza Containment Act of 2009

Legislation

The middle class

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Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009

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The middle class

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Protecting America’s Workers Act of 2009

Legislation

The middle class

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Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009

Legislation

The middle class

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Injustice Facts

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American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009