Feinstein Statement on Supreme Court Health Care Decision

Washington--Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) made the following statement today after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act:

"This is an historic day. The Supreme Court today upheld the health care reform law passed by Congress in 2010, meaning Californians can be confident that access to affordable health insurance is finally a reality.

"I believe the health care reform law--including the individual mandate and the insurance exchanges designed to create large purchasing pools to make coverage more affordable--is critical to reducing the number of Americans who go without health insurance. The state exchanges will be up and running in 2014, and I am gratified they will have an opportunity to help Californians and drive down soaring health care costs.

"Because of today's decision, California will receive an estimated $14.5 billion in federal funds designated to increase insurance coverage--including an estimated $5.5 billion annually to help low and middle-income residents purchase insurance in the exchanges and an estimated $9 billion a year to insure newly eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries. **

"Many positive benefits of the law have already gone into effect including provisions that allow children to stay on their parent's health insurance plan until age 26, prohibit insurance companies from denying children health insurance based on a pre-existing condition and prohibit insurance companies from canceling coverage because of an illness such as breast cancer. Millions of Americans will continue to benefit from these insurance reforms.

"I realize that passage of health care reform was extremely controversial. But we cannot forget that insuring fellow Americans and driving down the exploding cost of health care spending in this country is a national emergency. Even with this favorable decision from the court, our work reforming the insurance market and expanding access to health care continues."

**Data on the Affordable Care Act's effects on California has been compiled by research organizations including the Urban Institute, Kaiser Family Foundation and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Read this original document at: http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=d82a96af-b3e7-4cfe-8f1a-8ca50501784e