Rep. Donna Shalala Votes to Pass Patient Protection & Affordable Care Enhancement Act

WASHINGTON, July 1 -- Rep. Donna Shalala, D-Florida, issued the following news release on June 29:

Congresswoman Donna Shalala (FL-27) joined her colleagues in taking action to lower health care costs and prescription drug prices for all Americans by building on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and passing H.R. 1425, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act. Today's vote comes days after the Trump Administration filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to strike down the entirety of the ACA, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

"In these trying times, Americans are worried about their jobs, their loved ones, their health, their country--they should not also worry about how to pay for health care if they get sick in the midst of a pandemic," said Rep. Shalala. "More than 100,000 people in my district rely on the Affordable Care Act for getting health insurance while this Administration works tirelessly to undo its life saving protections. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act takes critical steps to lower drug costs and improve and expand the benefits of the ACA, which will help all people in Miami-Dade."

Among other things, if passed into law, the bill would:

* Significantly increase the ACA's affordability subsidies to be more generous and cover more middle-class families. For the first time, no person will have to pay more than 8.5 percent of their income for a benchmark silver plan in the ACA marketplaces, and many Americans will see their premiums cut in half or more.

* The bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices, so that Americans no longer have to pay more for our prescription drugs than Big Pharma charges for the same drugs overseas;

* Expand coverage, pressing Medicaid expansion hold-out states--like Florida--with new incentives to adopt coverage for the 4.8 million Americans currently excluded from coverage, including 123,000 people in Miami-Dade County who currently fall into the Medicaid gap that prevents them from accessing health insurance. The bill also restores the outreach and advertising funding that the Trump Administration has slashed to prevent Americans from learning about the affordable health coverage available to them under the ACA;

* Combats inequity in health coverage faced by communities of color, expanding more affordable coverage to vulnerable populations and fighting the maternal mortality epidemic by requiring states to extend Medicaid or CHIP coverage to new mothers for a full year post-partum;

* Cracks down on junk plans & strengthens protections for people with pre-existing conditions, reversing the Trump Administration's expansion of junk health insurance plans that do not provide coverage for essential medical treatments and drugs and that are allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing medical conditions.

A fact sheet on the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act is available here https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/Affordable%20Care%20Enhancement%20Act%20-%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf.