Madame Secretary, thank you for joining us today. Health care reform is working. The prophets of doom and gloom are being proven wrong.
As I read your testimony and examined the President’s budget, it is clear that health reform and this budget work to preserve and expand benefits, improve access to care, invest in cutting edge research, and lower the cost curve to ensure all Americans can afford to stay well and see the doctor of their choice. And for the first time in years, according to the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, growth in national health expenditures will slow thanks to health reform. It is reducing overpayments and will reform the way we deliver services.
Health care reform has strengthened and improved the benefits in Medicare while making sure it is here for generations to come. For instance, 4 million Medicare beneficiaries saved more than $2 billion last year because health reform closed the prescription drug donut hole. In our common home state of Michigan, so far more than 84,000 seniors and people with disabilities have saved almost $50 million in prescription drug costs. Gone are the days when prescription drug coverage evaporated just as needs increased.
Health reform isn’t just helping those on Medicare; it is helping all Americans save money while giving them more ways to stay healthy and get better care.
* 86 million Americans -- 54 million with private insurance coverage plus 32 million in Medicare -- are receiving expanded coverage without copayments for some key preventive services, such as diabetes screenings, mammograms, colonoscopies, and wellness exams.
* 2.5 million young adults have been covered through their parents' policies.
* Nearly 50,000 Americans who were previously denied insurance due to pre-existing health conditions have been able to obtain coverage through the ACA’s state-based high-risk pool program.
* 2,800 employers received much needed help to retain benefits and lower costs for countless retirees and their spouses, while small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help them support their health insurance benefits.
* Still other individuals and families will see up to $323 million in rebates this year thanks to the requirement that insurance companies spend premiums on benefits instead of excessive executive salaries and other unnecessary overhead.
Health reform also includes innovative solutions to improve value in health care. These include delivery and payment reforms, new fraud fighting tools, and other mechanisms to reduce overpayments to providers. Health insurance exchanges will be in place in 2014. To date numerous states have received grants to start building their own exchanges, and HHS is taking all necessary steps to ensure exchanges are available for all eligible Americans, even if their state opts to not participate.
Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side voted to repeal health reform and take us back to the past when insurance companies were not accountable to consumers. We can’t go back to a time when millions of young Americans had no options, or when insurance companies denied health coverage to sick children or took away coverage when it was needed most.
As we sit here today, Republicans are preparing to dust off their year-old proposal to end the Medicare guarantee, which nearly every single House Republican supported on the floor last year. That proposal would cost seniors thousands of dollars more each year and leave their care to the whims of private insurance companies.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program or TANF must be reauthorized by Congress in September. We need to work together to strengthen this program so that it better reaches those in need and so that it better prepares people for employment.
Madame Secretary, thank you for your efforts this year in implementing the key building blocks of health reform. And thank you for a budget that looks to the future, while remaining mindful of the past. I look forward to your testimony today.
