After weeks of debate, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee just passed legislation to transform our broken health care system. And the House of Representatives recently introduced a similar bill which will be debated in three key committees.

These are major steps forward for health care reform.

Both the Senate HELP Committee and House bills propose significant health care advances that would:

(1) End discriminatory practices by insurance companies that deny coverage to people based on pre-existing conditions, or charge higher rates because of gender or health status;
(2) Help make coverage more affordable by capping families' out-of-pocket costs and providing subsidies for low-income families; and
(3) Keep costs under control by getting more for our health care dollars, for example by rewarding doctors for quality (not quantity) of services provided.

We applaud this progress, but the fight continues. There is still a long way to go in both the Senate and the House!

The House is preparing to mark-up health reform legislation in all three committees with oversight over the issue and the Senate Finance Committee is releasing their draft this week or next. We are very concerned about the possibility of children being left worse off in the legislation and need to keep raising awareness about the important issues for children in health reform. We have drafted the following sign-on letter to the House and Senate.

If your organization would like to sign-on to this letter to the House and Senate, please reply to signon@firstfocus.net or contact Cate Hodgetts at catherineh@firstfocus.net if you have any questions or need additional information. Thanks so much for your consideration!!!

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