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WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, a legislative package that would lower the cost of prescription drugs, expand access to healthcare, reduce racial and ethnic health coverage disparities, and protect those with pre-existing conditions. Introduction of this package comes in the midst of a global pandemic and after millions have lost access to their employer-based healthcare due to layoffs caused by COVID-19. 

“COVID is shining a light on our fractured healthcare system,” said Dingell. “Before the ACA, people with pre-existing conditions could be denied insurance and forced to pay more. We need to build on the ACA – not destroy it. This administration is try to strike down the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court and offered no alternatives, while Democrats try to strengthen quality healthcare for all Americans. I know where I stand.”

The bill significantly increases 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:

• A family of four earning $40,000 would save nearly $1,600 in premiums each year.
• A 64-year-old earning $57,420 would save more than $8,700 in premiums each year.
• A single adult with income of $31,900 would see premiums cut in half. 
• An adult earning $19,140 would see premiums cut to zero, saving $800 dollars a year. 

The bill negotiates for lower prescription drug prices, delivering the power to negotiate lower drug prices so that Americans no longer have to pay more for our medicines than Big Pharma charges for the same drugs overseas.  According to a new report from Patients for Affordable Drugs, from January to June, 245 drugs were subject to an average price increase of more than 20 percent.  Of these drugs with price hikes by Big Pharma, more than 75 percent directly relate to the COVID-19 crisis, including 30 drugs that are currently in clinical trials for their effect against the virus.

The bill expands coverage, pressing Medicaid expansion hold-out states with new carrots and sticks to adopt coverage for the 4.8 million Americans cruelly excluded from coverage, while restoring 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.

The bill 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. 

The bill 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. 

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