New Resources on Health Care Affordability
Action on health reform on the federal level is happening quickly! Both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have announced intentions to have their respective health reform bills written and voted on before the August Congressional recess. We need to act now to ensure that reform makes health care affordable and accessible to all.
A critical component of meaningful health reform will be setting an “affordability standard” that sets an upper limit on family health care spending as a percentage of their income, including both premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The following links will be helpful for understanding the issue of affordability as well as for how to talk about the affordability issue with lawmakers and citizen advocates
- A Health Care Affordability Brief by Community Catalyst and the PICO network includes Seven Key Principles of an Affordability Standard
- An Affordabilty Fact Sheet by Families USA provides basic facts and data with regard to health care affordability
- Key Messages on Affordability provices compelling language to talk about the importance of health care affordability
Affordable health care s vital to both children & adults. I have to take a anti-convulsent medication in order to prevent further brain damage. In February of this year, my doctor & I settled on Lamictal. This medication enabled me to return to work & life in general. This week, because it was now had a generic, the cost of the medication jumped up to over $500 when formerly it was $130. I KNOW THAT GENERICS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE = TO NAME BRANDS, BUT BECAUSE IT HAD TAKEN SO MANY TRIALS WITH OTHER DRUGS & HOW MUCH WAS ENOUGH, I was reluctant to go off brand. Look into the cost of medications & what the high prices mean to people like myself.
Sincerely, Elaine B. Krause
thank you for the work you do.