Response from my Congressman, Jay Inslee, to my e-mail expressing support for

[gateley]

a Public Option: (I live in western Washington, so I'm pretty lucky, although I just saw on the news that the mayor of Mt. Vernon has declared a Glen Beck Day and is giving him the key to the city!) Anyway, here's Inslee's response:

Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, and to express your support for health care reform. I appreciate hearing from you.

I would like you to know that I have been strongly supportive of President Obama's public health insurance option throughout the health care reform process, and I also concur with our President that we have a unique opportunity to bring real reform to a broken system. I believe that it is important to protect the interest of the consumer by providing choices so that people may decide what solution is best for them and their family. That is one reason I am a strong advocate of a public option. The public insurance option will bring competition to the marketplace and consumer interests will be protected by addressing affordability and access issues that plague our current system. With my vote and support, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 3200, a bill that includes President Obama's public option. This bill will now go to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote that is expected in September.

Like President Obama, I believe that controlling costs is of central importance to the overall health care reform effort. During the past two weeks I have worked hard with my colleagues and the House leadership to bend the cost curve, resulting in an agreement that will include two important Institute of Medicine Studies in the reform bill. These studies will be completed and their recommendations will be implemented over the next two years to address inefficiencies in the Medicare payment system that result in geographic disparities in reimbursement that affect Washington state physicians, and the current model of reimbursing volume of care rather than the value. Under the current Medicare reimbursement formula, payment for services rewards the quantity of services, rather than the effectiveness of those services. For this reason, Washington state physicians have historically been reimbursed at a lesser rate compared to their peers in other parts of the country, due to the efficient, high-quality service they provide. This deal will rectify this historic inequity and provide real cost-containment by incentivizing and reimbursing for the quality, not the quantity, of medical care across the United States. The agreement will also benefit Washington state's senior citizens, who suffer from limited access to providers as a result of the reimbursement inequality that affects low-cost areas.

In addition to the regional disparity agreement, I offered an amendment that was adopted during the Committee's markup that will help to bend the cost curve by promoting the development of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). ACOs create a system of incentives that tie provider payments to quality and resource use, thereby promoting quality of care while simultaneously reducing regional variation. This provision could save Medicare $300 to $400 a year per patient. As the bill moves through the legislative process I will continue to fight for these important cost containment measures.

I would like to tell you about some other provisions in H.R. 3200, such as the elimination of co-pays for preventative care and the cap on total out-of-pocket expenditures for an individual. In difficult economic circumstances, I believe that families must be protected from making a choice between basic health concerns and their overall financial security. The bill will further protect individuals be ending increases in premiums or outright denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, race, or gender. It would also create a small business health tax credit to make it easier for small businesses to cover their employees and assist in lowering premium costs for businesses. These are just a few highlights of America's Affordable Health Choices Act.

As I mentioned, H.R. 3200 was recently approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee with my support. In the interest of allowing for ample consideration of such a hugely important issue, the full House of Representatives will not vote on the bill until after the August recess. I want you to know that I am eager to proceed with the reform process and I am committed to passing a health reform bill within the President Obama's desired timeline. With regard to your interest in this issue, I encourage you to visit the Energy and Commerce website for a more comprehensive look at this bill. I hope you will find the following summary informative: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/hr3200_summary.pdf.

Please continue to contact me about the issues that concern you, as I both need and welcome your thoughts and ideas. I encourage you to contact me via email, telephone, or fax, because security measures in the House cause delays in receiving postal mail. For more information on my activities in Congress, and for information on services that my office can provide, please visit my website at http://www.house.gov/inslee. If you would like to subscribe to my email updates, please visit http://www.house.gov/inslee/signup.htm.