Celebrating the Two Year Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, Fighting to Protect Medicare

Celebrating the Two Year Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act
Today, I was pleased to join Bay Area women’s and health care organizations to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and to discuss how the law benefits women. Passed by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2010, the Affordable Care Act ensures that every American has access to quality, affordable health care as a right and not a privilege. This historic legislation, in the league of Social Security and Medicare, will lead to healthier lives and more liberty to pursue hopes, dreams and happiness for the American people. To learn more about how the law benefits you, please visit healthcare.gov.

The law has provided many benefits to those living in the 8th Congressional District of California:

• 5,300 seniors in the district received prescription drug discounts worth $3.5 million, an average discount of $650 per senior.
• 6,600 young adults in the district now have health insurance.
• 66,000 seniors in the district received Medicare preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles.
• 17,000 children and 130,000 adults now have health insurance that covers preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductibles.
• 750 small businesses in the district received tax credits to help maintain or expand health care coverage for their employees.
• $13.9 million in public health grants have been given to community health centers, hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare providers in the district to improve the community’s health.

Today marks the second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Two years ago, Congresswoman Pelosi was proud to join President Obama as he signed this historic legislation.

Fighting to Protect Medicare
This week, House Republicans put forth a budget that would end the Medicare guarantee and shift costs to seniors, while providing billions in tax breaks for special interests and destroying American jobs. As AARP explained, “by creating a ‘premium support’ system for future Medicare beneficiaries, the proposal is likely to simply increase costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare's promise of secure health coverage -- a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.”

The out-of-touch GOP budget provides billions in tax breaks for Big Oil and special interests, with an average tax cut of at least $150,000 to the wealthiest Americans, while threatening the economic security of the middle class and working families. And according to the Economic Policy Institute, the Republican budget will destroy more than 4 million American jobs in the next two years.

Americans’ priorities are clear: Republicans must work with Democrats to preserve and strengthen Medicare, not dismantle it. We must act to create jobs and grow our economy.

Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website. I am also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.