Fighting to Preserve Patients' Rights; Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

Fighting to Preserve Patients’ Rights
This week, House Republicans sided with insurance companies and passed the Patients’ Rights Repeal Act – a bill that would impact the lives of millions of Americans already benefiting from the new consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act. I was proud to speak on the House floor and vote against this bill, which does nothing to create jobs, puts insurance companies back in charge, and offers no solutions.

The most eloquent arguments against repeal are personal stories from Americans whose lives have been changed because of health insurance reform. I recently received a letter from one of my constituents in San Francisco, Lauren, who lives with a rare genetic disease that among other symptoms causes chronic pain and requires frequent doctor visits and 24 different medications. As Lauren writes, “To say I can't live without health insurance is an understatement.”

Lauren wrote to me on her 25th birthday. Because of the Affordable Care Act, she now is able to stay on her parent’s health insurance and receive coverage for an additional year as she completes her college degree. She ended her letter: “Health care reform is changing people's lives for the better already. We've already had our health taken away from us when we got sick, please don't let them take it away again.”

• Thanks to the leadership of our city in implementing Healthy San Francisco, our residents have additional critical support that many others around the nation lack. However, if the Republican bill became law, San Francisco would still be substantially harmed by:
• Allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to 119,000 to 310,000 individuals, including 5,000 to 22,000 children, with pre-existing conditions.
• Rescinding consumer protections for 397,000 individuals who have health insurance through their employer or the market for private insurance.
• Eliminating health care tax credits for up to 22,000 small businesses and 140,000 families.
• Increasing prescription drug costs for 8,100 seniors who hit the Part D drug “donut hole” and denying new preventive care benefits to 97,000 seniors.
• Eliminating new health care coverage options for 3,100 uninsured young adults.
• Increasing the number of people without health insurance by 26,000 individuals.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.
On Monday, I had the privilege of joining San Francisco faith leaders at an interfaith prayer service at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Waterfall in the Yerba Buena Gardens.

Congresswoman Pelosi joins San Francisco faith leaders at an interfaith prayer service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We reflected upon the tragedy in Arizona, and shared our continued prayers for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, her staff, and her constituents, and those who lost a loved one. In this time of sadness, we come together as a community to recommit to a fundamental tenet of American democracy: political disagreement and dissent must never violate our nation’s values, as expressed in the Constitution, of free expression, speech, and peaceful assembly.

As Dr. King said on the eve of his death, “We, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” As President Obama said during the memorial service in Arizona, “All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.”

Casework Corner
As an example of one of the many ways my office is able to help constituents who have individual situations with the federal government, one of my caseworkers in San Francisco helped Alvin "Moses" Carbins get his passport to travel to Spain to receive recognition for his documentary film about his life as a homeless person. The film won an award at the Notofest Film Festival. Please join me in congratulating Mr. Carbins for his achievement.

If you have a problem with a federal agency or obtaining your federal benefits, you can learn more about how my office can be of assistance to you at my website or by calling my office at 415.556.4862.

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 Web site. I am also on Twitter https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.