Late Saturday night, by a vote of 220-215, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962). One Republican member voted for the bill while 39 Democrats opposed it.

You can Take Action and express your views to your Congressional representatives on this issue by using the DAWN Take Action Tool.  Go to the DAWN home page and go to the Take Action box for Health Care Reform.  The disability community needs to have their opinions known on this issue, especially on the CLASS and Community Choice Acts.

The Act contains several items that are important to people with disabilities including:

• Major insurance reforms such as eliminating discrimination based on health status; barring pre-existing condition exclusions; guaranteeing issue and renewal requirements; and eliminating annual and lifetime caps;
• Creation of a high-risk pool to provide immediate assistance to those currently uninsured with pre-existing conditions before insurance market reforms are started;
  
• The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act.
  This is a new national long-term services insurance program to help adults with severe impairments to remain independent, employed, and a part of their communities, without having to make themselves poor to become eligible for Medicaid;
  
• A "Sense of the Congress” regarding Community First Choice Option.
  This expresses support for allowing states to offer Medicaid coverage of community-based attendant services and supports to people otherwise eligible for Medicaid institutional services (basically supporting the Community First Choice Option in the Senate bill);
• Critical services for people with disabilities in the new Health Insurance Exchange's essential benefits package such as rehabilitation and habilitation services, durable medical equipment (e.g. wheelchairs), prosthetics, orthotics and related supplies, vision and hearing services, equipment and supplies for children under 21 years of age, behavioral health treatment, and mental health and substance abuse services in compliance with the Wellstone-Domenici parity law; and
  
• Significant investments in Medicaid to dramatically expand eligibility, including EPSDT services for millions of children, increased reimbursement for physicians to Medicare rates with significant federal funding to offset the burden on states, and a six month-extension of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's increase to the federal share of Medicaid spending.
  

Following the House vote, President Obama called on the Senate to move its version of health care reform quickly. However earlier last week, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that it may not be possible to complete action by the end of this year.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) continued its work on estimating the cost of a Senate bill reflecting the merger between the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Finance Committees measures.  Majority Leader Reid has reportedly asked the CBO to analyze the cost of several alternative proposals on various issues to give the Senate options to consider.

(Content for this alert was provided by Disability Policy Collaboration, Washington, DC)