SUBJECT: Health Care Reform
Dear Chairman Hatch:
On behalf of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological
Surgeons (CNS), we are writing to offer our thoughts on health care reform, including H.R. 1628, the
American Health Care Act (AHCA) as passed by the House of Representatives.
America’s neurosurgeons strongly support improving our nation’s health care system, including
expanding access to affordable health insurance coverage for every American, enhancing patients’
choice of insurance plans and providers, and maintaining reforms that redress a number of inexcusable
insurance practices. While the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance market reforms — such as
coverage for pre-existing conditions and guaranteed issue — provide critical consumer protections,
rather than lowering costs and expanding choice, premiums have skyrocketed, high deductibles leave
patients financially on the hook for their medical bills and narrow networks restrict patient access to the
physician of their choice. Thus, by many objective measures, the promises of the ACA have fallen short.
Consider the following:
- 20 million more Americans have health insurance today, yet nearly 30 million continue to lack coverage.
- Insurance market reforms — such as coverage for pre-existing conditions and guaranteed issue — provide critical consumer protections. However, because not enough young or healthy people have purchased insurance, the individual and small group market is in a so-called “death spiral.”
- Health insurance premiums remain very expensive for most, and annual double-digit increases are not uncommon. Additionally, consumers face significant out-of-pocket costs with annual deductibles of $5,000 to $10,000 in some cases.
- Keeping your preferred physician or insurance plan is not always possible, and insurance practices such as “narrow networks” further restrict choice and access.
- Insurance markets have become less competitive and 32 percent of counties now only have one insurer
…
Read full letter here
