Bonamici Votes No on Misleading “Keep Your Health Plan Act”

Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) today released the following statement about her vote against the so-called Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013.

“There is no question that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) needs improvement, but the so-called “Keep Your Plan Act of 2013” will not pass the Senate, would be vetoed by the President, and has the potential to result in more Oregonians with policies that do not contain important consumer protections. Instead of working on a serious, bipartisan proposal that will improve the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which is what we should be doing, we have spent time on a bill that is going nowhere.

“The President has already granted latitude to states so they can allow policyholders to remain on their current plans through 2014. Under this authority, insurers must inform consumers that they may be giving up protections required by the ACA, that alternative plans may be available, and that they may be eligible for tax credits through the health care exchanges.

“The Keep Your Health Plan Act takes the counterproductive step of allowing existing plans that violate the ACA’s consumer protection provisions to be sold to anyone, regardless of whether they ever held the plan in the first place. This would expand the ability of insurance companies to discriminate based on preexisting conditions, establish lifetime limits on coverage, deny payments for essential health services, and drop coverage when someone gets sick and needs it most.

“Although we are all extremely frustrated about the failures of CoverOregon.com and HealthCare.gov, we must keep the focus on our ultimate goal: affordable, high-quality insurance that is available to every Oregonian and every American. The Keep Your Plan Act would move us away from, not closer to that goal.”