Senate Budget Deal Proposes Consumer Friendly Health Care Reforms

By Consumers For Quality Care, on July 28, 2021

In an effort to improve consumers’ access to quality health insurance, Senate Democrats recently proposed a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would expand funding for Medicare, Medicaid and parts of the Affordable Care Act, as reported in The Hill.

In addition to adding dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare, the plan contains a key provision to create a Medicaid-like system that would expand access to insurance for people in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, as many as four million Americans fall into a “coverage gap” and are shut out from access to affordable health insurance.

Across the country, people are feeling the effects of rising health care costs and the burden of affording quality care. CQC recently delivered a petition from more than 7,000 Americans calling on Congress to prioritize consumers in the health care debate.

As 60 members of the Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian Pacific American caucuses wrote in June, “Recovery legislation presents a unique, historic opportunity to close the gaps in coverage for the millions of people in the Medicaid coverage gap.”

CQC urges Congress to enact common sense reforms to help expand coverage and rein in soaring health care costs.