In 2010, members of University Unitarian Church created a group to provide current, relevant, balanced information on health care reform to the UUC community, and to build capacity within our community to work toward health care reform that will have a positive impact on UUC members and the community as a whole.

At this time that group is not active, but following are some information resources on health care reform which the group created and collected.

Selected Resources on Health Care Reform

• Handouts from UUC's Health Care Information Forum on May 23.
• Basic implementation time line for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, from the UUC Health Care Reform Task Force
• Kaiser Family Foundation, an extensive resource on health care reform and facts about the health care system, including detailed summary of the 2010 reform law and an implementation time line
• The New York Times index to health care reform
• PBS Healthcare Crisis series and Timeline
• Prescriptions for Change NPR series
• T. R. Reed, The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care
• Sick Around the World, a Frontline documentary broadcast on PBS stations and available for online viewing
• Atul Gawande, a physician and writer for The New Yorker, takes an analytical view of healthcare costs (More on Gawande and his publications)
• FactCheck.org - Annenberg Public Policy Center

Washington State

• Washington State UU Voices For Justice - Affordable Health Care
• Washington Community Action Network Health Care

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

Basic implementation chronology- Based on an article published in The Week, 4/2/10; for a more detailed chronology, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation.

• Offers small businesses that choose to provide insurance to employees tax credits of up to 35% of premiums (effective immediately).
• Provides rebates up to $250 to seniors paying out-of-pocket drug costs due to the “doughnut hole” gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage (effective immediately).
• Prohibits insurers from dropping customers when they get sick (effective six months after enactment).
• Prohibits denial of coverage for children with pre-existing conditions (effective six months after enactment).
• Prohibits lifetime caps on insurance payouts to the chronically ill (six months after enactment).
• Allows children to remain on parents’ insurance plans until age 26 (six months after enactment).

• Requires insurers to spend at least 80% of premiums on medical services (to be determined)
• Begins phased-in fees and taxes on the health industry, starting with a $2.3 billion annual fee on drug makers.

• Imposes an additional 3.8 percent tax on investment income, and a 0.9 percent Medicare tax, on families with annual incomes above $250,000.

• Imposes an individual mandate—enforced by escalating fines starting at 1 % of income—requiring most uninsured Americans to purchase insurance.
• Provides subsidies to individuals and families with incomes up to 400% above the poverty line ($88,200 for a family of four) to help them buy health insurance.
• Expands eligibility for Medicaid to anyone earning up to 133% of the poverty level (about $29,300 for a family of four).
• Requires most employers to provide coverage to employees or pay penalties.
• Prohibits denial of coverage of anyone with a pre-existing condition.
• Establishes health-insurance exchanges to serve as a competitive insurance market, enabling those without employer-based insurance to shop for coverage.

• Imposes excise tax on “Cadillac” employer-provided health plans valued at more than $27,500 (family) or more than $10,200 (single).
• Completes multi-year expansion of health insurance to 32 million citizens.