U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein

on the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."

Dear Mr. Kelly:

Thank you for writing to me to express your support for healthcare reform. I appreciate the time you took to write to me, and I welcome this opportunity to convey my opinions on how we should reform our health care system.

I am pleased that you support healthcare reform, as do I. The key is to find a healthcare plan that provides coverage, as well as limits cost. My colleagues in the Senate and I have been working on this, but it is a difficult issue and must be carefully thought out.  On November 21, 2009, I voted in support of the motion to proceed to debate on the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." It is my hope that over the next few weeks, the Senate can find common ground to pass meaningful healthcare legislation.

Important measures in the bill that would immediately take effect include the prohibition of coverage denial based on preexisting conditions and the elimination of lifetime and unreasonable annual limits on benefits. Reducing healthcare premium costs is absolutely essential. Between 2000 and 2007, combined profits for 10 of the country's largest publically traded insurance companies rose 428 percent. I am planning to offer an amendment that would create a Medicare Insurance Rate Authority to block inappropriate health insurance increases. The Medical Insurance Rate Authority would review the justifications for premium increases that insurance companies are already required to submit under the bill. The amendment would also require states to adopt state laws on insurance rate reviews that require insurance companies to provide notification of rate increase, and to give an appropriate state authority the ability to block a premium increase that is not justified.

I am also concerned about the rapid growth of entitlement spending, which makes up 56 percent of all federal dollars spent in 2009. Health reform must also slow the growth of entitlements in order to reduce our nation's debt and budget deficit. Any Senate health reform bill must improve California's complex health care system, and please know that I am working hard with my colleagues to make health care affordable for all Americans, without adding to the federal deficit.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If you should have any further comments or questions, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours, Dianne Feinstein
        United States Senator
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California and the Nation are available at my website http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/. You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail list at http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ENewsletterSignup.Signup.