Act Now to Eliminate Lifetime and Annual Caps in the Final Health Reform Bill!

Important Message from the HNF Federal Advocacy Team...
January 12, 2010

Act Now to Eliminate Lifetime and Annual Caps in the Final Health Reform Bill!

We need you to call or email your Senators and Representatives TODAY to ask them to support the strongest possible provisions related to lifetime and annual caps in the final health reform bill. Please ask your Representative and Senators to contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to support the House bill's provisions related to lifetime and annual caps, which would eliminate both in all insurance plans.

For the Senate: Please ask your Senators to sign Senator Byron Dorgan's (D-ND) "Dear Colleague" letter to Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi, which urges the inclusion of the House lifetime caps language in the final health reform bill.

For the House: Please ask your Representative to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter being circulated by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). The letter to Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi urges the inclusion of the House lifetime and annual caps language in the final health reform bill.

Please call and email your Senators and Representatives TODAY. You can reach the Capitol switchboard at: 866.220.0044. All you have to do is tell the operator where you live and you will be connected you with your Senators' and Representative's offices. You can use the draft e-mail below to write to them as well. You can find out who your Representative is here. In North Carolina, our senators' health staff persons are:

• for Senator Kay Hagen (D-NC): Michelle Adams (202) 224-6342 michelle_adams@hagan.senate.gov
• for Senator Richard Burr (R-NC): Anna Abram (202) 224-3154 anna_abram@help.senate.gov

If you are outside on North Carolina and do not know the health staff person in your Senators' and Representative's offices, please see this list.

More information on the House and Senate health reform bills is available on the NHF health care reform website. Or, contact Johanna Gray, NHF's Washington Representative, at johanna.gray@hklaw.com or 202-419-2509.

Draft Senate Email

Subject line: Please Support Provisions to Eliminate Lifetime and Annual Limits in Final Health Reform Bill

Dear Senator,

I am one of your constituents and I am affected by hemophilia. I strongly support the health insurance reforms included in the health reform bills, particularly those related to lifetime and annual limits.

I urge you to ask for the inclusion of the House lifetime and annual limits provisions in the final health reform bill. The House language would prohibit lifetime and annual limits in all health insurance plans. For annual limits, please also support incorporating the Senate interim provision that before 2013 restricts annual limits as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. These provisions will provide immediate relief to me and others with high medical costs, while ensuring the eventual prohibition of annual and lifetime caps on all insurance plans.

Please contact Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi, and ask for the House lifetime and annual limits language with the Senate interim restrictions. Please also sign Senator Dorgan's "Dear Colleague" letter on lifetime limits.

More than 60 patient groups representing millions of Americans recently wrote to the Congressional leadership to ask for the final healthcare reform bill to eliminate lifetime and annual limits for all plans. Families like mine cannot wait for lifetime and annual caps to be prohibited. The time to act is now.

Thank you for your consideration,

Draft House Email

Subject line: Please Support Provisions to Eliminate Lifetime and Annual Limits in Final Health Reform Bill

Dear Representative,

I am one of your constituents and I am affected by hemophilia. I strongly support the health insurance reforms included in the health reform bills, particularly those related to lifetime and annual limits.

I urge you to ask for the inclusion of the House lifetime and annual limits provisions in the final health reform bill. The House language would prohibit lifetime and annual limits in all health insurance plans. For annual limits, please also support incorporating the Senate interim provision that before 2013 restricts annual limits as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. These provisions will provide immediate relief to me and others with high medical costs, while ensuring the eventual prohibition of annual and lifetime caps on all insurance plans.

Please contact Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi, and ask for the House lifetime and annual limits language with the Senate interim restrictions. Please also sign the "Dear Colleague" letter on lifetime and annual limits being circulated by Representatives Kennedy and McMorris Rodgers.

More than 60 patient groups representing millions of Americans recently wrote to the Congressional leadership to ask for the final healthcare reform bill to eliminate lifetime and annual limits for all plans. Families like mine cannot wait for lifetime and annual caps to be prohibited. The time to act is now.

Thank you for your consideration,

The National Hemophilia Foundation is dedicated to finding better treatments and cures for bleeding and clotting disorders and to preventing the complications of these disorders through education, advocacy and research.