Helping Memphians Keep Their Plans and Get Covered
Dear Friend,
This week, President Obama announced a plan to help Americans keep their health insurance even if their insurance companies have cancelled their plans or pushed them into more expensive plans, an extremely intelligent, hard-working and dedicated Memphian who I recommended to the President moved one step closer to being confirmed as a federal judge, and I introduced a bill in the House that would help prevent unscrupulous for-profit colleges from taking advantage of veterans and taxpayers. Keep reading to learn more.
Helping Memphians Keep Their Plans and Get Covered
Sheryl Lipman Moves a Step Closer to the Federal Bench
Honoring Our Veterans
Protecting Our Students, Veterans, and Taxpayers
U of M Distinguished Alumnus Award
Fighting for Consumers’ and Victims’ Rights
Promoting Competition Among Airlines
Reducing Infant Mortality
Medicare Open Enrollment
White House Internships
Grant Announcements
Helping Memphians Keep Their Plans and Get Covered
Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced a plan to help Americans who had received cancellation notices from their health insurance companies keep those plans. This will give those people who had their policies cancelled by their insurers or whose insurers had tried to push them into more expensive plans the opportunity to maintain their coverage. While this is a positive step to help those who are concerned about their coverage, the truth is that many of the plans were cancelled because they were inferior, insufficient plans. Some of them didn’t even cover hospitalization, something most of us would consider an essential part of health insurance. The President’s new plan would also require insurance companies to let their customers know that their coverage wouldn’t protect them in these kinds of situations, and it would require them to inform their customers that better, more affordable coverage is available to them in the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace.
Tomorrow morning just after 7:00AM, I will be on MSNBC’s Up with Steve Kornacki and I will also be on MSNBC Live again tomorrow afternoon at 2:00PM to discuss the President’s plan and how we can help Americans maintain their current coverage or get better coverage. I hope you will tune in.
All Memphians should have quality health coverage and the President’s landmark Affordable Care Act—also known as Obamacare—is making affordable, higher-quality coverage available to people who have not had access to it in the past. Luckily, many who have been unable to afford quality coverage in the past are now eligible to enroll in Tennessee’s Health Insurance Marketplace. If you do not have health insurance coverage, you may be eligible to save money on your health care premiums in the Marketplace.
If you are on Medicare or your employer is going to offer qualified health insurance next year, you’re already covered and won’t need to enter the Marketplace for your health coverage. If you aren’t sure whether or not you will need to use the Marketplace to get insurance, call the Marketplace Hotline at 1-800-318-2596 or visit www.HealthCare.gov. You can also call my office or the Marketplace Hotline to find out if TennCare (Tennessee’s Medicaid program) is a coverage option for you. If you are one of the millions of Americans who need health insurance, you can sign up for coverage today that will take effect January 1, 2014. Enrollment in the marketplace will remain open until March 31, 2014, but you can go online to www.healthcare.gov today to check out your options.
The Affordable Care Act is already working for families across the Ninth District and the recent government shutdown didn’t change that. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 147,000 individuals in the district now have health insurance that covers preventive services without co-pays, $3.1 million in insurance premiums have been returned to consumers, and more than 5,000 seniors on Medicare paid a total of $5.9 million less for their prescription medications as we continue to close the ‘donut hole.’ Also, health insurance companies can no longer discriminate against patients with pre-existing conditions and young adults up to age 26 can now stay on their parents’ insurance plan.
Many of the Marketplace website issues that have been in the news recently have been resolved. However, the Marketplace website is only one tool that you can use to sign up for coverage. If you are having trouble accessing the website, please do not hesitate to call the Marketplace Hotline at 1-800-318-2596 or visit Seedco Mid-South for in-person help. Seedco is located at 22 North Front Street (Suite 900), and they can be reached by phone at 901-528-8341. If you have any other questions, you should also feel free to call my office at 901-544-4131.
Sheryl Lipman Moves a Step Closer to the Federal Bench
On Wednesday, President Obama’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the District Court for the Western District of Tennesseee, Ms. Sheryl Lipman, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with reviewing nominations to the federal bench. I recommended her to the President after convening a diverse and bipartisan screening committee to conduct interviews of nine potential candidates for the position.
Sheryl Lipman has proven herself a stellar attorney and I am confident that she will be a superb judge. Her breadth of experience, strong work ethic, and unimpeachable integrity easily made her the overwhelming first choice of the screening committee of local attorneys.
I am glad the President took my recommendation into consideration and nominated such a skilled Memphis attorney to the federal bench, and I am glad that the Senate Judiciary Committee took a step towards her confirmation. When confirmed, she will serve the Western District of Tennessee with distinction and the people of Memphis well.
On Monday, I hosted my 5th annual Veterans Day luncheon in Memphis, and was glad to see more than 300 veterans from our great city in attendance. They and their families have sacrificed a great deal for each of us, and I appreciated the opportunity to say thank you to them and give them the respect they deserve.
Protecting Our Students, Veterans, and Taxpayers
For-profit colleges can receive overwhelming majorities of their revenue —up to 90%—from federal sources such as student loans. But too often, these schools fail in their duty to adequately prepare graduates for jobs that will allow them to repay those loans, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Even worse, a loophole in current law allows unscrupulous colleges to receive even more federal funds by enrolling veterans and servicemembers. This loophole encourages bad behavior that weighs down our nation’s veterans with mountains of debt and few career prospects while lining the pockets of wealthy for-profit investors with taxpayer money. Simply put, this is unacceptable. We are entrusted with spending our monies efficiently and wisely, but too many for-profit colleges do not meet that test. This week, I introduced the Protecting our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act in the House to eliminate the loophole and help prevent for-profit colleges from taking advantage of veterans and taxpayers. Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Tom Harkin of Iowa have also introduced the legislation in the Senate, and I am glad to be working with these two distinguished Senators to close this loophole, encourage for-profit colleges to provide better educations, and protect American taxpayers.
U of M Distinguished Alumnus Award
Last weekend, I was honored to be awarded the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus award by the U of M Alumni Association. The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law helped prepare me for a long and successful career in public service, and I will always be grateful for the education I received there. Being named the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus is a great honor, and I thank the U of M Alumni Association for this award. All of my life, I have supported and loved the University as I know so many Memphians do.
Fighting for Consumers’ and Victims’ Rights
Yesterday, House Republicans delivered a harsh blow to victims of asbestos and mesothelioma. In an attempt to find non-existent fraud, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle designed legislation that prevents victims from receiving the benefits that they deserve. Furthermore, not a single victim’s advocacy group was allowed to testify during the hearings on this legislation.
By silencing victims, transparency in the hearing process was irreparably damaged. I introduced an amendment that would have helped fix their bill, but unfortunately it did not pass because nearly all House Republicans voted against it.
Promoting Competition Among Airlines
At a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing this morning, I spoke with a Justice Department official about how the recently-approved merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways will impact competition in the air travel industry and if it will help consumers. In Memphis, we have seen first-hand how poor oversight and enforcement can have harmful effects on competition, flight availability, and consumer prices with the merger of Delta and Northwest. I hope that the Department of Justice does everything it can to ensure that the American/US Airways merger promotes innovation in the industry and offers consumers—especially those in Memphis—more choices and better prices instead of reducing the incentives to be competitive.
This week, I urged my colleagues in the House to support the PREEMIE Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Tennessee’s senior Senator Lamar Alexander and would help reduce the rate of infant mortality in our country. Until recently, our local infant mortality rate in Memphis rivaled that of some third world countries. The United States still has a long way to go in fighting infant mortality—our current rate is 6.1 deaths per thousand while Portugal’s is 2.5 and Japan’s is 2.3 per thousand. The PREEMIE Act will help achieve our goal of bettering the health of our nation’s future and I was proud to vote in favor of it when it passed the House.
Medicare Part D enrollment for 2014 is now open and will run until December 7th. The Aging Commission of the Mid-South will be sponsoring several enrollment workshops in the 9th District to assist seniors in enrolling in next year’s plans. Those attending should bring their Medicare card and prescriptions. Be sure not to miss out on this great opportunity to lower your monthly pharmacy costs. For dates, times, and locations of the workshops please click here.
The White House Internship Program is currently accepting applications from young people who are interested in government and devoted to public service. If you—or anyone you know— would like to spend some time working at the White House, gaining valuable professional experience and building leadership skills, I would like to take this opportunity to urge you to apply. The application deadline is January 5th, 2014. Click here for more information.
I regularly release a list of grant announcements from federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation, and others. These federal funding opportunities are available to faith-based and neighborhood associations, nonprofits and other community organizations in the 9th District. The announcements are updated regularly on my website.
As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress