WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement after attending the bill signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
“Today, I had the honor to witness the signing of historic legislation to improve health care for millions of Pennsylvanians.
“This legislation will provide more security for those who have insurance and expand coverage to more than 30 million people who do not have coverage. Once both bills are passed, it will reduce costs for Americans and reduce the deficit by $143 billion over ten years.
“I am pleased that my provisions to help very vulnerable pregnant women and to reduce the number of abortions will be signed into law. The Pregnant Women Support Act provisions that I authored provide $1.2 billion in increased adoption assistance and $250 million to create a Pregnancy Assistance Fund. Both of these provisions will go a long way to reduce the number of abortions.
“After a year of endless debate and discussion about proposals, process and partisanship, Pennsylvanians will begin to see the real life benefits of health care reform. In the coming months:
• Over 150,000 Pennsylvania small businesses will receive tax credits to help make coverage more affordable and reduce their expenses;
• Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to the 2.8 million children in Pennsylvania for pre-existing conditions; and
• Insurance companies will not be able to drop coverage if you get sick and will no longer be able to implement annual or lifetime caps on coverage.
“As the Senate finishes debate this week on fixes to the health care law, I hope that the Republican leadership will stop playing political games to delay further improvements for Pennsylvanians and for small businesses. Their threat of offering scores of amendments is not a sincere attempt to change policy, but an effort to create disingenuous political attacks for the campaign trail.”
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