Voices supports health reform’s “individual mandate”

Last week, Voices for America’s Children joined an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of the minimum coverage provision, otherwise known as the individual mandate, in the health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).  A copy of our amicus brief can be read here.

The minimum coverage provision is critical to children’s health for several reasons:

•  It is directly tied to the provision banning insurance companies from discriminating against children and families based on pre-existing conditions.
•  It ensures that children who are outside the eligibility requirements for Medicaid and CHIP receive health coverage.
•  The goal of the minimum coverage provision is to reduce family’s medical costs through health coverage, as opposed to the higher medical costs for those with no health coverage.
•  It provides children and families with greater health care access to prevent disease and infection, along with supporting those with disabilities.

Our amicus brief to the high court states that, “Working in conjunction with other critical components of the ACA, in particular its guaranteed issue provision and its ban on the exclusion of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, the minimum coverage provision will ensure that affordable health insurance and health care are available to people when they need it, reduce health care costs, prevent medical bankruptcies… and reduce the human and economic costs of preventable deaths.”

Voices for America’s Children strongly believes the minimum coverage provision will provide such benefits to children and strongly encourages the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the entire ACA law when it considers the case this spring.