HR0702 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0702 LRB098 15049 MST 50012 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Health care and health insurance are among the highest necessities of life for more than 12,000,000 residents of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Health insurance policies previously offered for sale to American citizens, and enjoyed by them as the result of transactions in a voluntary marketplace, are being withdrawn and banned from sale, partly as a result of their partial compliance or non-compliance with a long and complex set of mandates that will be imposed upon American private-sector health insurance plans starting on January 1, 2014; and

WHEREAS, Many of the men, women, and children who are currently learning that their health insurance policies will be much more expensive, or will not be renewed, live and work in Illinois; and

WHEREAS, It is the duty of the Illinois House of Representatives to listen to the concerns of these individuals, who are faced with the imminent threat of not having insurance to provide for the random chances of health and life; and

WHEREAS, These individuals had been told that if they wanted to keep their existing insurance policies, they would be able to do so, but current events are placing this pledge in serious doubt, and adding to a wave of apprehension and even fear among many thousands of Illinoisans as they search for health-care options for themselves and their loved ones; and

WHEREAS, Those Illinoisans who are searching for potential coverage in 2014 and following years on the federal website "HealthCare.gov" are finding a poorly designed website that, in many cases, is unable to offer customers a choice of insurance policies comparable to the policy choices that they previously enjoyed, or to the policy that they had previously purchased and wanted to continue to keep; and

WHEREAS, In some cases, customers find "HealthCare.gov" becomes unhelpful for them after they have submitted extremely confidential personal financial information about themselves, thereby potentially compromising their deepest privacy without giving them even the opportunity to purchase health care insurance in return; and

WHEREAS, Current United States' press coverage is providing background information to explain the poor performance of "HealthCare.gov", including the revelation that even after a series of emergency fixes is applied to the website over the next few weeks, the site is not expected to have the capacity to handle more than a fraction of the inquiries and transactions that will be imposed upon it if all of the millions of Americans who have been mandated to purchase private-sector health care insurance under the Affordable Care Act attempt to do so using the key website; and

WHEREAS, Responding to this crisis, bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress have expressed their support for the principle that "if you have a health insurance policy and you like it, you ought to be able to keep it"; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we support legislation currently up for passage in the United States House of Representatives, the Keep Your Health Plan Act (H.R. 3350), that will re-open the legal right of American citizens, including Illinoisans, to continue to buy and enjoy, in 2014, the health insurance policies that they voluntarily chose to buy to protect themselves in 2013; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we congratulate the lawmakers of both parties that are working together to fix this problem in a spirit of problem-solving and bipartisanship; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we affirm the right of Illinois citizens and residents to select their own health insurance policies on the basis of their own knowledge of what is appropriate for them, and congratulate all of those who have spoken out, as citizens and as Americans, in defense of this right; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be provided to all 18 members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation and to U.S. Senators Richard J. Durbin and Mark Kirk.