HR0702LRB098 15049 MST 50012 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Health care and health insurance are among the
3highest necessities of life for more than 12,000,000 residents
4of Illinois; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Health insurance policies previously offered for
6sale to American citizens, and enjoyed by them as the result of
7transactions in a voluntary marketplace, are being withdrawn
8and banned from sale, partly as a result of their partial
9compliance or non-compliance with a long and complex set of
10mandates that will be imposed upon American private-sector
11health insurance plans starting on January 1, 2014; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Many of the men, women, and children who are
13currently learning that their health insurance policies will be
14much more expensive, or will not be renewed, live and work in
15Illinois; and
 
16    WHEREAS, It is the duty of the Illinois House of
17Representatives to listen to the concerns of these individuals,
18who are faced with the imminent threat of not having insurance
19to provide for the random chances of health and life; and
 
20    WHEREAS, These individuals had been told that if they
21wanted to keep their existing insurance policies, they would be

 

 

HR0702- 2 -LRB098 15049 MST 50012 r

1able to do so, but current events are placing this pledge in
2serious doubt, and adding to a wave of apprehension and even
3fear among many thousands of Illinoisans as they search for
4health-care options for themselves and their loved ones; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Those Illinoisans who are searching for potential
6coverage in 2014 and following years on the federal website
7"HealthCare.gov" are finding a poorly designed website that, in
8many cases, is unable to offer customers a choice of insurance
9policies comparable to the policy choices that they previously
10enjoyed, or to the policy that they had previously purchased
11and wanted to continue to keep; and
 
12    WHEREAS, In some cases, customers find "HealthCare.gov"
13becomes unhelpful for them after they have submitted extremely
14confidential personal financial information about themselves,
15thereby potentially compromising their deepest privacy without
16giving them even the opportunity to purchase health care
17insurance in return; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Current United States' press coverage is
19providing background information to explain the poor
20performance of "HealthCare.gov", including the revelation that
21even after a series of emergency fixes is applied to the
22website over the next few weeks, the site is not expected to
23have the capacity to handle more than a fraction of the

 

 

HR0702- 3 -LRB098 15049 MST 50012 r

1inquiries and transactions that will be imposed upon it if all
2of the millions of Americans who have been mandated to purchase
3private-sector health care insurance under the Affordable Care
4Act attempt to do so using the key website; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Responding to this crisis, bipartisan members of
6the U.S. Congress have expressed their support for the
7principle that "if you have a health insurance policy and you
8like it, you ought to be able to keep it"; therefore, be it
 
9    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
10NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
11we support legislation currently up for passage in the United
12States House of Representatives, the Keep Your Health Plan Act
13(H.R. 3350), that will re-open the legal right of American
14citizens, including Illinoisans, to continue to buy and enjoy,
15in 2014, the health insurance policies that they voluntarily
16chose to buy to protect themselves in 2013; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That we congratulate the lawmakers of both
18parties that are working together to fix this problem in a
19spirit of problem-solving and bipartisanship; and be it further
 
20    RESOLVED, That we affirm the right of Illinois citizens and
21residents to select their own health insurance policies on the
22basis of their own knowledge of what is appropriate for them,

 

 

HR0702- 4 -LRB098 15049 MST 50012 r

1and congratulate all of those who have spoken out, as citizens
2and as Americans, in defense of this right; and be it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
4provided to all 18 members of the Illinois Congressional
5Delegation and to U.S. Senators Richard J. Durbin and Mark
6Kirk.