Diane Brown
Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Decision to Uphold Health Reform Law
Media Contacts
Statement of Diane E. Brown, Executive Director
Arizona PIRG Education Fund
Today’s decision means leaders in Arizona need to move forward and make sure health reform delivers lower costs and better quality for consumers.
Today’s decision means insurance companies cannot go back to the days of dropping your coverage once you become ill, or denying coverage to sick children. And beginning in 2014, the days of insurers being able to deny anyone coverage for “pre-existing conditions” will be history.
Arizona should continue to move ahead to put important consumer protections in place, like setting up a new competitive marketplace for health insurance, and adopting new rules to protect consumers from unjustified rate hikes.
Done right, the health insurance exchange will be a competitive marketplace where consumers and small businesses leverage their buying power to get a better deal on coverage.
And done right, consumers will benefit from increased transparency and opportunities for input on rate increases of 10% or greater, with the ability to save millions of dollars similar to other states with strong rate review processes.
