Today, the Department of Commerce reported economic growth of 5.9% for the last quarter of 2009 (up from its earlier estimate of 5.7%). This represents a large change in direction from when President Obama took office and the economy was shrinking by -6.4% and is another encouraging sign that actions by the Obama Administration and this Congress are working to turn the economy around:
the U.S. economy looks to be on the mend. The Commerce Department is expected to report that U.S. gross domestic product rose at a 5.9% annualized pace in the fourth quarter, according to forecasters polled by Dow Jones, up from its prior 5.7% estimate…Growth of nearly 6% is a notable turnaround from the deep declines seen during the recession… Yet firmer business and consumer spending along with export growth should ultimately provide support for a self-sustaining recovery this year, many economists said. Macroeconomic Advisers sees GDP growth of about 4% this year.
The U.S. economy expanded at a 5.9 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, more than the government reported last month, reflecting stronger business investment and a greater contribution from inventories. The rise in gross domestic product… marked the best performance in more than six years…Inventories added 3.88 percentage points to GDP, more than previously reported, and investment in software and equipment grew at the fastest pace in almost a decade.
This economic growth is critical to job creation and putting Americans back to work. And more must be done. Congress will continue to take additional steps to spur job growth and strengthen our economy, with action on the Senate jobs bill, along with additional measures, soon.
In our current health care system, women often face higher health costs than men and multiple other barriers to health insurance. Fewer women are eligible for employer-based coverage, and comprehensive coverage in the individual health care market is often unavailable or prohibitively expensive. In the individual insurance market, women face discrimination — being charged substantially higher premiums for the same coverage as men or being denied coverage for such “pre-existing conditions” as pregnancy, having had a C-section, or being a victim of domestic violence. In a recent study, more than half of women — compared with 39% of men — reported delaying needed medical care due to cost. And just last fall, the Joint Economic Committee released a report finding that since the recession began, American women have lost 1.6 million jobs — many seeing their health insurance disappear with their jobs — and over a million women have lost insurance because their husband lost his job.
At today’s meeting with President Obama at the Blair House, Chairwoman Louise Slaughter discussed the need for health insurance reform, particularly for women:
…All Americans should be treated the same. Let me give you a little history on that. Eight states in this country right now have declared that domestic violence is a pre-existing condition on the grounds, I assume, that if you have been unlucky enough to get yourself beaten up once, you might go around and do it again. 48% is the higher cost for women, in many cases, to buy their own insurance. Believe you me that is really discriminatory. In 1991, women were not included in any of the trials at the NIH because we had hormones. It wasn’t until we had a critical mass of women here that said this will not do for more than half the population of the United States who pay taxes and we made certain that diseases like osteoporosis, mainly a women's disease, and cervical cancer, only a women's disease, and uterine cancer and others were really looked at. Up to that point, 1991, all research at the Institutes of Health was done on white males. Now think about that for a minute, if you will. We couldn’t do that because we said, 'kindly, will you stop doing that?' It took legislation. Doing this will take legislation.
Women will continue to face discrimination in both coverage and cost if health reform fails. Our health insurance reform legislation is vital for women, making it illegal for insurance companies to use “gender rating” — charging women more than men for the same coverage — and makes it against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage or charge higher premiums on the basis of a “pre-existing condition”. Learn more about women and health insurance reform»
Today, House and Senate leaders of both parties will be meeting with the President at the Blair House to discuss moving forward with comprehensive health reform. Without reform, the cost of health care for the average family of four is projected to rise $1,800 every year for years to come–and insurance companies will make more health care decisions. America's middle class deserves better and we're closer than ever to making reform a reality. As we go forward, our reform efforts must pass the Triple-A test, reaching our three key goals: affordability for the middle class, accessibility for all Americans, and accountability for the insurance industry.
Watch the meeting live starting at 10am EST:
House Democrats in attendance:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Emeritus John D. Dingell
Vice Chair of House Democratic Caucus Xavier Becerra
House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter
Congressman Rob Andrews
Congressman Jim Cooper
By a vote of 406-19, the House passed the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act (HR 4626), introduced by Reps. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and Betsy Markey (D-CO). This bill is designed to restore competition and transparency to the health insurance market — by repealing the blanket antitrust exemption afforded to health insurance companies by the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. Under this legislation, health insurers will no longer be shielded from legal accountability for price fixing, dividing up territories among themselves, sabotaging their competitors in order to gain monopoly power, and other such anti-competitive practices.
Over the last several years, the health insurance industry has become increasingly concentrated–giving consumers fewer and fewer meaningful choices in shopping for health insurance. According to a recent study by the AMA, there have been more than 400 mergers among health insurers in the past 14 years and as this map shows, many areas of our country are dominated by just one or two private insurers today:
This bill is also necessary because, over the years, health insurers have been able to use this antitrust exemption to block court actions regarding anti-competitive behavior. In Ocean State Physicians Health Plan, Inc. v Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, the First Circuit Court — citing the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption — overturned a jury verdict against the dominant health insurer for using its monopoly power to put financial pressure on area employers to refuse to do business with a competing HMO.
There is also evidence that removing this antitrust exemption will result in lower prices and other benefits for consumers. Time and time again, increased competition results in lower prices, increased choice, and greater innovation. A healthy and competitive health insurance market will drive prices down in the health insurance industry, just as we have seen it do in so many other industries where competition is allowed to take hold. Since California passed a law in 1988 that eliminated the state antitrust exemption for the auto insurance industry, for instance, auto premiums for consumers in California have risen by 9.8% while the rest of the country has seen auto premiums rise by over 48%.
The repeal of the antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act as it applies to the health insurance industry would give American families and businesses, big and small, more control over their own health care choices by promoting greater insurance competition. The repeal also will outlaw existing, anti-competitive health insurance practices like price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation that drive up costs for all Americans. Health insurance reform should be built on a strong commitment to competition in all health care markets, including health insurance. This bill will benefit the American health care consumer by ensuring that competition has a prominent role in reforming health insurance markets throughout the Nation.
Speaker Pelosi opened her remarks saying, the “House of Representatives, Mr. Chairman, is called the people's house. Today, we live up to that name. By passing legislation that increases leverage for the people by changing the playing field, a playing field that has been dominated by the insurance industry for over 65 years and now it's the people's turn. The insurance companies will now be playing on the people's field”:
Yesterday, Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, Congressman Peter DeFazio, and Wendell Potter, senior fellow on health care at the Center for Media and Democracy and a former insurance industry executive, held a news conference to discuss the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act on the floor today to end the unfair antitrust protection for the health insurance industry:
Chairman Waxman outlines the major issues with Toyota’s response to their consumers and NHTSA’s oversight in his opening statement:
In preparation for this hearing, the Committee analyzed over 100,000 pages of documents from Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These documents show that both Toyota and NHTSA have received thousands of complaints of runaway Toyota vehicles. And they show that these complaints increased after the introduction of electronic throttle controls.
But what is most significant is what is missing from the documents.
There is no evidence that Toyota or NHTSA took a serious look at the possibility that electronic defects could be causing the problem.
Toyota did not initiate a study into possible electronic defects until just two months ago. And NHTSA still does not have an electrical or software engineer on staff.
Our review indicates that Toyota received as many as 2,600 complaints of runaway vehicles through its telephone hotline alone. Over 700 of these incidents resulted in accidents.
Toyota had three responses: First, blame the driver. Second, blame the floormat. Third, blame a sticky gas pedal. And NHTSA — without doing any meaningful independent review — accepted Toyota's explanations.
Rhonda Smith testified on her near death experience driving her Toyota vehicle that accelerated to 100 mph on its own and would not stop:
I was driving from my home in Sevierville down Highway 66 to the interstate, Interstate 40. And upon entering the interstate, I accelerated with everyone else into the flow of traffic. And at this point, I merged over into the second lane, not going into passing gear. At this time, I lost all control of the acceleration of the vehicle. The car goes into passing gear and the cruise light comes on. At this time, I’m thinking that maybe the cruise is what caused the car to keep accelerating, as my foot’s not on the gas pedal. I take off the cruise control, but the car continues to accelerate. To make a long story short, I put the car into all available gears, including neutral, but then I put it in reverse, and it remains in reverse as the car speeds to over 100 miles per hour down the interstate.
I placed both feet on the brake after I firmly engaged the emergency brake, and nothing slows the car.
I figured the car was going to go its maximum speed and I was going to have to put the car into the upcoming guardrail in order to prevent killing anyone else.
And I prayed for God to help me.
Eddie Smith, Rhonda’s husband of 38 years, testified on Toyota’s response to Rhonda’s experience and their quest to bring this incident to Toyota’s attention:
We purchased this 2000 Lexus ES 350 because of Toyota’s exemplary claim of safety, because we have young grandchildren.
It has been a true experience, trying to decide what to say today. You’ve all heard my wife describe her experience. Now, take a minute, and put yourself on the other end of the cellphone, listening to what you think are the last words you’ll ever hear her speak, and the imminent death of your lifelong best friend and spouse, and not being able to do anything about it.
Besides this being the most terrifying and traumatizing experience of my wife’s entire life, it is also the most frightening and heartwrenching thing I’ve ever experienced. Needless to say, she was spared by the grace of God and is still by my side today.
We have never been crusaders for any cause other than our God, family and freedom. However, we have been on a mission to get this injustice to the American people noticed, addressed and fixed.
Toyota was informed of this potentially deadly problem in 2006, and was warned by us numerous times that lives would be lost if this was left unattended. We phoned, e-mailed and wrote numerous letters trying to get Toyota to correct the sudden, unintended acceleration problem.
Our complete customer satisfaction that we received, as Rhonda said, was a statement from Toyota stating, “If properly maintained, the brakes would always override accelerations.” They called us liars.
One year ago, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law to bring America's economy back from the brink by giving most Americans the fastest and one of the largest tax cuts in history, creating and saving jobs, and laying the building blocks for long-term prosperity.
A new report by congressional economists says the economic stimulus law produced jobs for 1 million to 2.1 million people by the end of last year.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office study says the $862 billion stimulus added between 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points to the growth of the economy.
Other findings from the CBO report:
According to CBO, $272 billion in tax cuts and investments (or about of one-third of the package) from the Recovery Act have gone out through the end of 2009.
The Recovery Act is estimated to have lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.5 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points in the 4th quarter of 2009.
In 2010, the CBO estimates that the Recovery Act will:
Increase the number of people employed by between 1.3 million and 3.3 million
Raise real GDP between 1.4 percent and 4.0 percent
Lower the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points
And despite calls from Republicans to ’scrap’ comprehensive reform, Americans across party lines overwhelmingly support the key elements of comprehensive health insurance reform — all of which were included in the Affordable Health Care for America Act, legislation that passed the House in November, as well as the President's new proposal:
76% believe it is extremely or very important to reform the way health insurance works. [85 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of Independents, 64 percent of Republicans]
72% say it is extremely or very important to provide tax credits to small businesses. [77 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents, 67 percent of Republicans]
71% say it is extremely or very important to create a health insurance exchange. [78 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Independents, 67 percent of Republicans]
71% believe it is extremely or very important to help close the Medicare prescription drug 'doughnut hole'. [78 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Independents, 66 percent of Republicans]
70% believe it is extremely or very important to expand high risk insurance pools. [79 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Independents, 61 percent of Republicans]
68% say it is extremely or very important to provide financial help for low/middle income Americans. [88 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Independents, 48 percent of Republicans]
In 2008, credit card issuers imposed $19 billion in penalty fees on families with credit cards—exploiting loopholes in the law to make profits at the expense of responsible credit cardholders with minimal oversight. Last May, the House passed, and the President signed, the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights (or Credit CARD Act) applying common-sense regulations that ban unfair rate increases and forbid abusive fees and penalties.
The Credit CARD Act contains three separate implementation dates, 90 days, 9 months and 15 months after enactment. The first set of consumer protections went into effect last August—requiring 45 days advance notice of all interest rate and fee hikes and statements be mailed 21 days in advance of payment due dates. Today, a second set of reforms go into effect, including prohibiting arbitrary interest rate increases and prohibiting interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing ban):
Prohibits arbitrary interest rate increases and universal default on existing balances
Prohibits issuers from charging over-limit fees unless the cardholder elects to allow the issuer to complete over-limit transactions, and also limits over-limit fees on electing cardholders
Requires payments in excess of the minimum to be applied first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest;
Prohibits issuers from setting early morning deadlines for credit card payments
Prohibits interest charges on debt paid on time (double-cycle billing ban)
Requires issuers extending credit to young consumers under the age of 21 to obtain an application that contains the signature of a parent, guardian, or other individual 21 years or older who will take responsibility for the debt or proof that the applicant has an independent means of repaying any credit extended
Protects recipients of gift cards by requiring all gift cards to have at least a five-year life span, and eliminates the practice of declining values and hidden fees for those cards not used within a reasonable period of time
You may have also noticed that your credit card statement now looks different–the Credit CARD Act calls for more transparency and clarity in statements including requiring credit card issuers to disclose how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you only pay the minimum monthly payments. USA Today outlines the other ways your statement will be more transparent:
These reforms, combined with remaining provisions set to take effect in August (including that creditors periodically review all interest rate increases since January 2009 and reduce rates when a review indicates that a reduction is warranted) will protect 91 million households from excessive fees, unfair interest rate hikes, and arbitrary agreements that credit card companies revise at will. Learn more about the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights»
Speaker Pelosi on today’s implementation:
Today most of the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights will take effect — helping to end the era of unfair penalties and abusive practices by the credit card industry. No longer will America's consumers face credit card industry practices dominated by incomprehensible fine print and hidden fees. No longer will confusing agreements and arbitrary rate increases unfairly punish responsible families and small businesses.
This bill's commonsense reforms will restore fairness when consumers conduct their day-to-day credit transactions. The legislation holds credit card companies accountable and provides meaningful new protections to consumers.
The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights sends a clear message to the credit card industry that the business-as-usual that saddles consumers with unfair practices is over. Americans who pay their bills on time and play by the rules do not deserve to be the victims of abusive financial practices. At a time when families are struggling, consumers will save at least $10 billion a year from the bill's prohibition on unfair interest rate increases. The steps taken today move us closer to our goal of greater financial security for the American people.
I commend Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for her hard work and tenacity in ensuring the success of this legislation.