Here’s your chance to let your voice be heard – join the Citizens’ Posse:
Click here to join: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/s/march9dc
Here’s your chance to let your voice be heard – join the Citizens’ Posse:
Click here to join: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/s/march9dc
Our family’s health insurance premiums have risen more than 50% in the last 5 years and our deductible doubled again this year. While our out-of-pocket health care costs have skyrocketed, we’ve had no choice but to watch helplessly as our insurer has repeatedly limited our coverage and reduced our benefits. Like many Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, shopping around for a better deal on health insurance just isn’t an option for me. As dissatisfied as we may be with our insurance, we live in fear of losing it since we know that it would be impossible to replace in the current market. Given all this, it seems clear to me that the public option would be a vitally important component of any meaningful health care reform package.
Fortunately for the American people, it looks like we may now have an opportunity to revive the public option. In recent weeks, 34 senators and 120 members of the House have signed letters asking Congress to pass a public option through ‘reconciliation’ — a procedure that just requires a majority vote in the Senate. Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans want the public option (59% to 29% in the latest New York Times poll) and that support extends across party lines (80% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and even 33% of Republicans). Besides being popular with the American people, the public option is the best option on the table to curb the skyrocketing health care costs that are putting so much strain on the budgets of American families and small businesses. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the various public option proposals in the House would save at least $25 billion without adding a dime to the national debt. Just as importantly, a public option would create competition in our health insurance market. If consumers were dissatisfied with the prices or service offered by private insurers, they’d have another choice. We need the public option to help keep the insurance companies in check.
There are several petitions circulating now to demonstrate citizen support for the public option. If you agree that the public option is vital to meaningful health care reform, please take a moment to sign:
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From the National Patient Advocate Foundation:
The Senate may vote in the next few days on an amendment by Sen. Ben Nelson to add the House Stupak language back into the Senate health care bill — and we’ve got to speak out now to stop it.
That’s why I signed the petition Senator Barbara Boxer has launched at www.FightForWomensHealth.com, calling for the removal of the Stupak Amendment from any bill that reaches the President’s desk. We succeeded in keeping the Stupak Amendment out of the initial Senate health care reform bill, but we knew our opponents wouldn’t give up easily — and they’re already back.
Please join me and Senator Boxer at www.FightForWomensHealth.com today!
From NARAL Pro-Choice America:
Join us on on December 2 to help stop the abortion-coverage ban!
The House version of the health-reform bill includes the Stupak-Pitts amendment that makes it virtually impossible for private insurance companies that participate in the new system to offer abortion coverage to women. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and other anti-choice politicians have threatened to introduce a similar amendment to the Senate bill.
We cannot let Sen. Hatch and his allies block women from purchasing—even with their own money—insurance that includes abortion coverage.
That’s why we’re teaming up with other pro-choice groups to hold an event and lobby day in Washington, D.C. on December 2. If you’re in the D.C. area, we hope you’ll join us! There are other events across the country as well.
Of course, many of us can’t go to an event in person. So we’re holding an online day of action and call-in day on December 2 that anyone can join. Here are easy ways you can participate:
For more information, click here: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/take-action/hcr-day-of-action
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