Here’s your chance to let your voice be heard – join the Citizens’ Posse:
Click here to join: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/s/march9dc
Posts Tagged ‘health care reform
09
Mar
10
Join the Citizens’ Posse
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:
and
From the National Patient Advocate Foundation:
President Obama convened a bipartisan health care reform summit with 40 Members of Congress on February 25th. Discussion topics included: controlling costs, insurance reforms, reducing the deficit and expanding coverage. National Patient Advocate Foundation sent a letter to summit participants which is available at www.npaf.org.
As you know, Congress has been hard at work for more than a year now on comprehensive health insurance reform legislation. The House and Senate have both passed health insurance reform legislation in their respective chambers that will expand health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and provide patients with real protections against preexisting conditions and medical bankruptcy.
NPAF is hopeful that policy agreement will triumph over partisan politics in the days to come. All parties, Democrats, Republicans and Independents need to come to the table now to assure that health care reform is accomplished, and that the final bill contains insurance reforms that are critically important to patients. NPAF is asking members of both the House and Senate to include the following insurance reform features in any health insurance reform legislation:
- Eliminate preexisting condition exclusions and waiting periods for individuals in every health insurance market no later than 2013;
- Create and adequately fund a transitional high-risk pool until preexisting conditions and waiting periods are eliminated entirely;
- Completely eliminate annual, monthly, and lifetime limits on coverage, whether on dollar value, services or disease specific; and
- Cap out-of-pocket spending so that health insurance coverage is affordable for all patients.
We thank you for your outreach to your Members of Congress over the last several months sharing this important message but the work is not done! National Patient Advocate Foundation needs you to share the message below immediately with your Representative in the House and your two U.S. Senators. Please add your voice to the discussion and encourage your friends and family to do the same!
Click here to send a letter to your elected officials about this important issue.
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:
- Write to your senators and tell them to to stop the abortion-coverage ban.
- Call your senators. Phone calls to Congress have an even greater impact than writing messages. It’s easy and takes less than five minutes! Just call (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your senator’s office. Tell the person who answers, “I’m calling to ask the senator to oppose a ban on insurance coverage for abortion in the new health-care system.” You’ll probably be asked for your zip code. That’s it!
- Donate to help us stop the abortion-coverage ban and protect choice at all levels.
- On December 2, update your Facebook or MySpace status to “Call your senators today at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose the abortion-coverage ban! Please repost this as YOUR status.”
- On Twitter? Tweet to stop the abortion coverage ban and use the hashtag #StopStupak when you write about this issue. (And, of course, follow us if you don’t already!)
- Change your profile photo or icon on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or LiveJournal to one of the graphics below. You can also feel free to add any of these graphics to your blog, or anywhere else you can think of!
For more information, click here: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/choice-action-center/take-action/hcr-day-of-action
SocialVibe