Massachusetts Union Members to Insurance Industry: Don’t Derail Health Care Reform
 |
|
More than 300 union activists surrounded the office of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans (MAHP), in downtown Boston yesterday, to protest the insurance industry’s tactics in opposing national health care reform.
MAHP and other industry groups, such as America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), have mounted a multimillion-dollar campaign of TV and radio ads, phony town hall meetings and lobbying to scuttle comprehensive health care reform. Says Rich Rogers, executive secretary of the Greater Boston Labor Council:
We sent a strong message today in Boston that we can’t allow the insurance industry to derail reform. It is time to stand up to the insurance companies and show them that we mean business.
House Unveils Health Care Bill with Public Option, No Benefits Tax; Vote Sought by Recess
Comprehensive health care reform took a significant step forward this afternoon when House leaders unveiled the final draft of a bill that contains a public health insurance plan option and shared responsibility, including an employer “pay or play” requirement—while not taxing the health care benefits working families receive through their job. A vote could come by the end of July.
The bill closely follows the health care blueprint developed by the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees and includes cost containment and insurance market reforms to help stop private insurance industry abuses. For a closer look at the House bill, click here.
Says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) about the bill:
Over the coming weeks, Congress will continue working with President Obama to make health care reform work for middle-class families in America….We have a path to success: lowering costs for consumers and businesses; giving greater choice to Americans, including keeping your current doctor or plan if you like them; improving the quality of your care; putting doctors, not insurance companies, back in charge.
America’s Workers Oppose Taxing Health Care Benefits
One of the most troubling health care reform proposals—taxing health care benefits—that had gained some traction in recent weeks appears to be slipping. Grassroots health care activists, President Obama and leading congressional Democrats have helped shed the light on, and slow the momentum of, this unfair tax that could boost working families’ tax liability by as much as 28 percent, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
Yesterday, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Sen. Max Baucus (D- Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, that any health care bill that included a tax on health care benefits and failed to include a strong public health insurance plan option would lose significant Democratic support. The paper said Reid told Baucus to drop
a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.
Women’s Chamber of Commerce Endorses Public Health Plan Option
One the largest groups of women business leaders in the nation called this week for comprehensive health care reform that includes a “a robust” public health plan option.
In a report to Congress, the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, with more than 500,000 members, writes:
Americans should also have the choice of a robust government lead a public plan to take on the insurance carriers, provide vigorous competition, and assure all Americans have access to affordable health care.
Health Care Survey: Costs Out of Control, Need for Reform ‘Urgent’
 |
|
Out-of-control health care costs are forcing working families to forgo needed medical care and shredding family bank accounts, while private health insurance companies deny claims and, far too often, refuse to provide coverage.
The results of the 2009 Health Care for America Survey—sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America—show that more than half of the 23,460 people who took the survey cannot get the health care they need at a price they can afford and one-third say they forgo basic medical care because of its high price. In a nearly unanimous response, survey takers say health care reform is urgent.
Says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker:
Our current system is broken and this survey shows how our fractured system hurts both the insured and uninsured alike. The time for real health care reform is now. We simply can’t wait any longer.
Are You Taking Part in the June 25 Health Care Rally?
 |
|
Union, health care and community activists from around the nation are set to converge on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., this week to tell Congress there is no time to waste in passing health care reform legislation that provides quality health care for all.
As a congressional hearing revealed last week, health care reform must also rein in the most outrageous and abusive practices of the private insurance industry.
The June 25 rally and lobby day sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is expected to be the largest ever health care rally. Click here for more rally information from HCAN and text “HEALTH” to 94553 to receive updates on fast-moving health care reform activities throughout the summer.
700 State Legislators Back Public Health Insurance Option
The health care reform debate is now on center stage on the national level. But for several years, state lawmakers have fought to develop health care reform initiatives to ensure affordability, quality and fairness in health care. One thing they have learned, says Christopher Donovan, speaker of the Connecticut state House, is that
we know that America wants the choice of a public plan because we’ve been out there in the trenches for years now coming up with models for one. We’ve been going door to door talking to our constituents. We’ve been drafting legislation that creates public insurance options and opens employee insurance pools to the private sector. We’ve passed these things, so we know people like them.
A public insurance plan option for workers and families who either have private insurance coverage or no coverage at all is one of the AFL-CIO’s key health care reform principles.
Senate Committee Unveils Strong Health Care Reform Bill
The health care reform legislation unveiled yesterday by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee is “a strong draft that demonstrates their commitment to comprehensive reform and the kind of leadership and energy the country needs to finally win quality, affordable health care for all,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who introduced the Affordable Health Choices Act, along with Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), says the bill contains
common-sense solutions that reduce skyrocketing health care costs, assure quality care for all and provide affordable health insurance choices. Much work remains, and the coming days and weeks won’t be easy. But we have a unique opportunity to give the American people, at long last, the health care they need and deserve.
