Please join us in calling on Congress to support President Obama’s new rule that guarantees access to birth control without co-pays no matter where you work.

After weeks of appalling and politically motivated attacks from Republicans, today President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to women's health by standing firm on his support for no-cost contraception in the face of a Republican onslaught. This is a major victory for women.

The Republicans and other opponents are already trashing this new step forward because they really want to allow ALL employers to deny women access to birth control no matter what. This is unacceptable.

Please urge your Members of Congress to support access to birth control and stop the Republican war on women.

This post has been updated with videos and a photo from Friday's event.

Here is a great video of the event from the Other 98%.

This is a video of the march: Occupy the Kochs - Guerrilla Drive-In

From Velvet Revolution: Koch Brothers Guerrilla Drive-In Protest at Wash Convention Center

This photo was taken by Common Cause. You can view more of their photos from the event here.

Thanks for Making the Occupy the Koch Brothers Guerrilla Drive-In a Huge Success!

Thank you to the 1,000 people who turned out Friday night, November 4, 2011, for the "Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In" at the Washington Convention Center. Health Care for America Now and the advocacy group The Other 98% led the protest of the billionaire Kochs Brothers' front group, Americans for Prosperity, which hosted a gala dinner that night as part of a two-day conference featuring speeches by GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.

Numerous progressive organizations teamed up with HCAN and the Other 98% to protest the Koch Brothers' corruption of the American political system at the unusual outdoor film festival. Americans for Prosperity, which spends millions advancing its extremist right-wing political agenda with the financial support of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and their companies, held the "Defend the American Dream" event to celebrate efforts to protect the richest people and corporations from paying their fair share in taxes and to eliminate important programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Protesters gathered at the Guerrilla Drive-In to enjoy popcorn, good food and political satire videos highlighting the Kochs' efforts to destroy the American Dream, shrink the middle class, increase America's growing income inequality, preserve tax breaks for special interests like Big Oil and strip workers of their rights. They sang satirical songs and marched around the massive Convention Center complex.

The protest showed that Americans are not going to accept a corporate takeover of our country. The event we started drew hundreds of Occupy DC and Occupy K Street people who joined in with our action. Later, those activists staged actions of their own around the hall.

"The Kochs and their front groups are trying to steal our democracy to make the 1% even richer," said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. "They and their cronies have purchased the Republican Party to destroy America's middle class, including taking away health care and stripping workers of the right to bargain for a better life. Across the country people are raising their voices in protest because they're fed up with a system stacked in favor of the richest 1%."

"The Koch brothers are not just the 1% — they are the .00001%," said John Sellers, co-founder of The Other 98%, which co-produced the Drive-In with HCAN. "They are the poster children for the hostile corporate takeover of our democracy, and it's about time they heard from the rest of us."

Occupy the Kochs comes as progressives across the country have been speaking out to put Americans back to work, tax the 1% and pressure the Super Committee not to make a bad deal for the 99%. For more than a month, Americans of all ages and backgrounds have been on the streets expressing their rejection of corporate money in politics at Occupy events and other movement protests across the U.S., and Occupy the Kochs demonstrates that the momentum for change is building.

Here are the progressive groups that joined up with HCAN and the Other 98% to stage the Guerrilla Drive-In: Campaign for America's Future, Campaign for Community Change, Common Cause, Justice Through Music, Oil Change International, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, Rebuild the Dream, Tar Sands Action, True Majority, USAction, and Velvet Revolution.

In case you haven't seen HCAN in the Washington Post: Anger of "Occupy Wall Street" supporters fueled by concerns about lack of affordable health care.

by Ethan Rome - Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

With the stalemate over his partisan over-reach in its 14th day, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is now wildly violating the most basic principle of governing: If you want to solve a problem, take the deal that gives you what you need, don't hold out for everything you want.

The workers have already agreed to pension and health care concessions. That's what Walker has said he needs. But he also wants to deny Wisconsin's public service employees their freedom to have a voice at work. The workers rightly have said they won't negotiate over their right to negotiate. Walker doesn't need that to solve the state's budget deficit.

The problem is that Scott just can't let go - and he's going too far. He insists on putting the interests of his billionaire backers like the Koch Brothers ahead of growing the economy and addressing the financial insecurity of America's working and middle-class families.

People in Wisconsin and across the country are fighting back with extraordinary intensity and resolve. More than 100,000 turned out in Madison to protest this weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied from New York to Los Angeles, in every state capitol and most major cities to support Wisconsin's teachers, correction officers, firefighters, nurses, administrative assistants, sanitation workers, social workers and so many others. The 14 Democratic state senators who have courageously blocked proposed legislative action on the governor's proposal continue to stand firm in the face of daily threats. This is an organic and inspired national movement demanding an end to the attacks on America's middle class - and for good reason.

If Walker and the Republican extremists get their way, it will tear the fabric of our society and destroy the American Dream. They want to shrink the middle class instead of creating jobs to secure and strengthen our communities. They want to take money out of the pockets of working families and deny small businesses the customers they need to survive. They want to cut taxes for corporations and the super rich instead of helping middle-class families educate their children and make ends meet. Walker and the Republicans like him want to give even more power and wealth to the CEOs of the insurance companies, the banks and other big corporations that don't care about anything except making excessive profits at our expense.

Exhibit A: Buried in Walker's bill to strip public employees of their rights is a provision that would allow the state to sell or contract out management of state-owned power plants without the standard competitive bidding that saves taxpayers money and protects against political corruption. And who might benefit from this special interest legislation? The energy company owned by the billionaire Koch brothers.

Gov. Walker has a fine model for reckless, partisan behavior in Speaker of the House John Boehner. Boehner and the House Republicans are serving two masters: the corporate lobbyists in Washington and the extremist Tea Party Republicans who don't seem to care what damage they do to this country in the pursuit of their partisan goals. The Republican continuing resolution is a case in point. What they cut is as telling as what they don't in these times of "shared sacrifice." The Republicans don't roll back tax cuts for the very wealthy and tax breaks for big corporations like the oil companies.

Instead the Republicans make draconian cuts that hurt the elderly and families and do nothing to create jobs. They cut student loans for working and middle-class parents trying to send their kids to college, do away with Meals on Wheels for elderly shut-ins, and lay off food-safety inspectors. The Republicans reduce the number of law enforcement officers, whack K-12 education, and kick low-income pre-schoolers out of Head Start.

The Republicans' spending plan also defunds the Affordable Care Act, which eliminates the worst health insurance company abuses and frees families, seniors and small businesses from crushing health care costs and devastating denials of care. The GOP attacks health services for women by defunding Title X and Planned Parenthood.

The Republican spending plan will even slow economic growth, according to independent experts. That means fewer jobs, not more. Now the Republicans are proposing a short-term funding extension that is just as bad as what they've proposed for the rest of the year. It is designed to create an impasse with the Senate and could force a government shutdown if they don't reach agreement by March 4.

Walker has created a crisis in Wisconsin by his extremism, and Boehner is willing to shut down the federal government over his. I know they're both more interested in pleasing the corporate lobbyists than the people they were elected to represent, but Walker and Boehner have really gone too far.

Ethan Rome - Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

Gov. Scott Walker's attack on Wisconsin's middle class and his plan to take away the rights of public service workers is wrong. It's certainly wrong for the governor to work for corporate special interests like the infamous Koch brothers instead of the people of Wisconsin. And his threat Tuesday of "dire consequences" was disingenuous and irresponsible, especially since his draconian attack on the freedom of employees to have a voice at work has nothing to do with balancing the state's budget.

It's time for the governor to stop fighting with public employees, put aside his partisan agenda and help Wisconsin move forward. The governor should work with the unions and both political parties and remember that this is not about winning a fight - it's about getting things done.

In Indiana, for example, that's what Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has decided to do. Ideologically, Daniels and Walker are kindred spirits, and the Indiana governor is no friend of workers. But Daniels decided this is not the right time to declare war on workers. According to the Indianapolis Star, Daniels signaled Tuesday that "Republicans should drop the right-to-work bill that has brought the Indiana House to a standstill for two days and imperiled other measures."

Wisconsin's governor has created an unnecessary impasse. Gov. Walker has driven 14 Democratic state senators into hiding because it's the only way they can force a pause in the legislative process. He is staring out his office window at unprecedented protests by thousands of Wisconsinites from all walks of life. Recent polls show the public is not on his side. Everyone understands that Gov. Walker's claims about the state budget are a pretext to take away peoples' rights and shrink Wisconsin's middle class. This is no way to lead a state. The governor should work across party lines to solve this problem so Wisconsin lawmakers can move on to other issues - including the budget for the coming fiscal year.

The governor could end this crisis if he's willing to work with the unions and both political parties. As we all know, this crisis is not about the money and never was. To the extent that Wisconsin has a budget deficit, it is a problem of the governor's own making, thanks to tax breaks he just gave to corporations. The workers have already agreed to Gov. Walker's requests for concessions on pension and health care. But the governor won't budge - he continues to put his ideological agenda ahead of the people of Wisconsin. That's just plain wrong and makes little sense as a practical matter.

The governor is needlessly alienating Wisconsin's workers. I understand why the governor attacked his own work force of public-service employees in his first six weeks in office. Taking away collective-bargaining rights from all workers is an important agenda item for the big corporations and the extremists in his own political party. But this plan has backfired. The middle-class families of his state are turning against the governor. Of course people are angry. Giving tax breaks to corporations and the super rich while taking away the rights, income and benefits of middle-class families isn't fair. No state can afford this kind of strife when budget crises make "shared sacrifice" the phrase of the day. Shared means shared.

Gov. Walker should move Wisconsin forward instead of pursuing his partisan political agenda. There's no room for political games in a fragile economy. There are tough problems to solve, and that can't happen when politicians are playing politics with people's lives. Politicians like Gov. Walker shouldn't be declaring war on the middle class to appease their corporate backers. They should not talk about making "tough" decisions to reduce the standard of living for working families at the same time they increase the wealth of billionaires like the Koch brothers.

A right-wing corporate cabal funded by the Kochs is applying growing pressure on Walker and all Republicans to attack unions. Tomorrow, the Koch-led front group Americans for Prosperity will begin a Wisconsin TV and radio ad campaign to promote this assault on workers.

Now we're seeing exactly the same attacks in states like Ohio. Until these governors and politicians ask the corporations and the very rich to pay their fair share, they have no business asking the rest of us for anything.

You can join the fight — www.wearewisconsin.org.

The battle of public employees for their rights in Wisconsin is about fairness, the preservation and expansion of the middle class and keeping the American Dream alive. In the face of a vicious Republican and corporate assault on the ability of workers to negotiate for a better life, Wisconsin's workers are fighting back. They're standing up for their right to collectively bargain and they're standing up for all of us.

The tenacity, courage and commitment of the protesters have been extraordinary. The community support the workers have received has been inspiring. The people of Wisconsin are making history by drawing a serious line in the sand against unbridled corporate power and Republican extremism.

Throughout our nation's history, workers and their unions have fought for better wages, benefits and scores of trailblazing workplace improvements. At the bargaining table, the ballot box, in the halls of Congress and wherever important policy decisions are made, unions have fought for greater opportunity and shared prosperity, for the real American dream (Rachel Maddow has a great segment about Wisconsin's labor history which you can watch here).

In the post World War II era, unionized jobs with good pay and decent health care and retirement benefits helped create and expand America's middle class. It was the promise of America: If you worked hard and played by the rules, you could get ahead. And your kids could do even better.

That promise — the American Dream — has been made possible by the strength of the American labor movement and the sacrifices of countless workers and their families.

Today, union membership is down, unemployment is up and the current generation of young people is the first in years to expect that they won't be as well off as their parents.

Enter Governor Scott Walker, Speaker of the U.S. House John Boehner, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republicans who want an America run by and for the big corporations. Their agenda is to downsize government to dangerous levels, dismantle the public programs that keep our families safe and make our communities strong, export our jobs overseas and do whatever it takes to increase corporate profits and concentrate the nation's wealth into fewer and fewer hands.

These politicians are owned and operated by a powerful cabal of corporations and billionaires like the infamous Koch Brothers, who fund many right-wing front groups such as FreedomWorks who sent people to Madison from across the country this weekend to stage counter-protests.

These politicians and organizations are part of a nationwide effort to take away collective bargaining. They're also trying to take away the important cost-saving benefits and consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act. They want to privatize Social Security and eliminate Medicare as we know it. The want a government that's small enough to starve the poor, shrink the middle class and eliminate small businesses and big enough to regulate who we can love and marry. They want a government that looks the other way when oil companies recklessly drill offshore and mining firms operate without regard for the health and safety of their workers. And they want a government with enough reach to tell a woman, her doctor and her family what to do about private health care decisions.

We have a different vision of the world. As Paul Wellstone would often say, "We all do better when we all do better." We believe that work should be rewarded and workers treated with dignity and respect. We believe in an America where there is opportunity for everyone to achieve their potential and have fulfilling lives, including a secure retirement. We also believe in a robust government that does things we can't do ourselves to improve our collective quality of life. We believe in pitching in and helping each other out. The Republicans and their corporate sponsors believe in every man for himself — the "you're on your own" theory of government and life.

We also believe in unions. As Bob Creamer says in his very fine piece on this struggle, the right to form a union is "an American value." He adds, "The right to form a union is critical to a democratic society because it is the only way to assure that employers do not treat their employees as commodities."

Ground Zero

It's these different visions that the battle in Wisconsin is about, beginning with worker's most basic rights. That's why teachers, correction officers, firefighters, nurses, administrative assistants, sanitation workers, social workers and so many others have banded together like never before. As AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee has said, Wisconsin is "ground zero" for the rights of public employees to unionize.

"If they succeed in Wisconsin, the birthplace of A.F.S.C.M.E., they will be emboldened to attack workers' rights in every state," McEntee says.

As we all know by now, the fight in Wisconsin is not about the money. To the extent that Wisconsin has a budget deficit, it is a problem of the Governor's own making, thanks to tax breaks he just gave to corporations. In fact, the workers have already indicated their willingness to negotiate over legitimate budget issues. Meanwhile, the Governor won't budge — he continues to choose his ideological agenda over the people of Wisconsin.

As the New York Times explains, "In a year when governors across the country are competing to show who's toughest, no matter what the consequences, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin stands out as the first to bring his State Capitol to a halt." The paper continues, "Like many governors, he wants to cut the benefits of state workers. But he also decided a budget crisis was a good time to advance an ideological goal dear to his fellow Republicans: eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employees."

The Governor's plan is to take away nearly all of the collective bargaining rights of public employees, which would have no impact on the state budget. They would be barred from bargaining about anything except wages, and any pay increase they win would be limited by the consumer price index. Contracts would be limited to a year, and union dues could no longer be deducted from paychecks.

As President Obama noted, with considerable understatement on Wednesday, Walker's proposal "seems like an assault on unions."

At the center of the battle in Wisconsin are AFSCME, SEIU, the teachers (AFT and NEA), the AFL-CIO and many other labor and community organizations. These are the same groups — along with dozens of community, civil rights and faith groups and other unions such as the CWA, UAW and UFCW — that have also been key players in the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and its grassroots campaign to win (and now promote and defend) the new health care law. Without the power of labor — without the coalition of labor and community groups - we never would won the health care law (labor has also been central to many other victories over the last two years, beginning with the election of President Barack Obama).

"We Stood Up Straight" — The Memphis Strike

AFSCME is not unfamiliar with tough fights where the whole world was watching. In 1968, the sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, famously went on strike for better wages, benefits and working conditions and to get Mayor Loeb to recognize their union, AFSCME Local 1733. On April 3, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, the last formal remarks he would give before being assassinated the next day. He was in Memphis that night to support the strikers, who had walked off the job 51 days earlier.

Taylor Rogers was one of the strikers. During the nearly 10 years I worked at AFSCME, I had the honor of working with Mr. Rogers at events where he told the story of the strike. Just like Wisconsin's protesters, the Memphis workers went on strike for all of us.

One of Rogers' recollections of the strike is captured in a 2002 article in AFSCME's national magazine.

Rogers remembers the Memphis organizing events as if they happened yesterday. In 1964, Rogers and his co-workers figured that if they had to pick up other people's garbage, they were going to be respected for doing it. So they began to organize.

In those segregated times, African Americans in the South who stood up and demanded justice were ridiculed and harassed. Mayor Henry Loeb and the city council, with the backing of the white community, ignored the workers' union representation with AFSCME.

In February 1968, a crisis erupted: The accidental activation of a packer blade in the back of a garbage truck fatally crushed workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker. "That's when the men said, 'We're tired and we ain't going to take anymore,'" recalls Rogers. "If you bend your back, people can ride it. But if you stand up straight, people can't ride your back. And that's what we did.

"We stood up straight."

The workers in Wisconsin are standing up straight in a big way. Let us all stand with them. There are lots of web pages where you can go to get updates and help. Here's one: www.wearewisconsin.org.

by Ethan Rome - Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

The House Republicans seem to be saying yes. Apparently, taking away women's access to reproductive health services is an important way to create jobs and get the economy moving again.

That may explain the urgency of Rep. Mike Pence's disgraceful legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and other providers by stripping them of Title X family-planning funding, since creating jobs is the stated priority of the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans also want to take away the new cost-savings and consumer protections in the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, because this too will apparently create jobs. This is the same GOP that wants to undermine the new law, including re-opening the abortion compromise that unambiguously maintained the prohibition against federal funds paying for abortions. This is all so important to the Republicans that they made one of the bills relating to this issue H.R. 3, among the very first taken up by the House in the 112th Congress. No wonder people are asking Speaker John Boehner, "When are the jobs?"

The GOP is gripped by two obsessions - rolling back the clock on women's health services and giving control of our health care back to the insurance companies. They want to take us back to the days when insurance companies could deny your care because you have a "pre-existing condition," drop you for getting sick and jack up your rates whenever they feel like it. They want to return to the time when being a woman was a pre-existing condition. They want to entirely eliminate family planning funds. When it comes to health care in general and women's health in particular, the Republicans don't have a legislative agenda to move forward - just a fixation on tearing things down and moving backwards.

Meanwhile, the Republicans aren't doing a single thing to create jobs. They're too busy trying to put the insurance companies back in charge of our health care. They're too busy going after vital health care institutions like Planned Parenthood. They're too busy trying to get between a woman and her doctor. That is especially galling because the insurance companies have made decisions about our health care for decades. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, those days are over. Now the House Republicans want to be the ones making those decisions for women. This is nothing short of a war on women and their health care. And it's happening in state capitals as well as Washington, D.C.

This hypocrisy is extreme, even by the standards the Republicans have set since taking control of the House. Take Speaker Boehner's less-than-authentic comments on the matter of the President's religion and birthplace. He has said again and again that he doesn't want to tell the American people "what to think" - or tell members of his own caucus to stop lying about these basic matters of fact. The Speaker's line is offensive - a transparent wink and a nod to those who continue spreading lies about President Obama to intentionally stoke the flames of the far right.

If Boehner is not willing to "tell people what to think" about something so important and basic as the legitimacy of the president of the United States, why is it okay to tell women and their doctors what to do?

Seriously, enough already.

Below are great reports from HCAN State Partners' anti-repeal events that took place January 18th and 19th leading up to the vote in congress.  HCAN's state partners never fail to impress.  These activities are generating a buzz and making headlines all over the place.  Thanks to everyone for organizing these events on short notice and despite inconvenience and delay.  Clips from events that took place in the following states are included below: Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

CONNECTICUT

Below is a photo from our event in Connecticut organized by HCAN Partner Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG)

FLORIDA

Orlando–Report from HCAN Partner Organize Now

Orlando event targeting Webster had nearly 30 people in attendance from Organize Now, AFSCME, FLARA, FL Chain, JWJ, OFA and more. Fox 35 and Channel 13 both attended the event in front of the local Chamber of Commerce. Speakers included 2 folks who had benefited from health care reform and organizational speakers. At the end of the press conference everyone started calling Webster's office. His office was clearly concerned about the immediate calls and asked folks why they were all calling at once-was it on tv or an email or radio. Calls continued throughout the day.

Tampa-Report from HCAN Partner FCAN

Event coverage here: The Ledger: Residents Ask Ross to Support Health Care

MAINE

Report from HCAN Partner Maine People's Alliance

We had a good turnout in the snow to rally in support of the Affordable Care Act. The “Rally to Save Healthcare” asked our new Governor and Attorney General to stop wasting our time and money by signing on to repeal our care, thanking  Representatives Pingree and Michaud for their support of the ACA, and asking our state legislature to work towards implementation that will cover the most Maine people possible.

Watch video here: Rally to Save health Care

Media Coverage so far:

Maine Health Reform Supporters Rally Against Repeal

Non-profits rally in favor of health care law

AP: Maine rally held to support nat'l health care law

MICHIGAN

Report from Michigan Citizen Action

Around 40 people prayed outside of Congressman Upton's office.  10 personal letters delivered to Ed Sackely, District Director.  Because of new security, letters and people met with Ed one-by-one.  Kalamazoo Gazette article in the link below.  Linda did WMUK interview from 7:33 - 7:40.

Watch video from the event here

Health-care reform supporters hold vigil outside U.S. Rep. Fred Upton's office on eve of House vote

MINNESOTA

Report from HCAN Partner Take Action Minnesota

Our MOC letter attached and we placed the following Op-Ed in the press today, by TakeAction board member. Thank you Liz Doyle

MinnPost- Republicans have it backwards on the jobs effect of health-care reform

NEVADA

Report from HCAN Partner PLAN

The Heckuva Deal Donut Hole bake sale went well. Several volunteers from PLAN, Americans United, and our coalition partners spoke to over 150 senior citizens at the Flamingo Senior Center in Joe Heck’s district (pic attached). Not one senior wanted to buy back their donut hole for $250 but we did give away 6 dozen donut holes along with handouts on ACA repeal targeted to seniors. We also logged 42 calls to Heck’s office made through the cell phones we brought to the event.

Additionally, we sent out action alerts statewide as did several of our coalition partners (Americans United, ProgressNow, and the SEIU) and will continue phone banking and mobilizations today.

The press was only radio phoned-in interview and mention on noon hour news (waiting for clips to become available), with a couple of outlets interested in doing a follow up story after the vote happens.

NORTH DAKOTA

Report from HCAN Partner NDPeople.org

State Capitol news conference challenging new Rep. Rick Berg on the repeal of ACA yesterday. Speakers did great! Media were the two TV stations (NBC and CBS) and North Dakota Public Radio. The reporter, from Forum Communications which has four daily papers and a bunch of TV stations, asked for the news release.

OHIO

Report from HCAN Partner Progress Ohio

Marianne Steger, from AFSCME Ohio Council 8 speaks to Steve Cheek, Staff Assistant, for Congressman Steve Stivers in the lobby of his district office.

Ohio Health Care Coalition Deliver Petitions To Ohio Congressional District Offices

ProgressOhio Community Blog:

By Denise Gastesi on January 19, 2011 9:49

Ohio Consumers Ask Congressmen Stivers To Side With Hard-Working Families, Not Big Insurance Companies

Tuesday, a delegation of leaders from various groups which are part of an Ohio Coalition of Health Care For America Now (HCAN), and constituents which led the national fight to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA), delivered petitions to Congressman Stivers district office in Columbus to discuss his position on repealing the new law, which protects consumers from the worst insurance company abuses.

A Health Care Reform Repeal Bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would eliminate provisions of the new law that are already benefiting consumers in the 15th Congressional District, effectively taking away no-cost preventive care for 77,000 seniors in Medicare, and 65,500 young adults would lose their insurance coverage through their parents' health plans sometimes just after they finish school and as they are looking for a job.

With the Health Care Repeal bill expected to be voted on in Congress this week, simular events are being held in Ohio at other congressional district offices. Constituents delivered petitions to Speaker Boehner's office in West Chester Tuesday and groups are organizing constuents to meet at Fountain Square today to deliver petitions to Rep. Steve Chabot's Office in Cincinnati today.

Online petitions were also sent to Rep. Renacci's office in the 16th Congressional District as well as to Rep. Johnson in OH-8.

OCHC Statehouse Press Conference 1-19-2011

Some of the stories in the press conference below, came from the ProgressOhio e-mail that was sent out asking for health care stories.

OREGON

Report from HCAN Partner Oregon Action

We had a great action today in Medford, OR.  We had 40 folks at the Medford Library for a press/ community education rally.  Speaker included leaders from SEIU, Rev Bill McDonald from the faith community and Oregon Action and 3 stories from people effected by repeal.  There were 3 tv stations ( KOBI, KTVL and KDRV).  Additionally we had a story in the Mail Tribune announcing the event yesterday Jan 18.  There we two pre stories on KOBI which included a wonderful 5 minute interview with Michelle Glass, young Oregon Action leader. Everyone signed a letter to Rep Greg Walden and we announced our next HCAN meeting for Feb 22.

We had a lot of spirit and willingness to continue to be an organized force for health care progress.

PENNSYLVANIA

From HCAN partners PUP, Action United and Penn Action

Coverage from Tuesday's PA Events:

Post Gazette: Vote expected today on health care repeal

The Tribune-Democrat: Critz, Shuster split on health care

Public News Service: PA Mom Testifies about Healthcare Reform in D.C. Today

Lebanon Event

Here is the report from the event in Lebanon. We had about 20 people attend. We had Jake Long regional co director from the Harrisburg Labor Council Speak, Rev Dan Donomoyer and Bobbie Warshaw a Medicaid recipient talked about the benefits she received. There was also TV there and we are still looking for the link.

Lebanon Daily News - Ralliers: No to health care repeal

Scranton, PA Event

Lackawanna County Courthouse, Scranton PA

In addition to these events, Penn Action recruited Stacie Ritter, a woman with twins who have a pre-existing condition, to come to DC and be part of Speaker Pelosi's hearing to highlight people impacted by ACA repeal.  Stacie got great coverage all over the country including the story below.

Public News Service-PA

January 18, 2011

PA Mom Testifies about Healthcare Reform in D.C. Today

LANCASTER, Penn. - A Pennsylvania woman whose family was driven to bankruptcy after her twin four-year-old daughters were diagnosed with leukemia, is testifying on Capitol Hill today (Tuesday). Staci Ritter says thw girls' medical treatment has been very costly, and the bills piled up when an insurance company refused to pay for some of it.

As the U.S. House of Representatives gears up to vote on whether to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, Ritter's message to lawmakers is that needs to remain intact – to protect families like hers, who are dealing with catastrophic illnesses.

"I'm afraid that if they repeal the mandate, that will enable insurers to be able to deny children – like mine, who have pre-existing conditions – health care."

Ritter says the family's situation became more serious after her husband's company signed on with a new insurance carrier, and problems emerged with their daughters' coverage.

"My children are expensive. Anybody with a pre-existing condition is a liability, they'll openly admit it – so, what do we do to protect these people?"

Ritter says she's fearful of a repeal of health care reform, not just because of the impact it could have on her daughters today.

"Each time they pick away at it, they take away something that's protecting my children and their future; protecting them from discrimination, protecting them from being able to afford insurance to begin with."

She will testify before the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, part of the House Democratic Caucus. Her story turns out better than some, but Ritter says that's only because she went after the insurance company publicly and was able to come to a settlement. Recently, several lawmakers who favor repealing the Affordable Care Act, including new House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), released a report entitled "ObamaCare: Budget Busting, Job-Killing Health Care Law."

TENNESSEE

Report Back from Tennessee Citizen Action

State Capitol Rally To Fight Repeal Of Health Care Reform (WTVF News channel 5)

Middle Tenn. voices heard on health care repeal (WKRN News 2)

Tennessee Report: TNCA Urges Abandonment of Federal Health Care Law Repeal & Resistance Efforts

Tennessee Report: Reform v. Repeal; Mary & Co v. Mae & Co

Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee health care reform backers cite benefits - Urge lawmakers to leave federal plan alone

WASHINGTON

Report from WA MSA

Coverage of Main Street Alliance members in the Vancouver Columbian yesterday.

Health care debate regains center stage - Herrera Beutler supports GOP repeal push

By Howard Buck Columbian Staff Reporter

Originally published January 18, 2011 at 4:23 p.m., updated January 18, 2011 at 7:25 p.m.

Photo by Steven Lane

WEST VIRGINIA

Report from West Virginia Citizen Action Group

WVCAG and partners held a 2PM press conference at the state capitol ahead of the vote to repeal ACA. Press covering the event were: TV 13 (CBS); WV News Service (radio); Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail (print)

Speakers were:

Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action Group
Perry Bryant, WV for Affordable Health Care
WV Senator Dr. Ron Stollings, Chair HHR Committee
WV Senator Dr. Dan Foster, member HHR Committee
Renate Pore, WV Center On Budget & Policy

WISCONSIN

Report from HCAN Partner Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Press from "No Repeal" action at Rep. Paul Ryan's office, 1/18:

WDJT TV 58 (CBS) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Wisconsin Joins Health Care Reform Fight

WISN TV 12 (ABC) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Interview with Brian Rothgery on repeal action at Paul Ryan's office (no link available)

WTMJ TV 4 (NBC) Milwaukee (January 18, 2011) Health Care Rally Outside Rep. Ryan's Office

Wisconsin Radio Network (January 18,  2011) Rallying against repeal

WRJN Radio 1400 AM Racine (January 18, 2011) 4:05 PM news break (podcast)

Racine Journal-Times (January 18, 2011) Protest outside Paul Ryan's office

Photos from Racine Journal Times picked up by AP:

Atlanta Journal Constitution (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

Deseret News (Salt Lake City) (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

The Republic (Columbus, IN) (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

Christian Science Monitor (January 18,  2011) Health-care reform: How Democrats plan to crash House GOP's repeal party

Arizona Daily Star (January 18, 2011) Bid to repeal health law goes on, but with civil tone

News Times (Danbury, CT) (January 18, 2011)

MySanAntonio.com (January 18, 2011) Congress tones down the rhetoric after shootings

WASHINGTON, DC

Rally & Visibility Outside the Capitol yesterday.

Stacie Ritter's story was told in about 60 television markets across the country yesterday thanks mostly to NBC affiliates that picked up a Washington report on the event.

Stacie and her daughters are shown above testifying that repeal would mean her daughters would be at risk of losing their health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Several stations ran the story more than once.

The HMO and insurance industries have spent a breathtaking $768,864,642 since 2007 on federal lobbying to influence public policy and elected officials, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics and reviewed by Health Care for America Now. In 2010 they have not let up, despite passage of the new health reform law. They’re now trying to undermine the law with intense pressure on state officials to water down the federal provisions and interfere with their implementation.

As we all know, the insurance industry mounted a massive campaign to defeat health care reform and maintain their stranglehold on our health care. But after they lost, they turned their attention to undermining the new law so they can continue their obscene profiteering, their unconscionable denials of care and their shameless practice of giving CEOs jaw-dropping pay packages.

The top five companies reported a record $12.2 billion in net earnings last year. That’s huge. And the top executives at 10 for-profit companies have pocketed nearly $1 billion in compensation in the last 10 years. That’s staggeringly huge. As a group they received a 167 percent pay raise in 2009 while average American workers saw wages grow about 2 percent. That’s offensively indefensible.

Led by the Washington-based trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, the $892 billion-a-year health insurance industry laundered $20 million through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this year to blanket the airwaves with anti-reform TV ads. The Chamber has since announced a $75 million campaign against pro-reform members of Congress running for re-election in November. Insurance companies also are considering spending another $20 million to create their own front group to attack reform supporters and elect pro-industry lawmakers.

The insurance companies are now coordinating a lobbying assault on regulators. Activists are fighting back and we can all help.

This weekend, more than 1,000 insurance lobbyists and executives are expected to converge in Seattle to pressure the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to undercut important new rules intended to control costs and make health insurance more affordable for families and businesses. The new health reform law includes a provision (medical-loss ratio) that requires insurance companies to spend on patient care at least 80 percent of health plan premiums collected from individuals and small employers and 85 percent of premiums paid by large employers. The insurance companies are trying to protect their profits and divert premium dollars away from patient care by having non-medical costs, such as lobbying, profits, executive pay and administration, defined as “medical” under this new regulation.

The insurance lobbyists will be met by scores of activists, because the stakes in this fight are high. Simply put, the battle over the medical-loss ratio is the new health care reform fight, and if the health insurance companies win, we lose. If they win, they’ll be able to deny people needed care and call the administrative costs of that denial “medical care” under the new law.

In a powerful letter to the NAIC president in July, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, urged the insurance commissioners not to succumb to the pressure applied by the industry.

“It is clear that health insurance companies are sparing no expense to weaken this new law and the protection it promises to America’s consumers,” Rockefeller said. “Health insurance companies and their allies have been furiously lobbying the NAIC to write the medical-loss ratio definitions in a way that will allow them to continue doing business as they did before the passage of health reform. The resources health insurance companies are throwing into their effort to weaken the medical-loss ratio appear almost limitless.”

Unlike federal lobbying disclosure rules, health insurance companies aren’t required to reveal what they are spending to influence state insurance commissioners, but the numbers are high. In New York alone, the health insurance industry has spent $10,602,387 on lobbying since 2007, according to an HCAN review of data maintained by the New York State Commission on Public Integrity. No figures are readily available on how much money health insurers spend on lobbying in 49 other state capitals.

This gap in reporting is troubling because this lobbying assault on the NAIC is new. This category of state officials—insurance commissioners—has never been subjected to a nationally coordinated pressure campaign to use their state authority to block implementation of consumer protections enacted by Congress. The NAIC is due to make its recommendations soon—perhaps even this weekend—to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.

That’s why these massive lobbying expenditures must be disclosed. The public has a right to know how much the insurance companies are spending to protect their excessive profits and outrageous CEO pay by changing the intent of the medical-loss ratio established by Congress.

The health insurance industry wants to expand the definition of allowable medical expenses to include costs that are not directly related to the delivery of care and have not historically been classified as medical. Instead of reducing costs and improving the efficiency of their operations, they simply want to change how certain expenses are classified so they don’t really have to alter business practices. Already, WellPoint, the nation’s largest private health insurance company by enrollment and operator of Blue Cross plans in 14 states, has reclassified $500 million in administrative costs as medical expenses. The amount of money riding on the outcome of this battle is huge. If the new law had been on the books in 2009, the six largest for-profit health insurance companies would have been required to refund $1.9 billion for that year alone.

The medical-loss ratio standards in the Affordable Care Act are critical to curbing the worst of the health insurance industry’s consumer abuses, controlling rising premium costs, increasing the value of premiums paid by private and public customers, and reining in the profiteering of health insurance companies. If the lobbyists are thwarted and rules governing medical-loss ratios, rate review and other consumer protections are implemented as intended, the health reform law will hold accountable an industry that abuses millions of customers when they need health benefits the most.

We can all join the fight to hold the insurance industry accountable by demanding that they disclose how much they spend to lobby the NAIC and other state officials. Their unbridled efforts to protect the status quo must be stopped.

There's a new fight around health insurance reform and if the insurance companies win, we lose. If the $892-billion health insurance industry wins this battle, they'll be able to deny people needed care and call the administrative costs of that denial "medical care" under the new health care law.

I'm talking about the fight over the so-called "medical-loss ratio." The insurance companies are pressuring state insurance regulators to undermine a key provision of the law to protect their excessive profits. They want to gut the federal requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care in the individual and small-group markets and 85 percent in the large-group market, or rebate the difference to consumers. The industry is determined to undercut the new law and hold onto its ability to rip off families and employers. They want to continue their long-time practice of spending low percentages of premium revenue on actual medical care in certain states and for certain customers.

If the new law had been on the books in 2009, the six largest for-profit health insurance companies would have been required to refund $1.9 billion for that year alone, according to a Wall Street analyst. Despite the industry's whining, this rebate would have represented only a fraction of their massive profits. The top five for-profit health insurers alone recorded $12.2 billion in profits in 2009.

The definition of "medical care" is at the core of this fight. The law sets a minimum for how much of each premium dollar insurance companies must spend on actual health care. So they want to change the definition of "medical care" to include things that aren't medical care and that have never been considered as such. And the insurance companies are shameless in just how far they will go. They really are trying to have "underwriting," the process by which sick people are weeded out of eligibility for coverage, defined as a medical expense! Along with claims processing, call centers and other expenses that aren't about the actual delivery of care.

This is why we must implement and enforce the new law as it was intended - to hold the insurance industry accountable, stop the worst of their abuses and rein in skyrocketing costs.

Naturally, the insurance companies are doing everything they can to undercut the law by attempting to change the very definition of "medical care" so they can feed their insatiable greed. As Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia said in a hard-hitting, fact-filled letter to the President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the insurance industry is "sparing no expense to weaken this new law and the protection it promises to America's consumers." The Senator described the insurance industry's effort to influence the NAIC, the organization charged with making detailed recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the definitions of medical-loss ratios and other key regulations.

Today HCAN released a comprehensive report on this issue with Senator Al Franken of Minnesota and Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, along with members of the Main Street Alliance, a network of state-based small businesses. The report shines a light on the accounting tricks the insurance companies want to play to game the medical-loss ratio system, and it exposes their lobbying offensive to protect the status quo and undermine this part of the law before it even takes effect.

Thankfully, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama Administration are aggressively implementing the insurance accountability provisions in the new law.

It all comes down to this: Insurers want to use this regulatory fight to take back control of our health care, and we can't let them succeed. We think things like going to the doctor should be considered medical care, and marketing and denying care should not. We don't think that insurance companies should count the cost of stacking and counting their profits as part of your "medical care." That's why a seemingly arcane debate over the definition of the medical-loss ratio is so important.

We all need to fight back. You can go to the HCAN website and take action today.