Health Care For America Now

Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) is trying to radically change abortion law in this country today.

A central promise of health care reform is that if you like the health care coverage you have, you can keep it. Today in America, millions of women who buy health care on their own or who get it through the small business employer have abortion care coverage. Congressman Stupak's amendment would strip them of that coverage, breaking that central promise.

Stupak wants to outlaw abortion coverage in the new health insurance Exchange, where individuals and small businesses will purchase their coverage. Instead, women would only be able to purchase abortion coverage in a "abortion rider" plan - a single-service plan that covers abortion only. Such an "abortion rider" is discriminatory and illogical. Women do not plan to have unintended pregnancies (or pregnancies in which a complication will arise that will require ending the pregnancy). In fact, about half of all pregnancies are unintended. Abortion is simply not something that women plan to insure against.

Put simply, the Stupak amendment is a dramatic departure from current law which would restrict a women's right to choose. What's more, it would put an unprecedented restriction on people who pay for their own health insurance.

There is already a compromise in the House health care bill that reflects current law on the subject. The current bill prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion but still allows women to use their own money to buy the coverage they need.

This isn't good enough from Stupak, or, apparently, for the Members of Congress considering voting for this amendment. Below is a list of Representatives that need to hear from you today about this issue. If you live in their district, pick up the phone now and give them a call. This amendment will be voted on today, so time is of the essence.

Click here to call, or use the phone numbers below:

Leans pro-choice but needs shoring up

Arcuri (D, NY-24) - 202-225-3665
Bean (D, IL-08) - (202) 225-3711
Bishop, S. (D, GA-02) - (202) 225-2203
Boswell (D, IA-03) - (202) 225-3806
Butterfield (D, NC-01) - (202) 225-3101
Cardoza (D, CA-18) - (202) 225-6131
Chandler (D, KY-06) - (202) 225-4706
Cooper (D, TN-05) - 202-225-4311
Costa (D, CA-20) - 202-225-3341
Doyle (D, PA-14) - 202-225-2135
Edwards, C. (D, TX-17) - 202-225-6105
Etheridge (D, NC-02) - (202) 225-4531
Gordon (D, TN-06) - (202) 225-4231
Kratovil (D, MD-01) - (202) 225-5311
Langevin (D, RI-02) - (202) 225-2735
McMahon (D, NY-13) - (202) 225-3371
Michaud (D, ME-02) - 202-225-6306
Minnick (D, ID-01) - (202) 225-6611
Neal (D, MA-02) - (202) 225-5601
Nye (D, VA-02) - (202) 225-4215
Obey (D, WI-07) - (202) 225-3365
Owens (D, NY-23) - (202) 225-4611
Ruppersberger (D, MD-02) - 202-225-3061
Ryan, T. (D, OH-17) - 202-225-5261
Salazar (D, CO-03) - 202-225-4761
Space (D, OH-18) - (202) 225-6265

Unknown

Biggert (R, IL-13) - 202-225-3515
Carney (D, PA-10) - (202) 225-3731
Castle (R, DE-AL) - 202.225.4165
Cuellar (D, TX-28) - 202-225-1640
Davis, A. (D, AL-07) - (202) 225-2665
Dent (R, PA-15) - 202-225-6411
Ellsworth (D, IN-08) - (202) 225-4636
Frelinghuysen (R, NJ-11) - (202) 225-5034
Kirk (R, IL-10) - 202-225-4835
Lynch (D, MA-09) - 202-225-8273
Pomeroy (D, ND-AL) - (202) 225-2611
Snyder (D, AR-02) - (202) 225-2506
Tanner (D, TN-08) - (202) 225-4714
Visclosky (D, IN-01) - (202) 225-2461

Leaning anti-choice

Altmire (D, PA-04) - 202-225-2565
Barrow (D, GA-12) - (202) 225-2823
Berry (D, AR-01) - (202) 225-4076
Boccieri (D, OH-16) - (202) 225-3876
Bright (D, AL-02) - (202) 225-2901
Capito (R, WV-02) - 202.225.2711
Donnelly (D, IN-02) - (202) 225-3915
Hill (D, IN-09) - (202) 225-5315
Jenkins (R, KS-02) - (202) 225-6601
Kildee (D, MI-05) - 202-225-3611
Lance (R, NJ-07) - (202) 225-5361
Lee, C. (R, NY-26) - (202) 225-5265
Matheson (D, UT-02) - (202) 225-3011
Mollohan (D, WV-01) - (202) 225-4172
Ortiz (D, TX-27) - (202) 225-7742
Paulsen (R, MN-03) - (202) 225-2871
Perriello (D, VA-05) - (202) 225-4711
Rahall (D, WV-03) - (202) 225-3452
Ross (D, AR-04) - (202) 225-3772
Spratt (D, SC-05) - (202) 225-5501
Wilson, C. (D, OH-06) - (202) 225-5705

The House will likely vote on their health reform bill tomorrow evening. This will be the first time in our country's history that a full House of Congress has considered and passed a comprehensive health care bill.

To refresh your memory, the bill being considered in the House:

• Creates an Exchange where individuals and small businesses can purchase health care
• Gives tax credits to those in the Exchange to help them afford coverage
• Includes a national public health insurance option in the Exchange to keep the insurance industry honest and lower prices
• Strengthens employer-based coverage and asks employers to provide good coverage for their employees
• Regulates all insurance plans to outlaw denials for pre-existing conditions, charging more if you're a woman, and a host of other bad practices
• Strengthens Medicare and fully closes the Medicare Part D donut hole over time
• Provides access to coverage for those uninsured in the interim before the entire program is up and running

For more information, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has an interactive map that will show you how this bill will affect you.

Actors Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing, who have a bit of "experience" with politics, have a message for health reform supporters today:

Click here to call your Representative and urge them to vote YES on this historic occasion.

When it comes to health care, women really feel the pain. According the National Womens' Law Center, women are denied fair health care every day:

Being a woman is not a pre-existing condition.

But, as NWLC uncovered in our groundbreaking report, women are regularly denied coverage for "pre-existing conditions" including pregnancy, a previous C-Section or past domestic abuse. Insurance companies charge women as much as 48% more for individual health care coverage than men. And it is expensive, difficult and in some states impossible for women to find coverage for maternity care when purchasing their own health insurance plan.

The depths to which insurance companies will sink to deny women health care are almost unfathomable. Today a woman testified before the Senate because she was denied health insurance as a result of a c-section — unless she wanted to permanently sterilize herself:

Today, at Sen. Mikulski's HELP Committee hearing "What Women Want: Equal Benefits for Equal Premiums," we met Peggy Robertson. Peggy is a mother of two young boys, living in Colorado with her husband. Over the past few years, Peggy and her family have faced not one but two shocking cases of insurance company abuse. First, in 2007, Peggy was denied coverage by Golden Rule insurance, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (the largest insurance company in the US), because of a previous c-section birth. What happened next is shocking (Sen. Mikulski called it "bone-chilling" and "morally repugnant"): Golden Rule said they would cover Peggy if she agreed to be sterilized. Watch the video of her story on the SEIU Blog.

It's time to end these outrageous practices once and for all. I am sick of it. For a clearinghouse of all things health care and women go to "Women and Health Care Reform" and take action today.

Six people were arrested in Minneapolis yesterday. Their crime? Interrupting UnitedHealth's "business as usual."

Reverend Grant Stevenson normally delivers his sermon at St. Mathew's Lutheran Church in St. Paul. This morning, he preached to more than 100 people in front of UnitedHealth, the nation's largest private health insurer. His topic had roots deep in the bible and social justice. "If they (UnitedHealth) win, the people who you care about, the people standing here, the people who you want to have health care will lose. "We need to send a message that it is not OK to profit on other people's misery. It is not OK to profit on other people's despair. It is not OK to profit when other people are living in fear and anxiety and not knowing they're actually going to get the basic care that they're going to need."

Protesters carried small green signs with names of people who had died or were suffering because they could not afford or were refused health care insurance. Six people sat down in the doorway of UnitedHealth and refused to move. Police warned the six and then arrested them.

Watch:

And just what is that business as usual?

It's denying care your doctor says you need. It's paying employees bonuses for denying more care [pdf]. It's making 2.9 billion dollars last year [pdf], money made by denying care. And it's using premiums - money paid by you and me so we can get the care we need when we need it - to lobby Congress against health care reform and against a public health insurance option that will force UnitedHealth to finally play by the rules.

UnitedHealth - and all health insurance companies - takes your money. They deny you the care you paid for. And because of our broken system, 45,000 die each year.

Who's the criminal in this situation, the people who blocked UnitedHealth's "business as usual," or UnitedHealth?

Around the country today, thousands of people are declaring health insurance offices a crime scene. I've taken the liberty to wrap UnitedHealth's website in crime scene tape, to drive the point home. (You can check out WellPoint's, CIGNA's, or AHIP's as well.)

While folks are out in the streets, putting their liberty on the line for this cause, can you pick up the phone and call your Senators? Tell them that its a crime when insurance companies deny our care, and that we need the provisions in the Senate HELP bill to make sure that we end up with a Senate health care bill that requires employers to pay their fair share for health care, that makes health care truly affordable for all Americans, and gives us all the choice of a public health insurance option.

Call your Senators right now at 1-877-264-4226.

Because this crime cannot continue.

Some final photos of real people around the country real pissed off at their insurance companies for denying their care, incentivizing employees to deny more care, and using our premiums to lobby Congress in opposition of health care reform and a public health insurance option.

In a phrase: They're sick of it!

In Palm Beach, FL:

In Washington:

America is sick of big insurance. With over 100 protests against insurance companies yesterday, that message is clear. And it's not just people in the "blue" states. Roughly from west to east, here's what America thinks of insurance companies.

Press in San Francisco:

Protests against Blue Cross in New Mexico:

Rallies against Blue Cross in Fargo, North Dakota:

Today, people stood up and said they're sick of big insurance. They're sick of denied claims. They're sick of discriminatory practices. And they're sick of their premiums being used to lobby against reform and pad the pockets of health insurance executives who care nothing about their health, only the next quarter's stock price.

In West Virginia, a crowd gathered outside of Coventry's office:

In New Hampshire, more ordinary people protested Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield's bad practices like denying care for pre-existing conditions and using our premiums to pay for lobbyists intent on killing health care reform and a public health insurance option:

In Chicago, more people came out to protest Blue Cross:

Last night, Health Care for America Now sent a text message to our supporters, asking for their predictions and reactions to Obama's speech. Here's a few we got back:

New Jersey:

I VOTED FOR CHANGE AND THAT INCLUDES HEALTHCARE INSURANCE REFORM. DO NOT LET THE GOP WIN!

Ohio:

THANK YOU MR. OBAMA. IT'S ABOUT TIME OUR COUNTRY HAS A LEADER THAT ISN'T AFRAID TO TELL IT LIKE IT IS! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

Washington:

GET THOSE CONGRESSMEN AND WOMEN TO GET SOME GUTS AND PASS THIS HEALTH BILL WITHOUT ALL THE BIPARTISAN STUFF.

Texas:

PLEASE DONT GIVE UP ON THE PUBLIC OPTION…

California:

CORRAL THE WAGONS, YOU'RE WITH ME OR AGAINST. HALLELUJAH!!!

Washington:

THIS IS THE OBAMA I VOTED FOR!  GREAT TO SEE HIM BACK ON HIS GAME.

Senator Kennedy's legacy cannot be defined within one issue, no matter how important. But it would not be an understatement to say that his life's work revolved around health care for all. He said so himself, calling it "the cause of [his] life" in a passionate Newsweek op-ed published just last month.

True to form, Kennedy turned his passion into real results. The list of health care legislative accomplishments he was part of is stunning. From the website set up by his family dedicated in his honor:

• In 1966, Kennedy helped establish the community health center model in the United States. Community health centers are now serving 20 million low-income Americans around the country.
• In 1985, Kennedy led the fight to enact COBRA, giving workers the ability to purchase health care through their employer after they have been let go from their job.
• In 1996, Kennedy co-sponsored HIPPAA, which now ensures access to health care coverage for an estimated 25 million Americans who move from one job to another, are self-employed or have pre-existing medical conditions.
• In 1997, Kennedy was instrumental in passing the CHIP program that gives health care to millions of children.
• In 2006, Kennedy passed the Family Opportunity Act, which provides states with the opportunity to expand Medicaid coverage to children with special needs, giving low- and middle-income families with disabled children the opportunity to purchase health coverage under Medicaid.
• From 1997-2008, Kennedy helped grant Massachusetts the Medicaid waivers it needed to pass its state health care reform plan.
• In 2008, Kennedy enacted legislation to reform the inequities in the way mental health and substance use disorders are treated by the insurance industry, a 10 year battle.
• And finally, in 2009 under his leadership and the leadership of his close friend, Senator Chris Dodd, Kennedy passed the Affordable Health Choices Act - which would give everyone in America a guarantee of quality, affordable health care - through the Senate committee he chaired, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The bill awaits a vote by the Senate as the health reform process moves forward.

Senator Kennedy's towering vision for health care was built on his numerous accomplishments. While there is sadness in knowing Senator Kennedy won't be with us to see his life's work completed, we will keep him in our thoughts as our fight continues and we finally achieve quality, affordable health care for all this year.

There's a lot out there that the media is missing. Especially the national media, who prefer to concentrate on crazy people at town halls. And yet, I get dozens of reports every day of pro-health care reform rallies all across the country. Here are some of those reports.

In North Carolina, our partners are protested in front of the biggest insurer in the state. Blue Cross Blue Shield is raking in the profits [pdf] (up $48 million per year from 2004 to 2007 alone) while premiums skyrocket (up 75% in seven years). A call went out far and wide to health reform supporters, asking them to show up.

We received this message in response:

Dear Friends,

I am 82 years old and would stand with you if only I could. I agree one hundred percent that Blue Cross, Blue Shield should not even be a for profit company. When I joined this company I was told that it was a non-profit company. And that is not true!

My heart is willing to stand with you, but my osteoarthritis knees cannot do it. I hope that a big crowd will be there. I will be pulling for you.

Thanks for all you are doing to help us get a public option for our new health care reform.

–Jane

We will be standing tall in your honor, Jane.

And in New York, Rep. Tonko spoke about the need for real health care reform. First, Beverly Padgett spoke:

Beverly Padgett, who nearly died when her sugar level rose to a dangerous level, was one protester who argued for the public option. "Right now in America, if you're poor, you get poor health care. Those with the Cadillac health insurance plans can afford to pay the high price for comprehensive coverage. That type of coverage should be accessible to all Americans no matter their income level", said Padgett, "Within our current system you either pay now or you pay later." Because of a lapse in her insurance due to inability to afford coverage she was hospitalized for several weeks with complications due to diabetes. She is now faced with exorbitant medical bills. With the public option there would be standardized levels of care for all insurance plans and thanks to subsidies people like Beverly would be able to afford the coverage they need to stay healthy.

And then, Rep. Tonko took the stage:

The rally was pro-reform, not a protester in sight. Check out the video:

And these kinds of things happen all over America every day. But this is what Congress is hearing, and it remains the truth: America is for health care reform, real health care reform with a real public health insurance option, and we're going to get it.