Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 358, a dangerous anti-women's health bill that undermines access to care.  It is no surprise that House Republicans would rather play politics with women's health than focus on jobs and the economy.

Call your Member of Congress today toll free - (877) 264-HCAN (4226) and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 358.

Here is the letter HCAN signed along with over 50 other organizations vehemently opposing this bill.

Below are some important facts from National Women's Law Center on this issue. You can download the full fact sheet here.

H.R. 358, authored by Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA), threatens women's ability to purchase health insurance that includes abortion coverage and creates dangerous new rules that will harm women's health-and even risk women's lives.

• H.R. 358 would virtually prohibit health plans in the new health insurance exchanges from covering abortion services, even though most health insurance covers it today.
• The bill exempts hospitals from treating women in need of emergency abortion care, even if they will die without it.
• H.R. 358 allows states to exempt health insurance plans from complying with any obligation under the new health law if it offends the insurer's "conscience." For example, an insurer could refuse to cover contraception, the HPV vaccine or any other service.

Here are some messages and talking points from Planned Parenthood on H.R. 358:

• This legislation represents yet another attempt by some Republican leaders to force consideration of policies that would drastically erode women's health and reduce access to basic health care services and information.
• This bill would take comprehensive health coverage away from women, eliminate existing legal protections for women who need an abortion to save their lives, expand current refusal laws that undermine women's health, and create loopholes that states and insurance companies could exploit to undermine the requirement that insurance companies provide birth control with no co-pays.
• Most devastating, the bill eliminates protections for patients seeking care in emergency circumstances and would allow a hospital to deny lifesaving abortion care to a woman, even if a doctor deems it necessary.
• Any politician who votes for this bill is literally putting politics before women's health.
• This is the latest example that Republican leaders prioritize putting politics before women's health, and just can't keep their eyes on the ball when it comes to jobs and the economy.

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

America's families and small businesses are barely hanging on while the Wall Street-run health insurance profit machines have been jacking up rates and providing less care. That's why it makes sense for Occupy Wall Street protesters to occupy them as well.

In an excellent post on Monday, former health insurance industry insider Wendell Potter suggested that protesters target the Washington, D.C., offices of the insurance industry's lobbying arm. He's right. People should also demonstrate at the corporate offices of the biggest Wall Street-run companies: Aetna and Cigna in Hartford, Conn., WellPoint in Indianapolis, Humana in Louisville and UnitedHealth in Minneapolis.

Much has been said about the banks and credit card companies that are headquartered on Wall Street. The health insurance companies' relentless pursuit of profit and callous disregard for people offers another window into how big corporations have abused people and twisted the economy to serve their own interests.

Health insurance companies make excessive profits, hoard massive amounts of cash, overcharge their customers and give their top executives obscene paychecks.

While we've been dealing with the crushing impact of the worst recession since the Great Depression, the top five health insurance companies have been celebrating boom years thanks to record profits that are expected to total $14 billion in 2011, an astonishing 80% increase since 2008. They did it by raising rates 131% since 1999.

After the insurers gouge us and line their CEOs' pockets, they hoard billions of dollars. As of Dec. 31, 2010, the nation's for-profit and nonprofit health insurance companies were holding $97.3 billion to cover unexpected medical claims - six times more than state regulators require, according to Citigroup Global Markets.

Not surprisingly, insurance company CEOs and executives have been compensated at obscene levels for producing such enormous profits for Wall Street. The chief executives of America's 10 largest health insurance companies were paid $228 million in 2009, up from $33 million in 2000. In that 10-year period, health insurance CEOs received nearly $1 billion in total compensation, and that doesn't even count hundreds of millions more in unreported exercises of stock options during that period. We've got 9% unemployment, falling wages and a declining standard of living, and these guys are taking raises that stagger the imagination.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are uninsured, and millions more have inadequate coverage. The Affordable Care Act is changing things for the better, but full implementation can't come soon enough. That's why so many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters say health care is a major issue for them. Many don't have insurance, and they're worried they never will. And while Wall Street and the big corporations are wreaking havoc on the country, Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to make things worse by trying to repeal consumer-friendly reforms like the health care law and bank regulation and trying to eliminate middle-class programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

At the core of the hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protests across the country is anger over the simple fact that the wealthiest 1% and the corporations they own are getting even richer while the rest of us - the 99% who built this country and make it work - are getting poorer. Our perverse economy has produced such extreme income inequality that it is destroying the very essence of America.

The right-wing Republican extremists who work for the 1% like the Koch Brothers think it's the protesters who are destroying America. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor calls the protestors "growing mobs." GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who is not burdened by Cantor's restraint, calls the Wall Street demonstrators "un-American."

Some in the media complain that they can't figure out what the protesters want. It seems pretty obvious to me. They want jobs and health care and homes. They want an end to unbridled corporate greed. They want the opportunity to realize their full potential in the greatest country on earth. And they want their political leaders to stand up for them, not the 1%. That's why they started this movement on Wall Street, the financial capital of the world, and that's why the politicians should support the protesters instead of calling them names.

Here are two things you can do to support the movement against corporate greed:

• To find an Occupy event near you, go to the website Occupy Together.
  
• Join The Other 98 Percent and Health Care for America Now in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4 to protest a fancy gala dinner being held by a Koch Brothers front group. The "American Dream Guerrilla Drive-In" counter-event starts at 8 p.m.

Today HCAN released a statement on Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg's latest plan to devastate middle-class families.

Below is a great piece on this issue by Rick Unger for Mother Jones:

GOP Congressman Equates Purchasing Health Insurance To Buying An Expensive Vacation Home

-By Rick Ungar | Thu Oct. 6, 2011 10:22 AM PDT

Just when you thought it could not get more ridiculous, GOP Congressman and Chairman of the House Appropriations Labor-Health and Human Services subcommittee, Denny Rehberg, has come up with a novel idea. He wants the Congressional super committee to solve $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by simply killing off the expansion of Medicaid and the subsidies that will open the door to health care for millions of Americans.

In making his argument, Rehberg noted that expanding the Medicaid safety net program, and providing subsidies to low and middle class workers, is akin to the "expensive vacation home" that the average American would choose not to buy if that American was facing a deficit as serious as the nation's.

Before getting to the heart of Rehberg's suggestion, one can't help but wonder what makes the Congressman think that the "average" American can afford an expensive vacation home (or any vacation home for that matter) on what the average American earns, even if that American is not in debt?

But should we be surprised by the Congressman's view of the world? This is the same Denny Rehberg who is not only listed as number 23 on the list of the wealthiest members of Congress, but is the same Congressman Rehberg who had no idea what the minimum wage was in his own state (check out this video as it is priceless.)

Of course, far more important is Rehberg's inability to grasp that getting treatment for cancer or unblocking that clogged artery that is going to make someone a widow or widower is not quite the same as purchasing a vacation home-expensive or otherwise.

And while life might not be worth living for Rep. Rehberg and friends without that idyllic home on the lake, the average American would still prefer to remain alive, thank you very much, which is precisely why Medicaid coverage was extended to more people and subsidies are to be made available to the working poor and middle-class so that medical care would become an option in their lives.

When asked how low and middle class Americans will manage to purchase health care, should the mandate requiring them to do so be found to be Constitutional by SCOTUS, Rehberg answered that Health and Human Services would be able to grant waivers to those who cannot afford coverage without Medicaid or subsidies.

Thus, Rehberg's solution is to simply leave millions of Americans without coverage by way of a waiver. Nice.

Health Care For America Now's Executive Director, Ethan Rome, put it this way:

Rep. Rehberg's proposal is yet another part of the Republican assault on the middle class. Denny Rehberg says that basic health care is a luxury item, as if a mother in Montana taking her children to the doctor or a cancer patient getting treatment is the same as buying 'an expensive vacation home.'

Considering that estimates place the uninsured under age 65 in Montana at somewhere between 16 percent and 20 percent of the population, a number well in excess of the national average, I suspect that Rehberg's fellow Montana might disagree with his approach.

Let's hope they voice that disagreement at the ballot box next November.

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

The health insurance industry's mouthpiece doesn't want the rest of us to know what Wall Street knows well — the record-breaking profits of the health insurance companies are, in fact, excessive.

In response to astonishingly high first-quarter profit reports from health insurance companies, the industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), claims it is among the least profitable health care industries. AHIP says the health insurance industry profit margin is only 4.4%, and that this "low margin" represents less than one penny out of every dollar spent on all health care in the U.S. These are simplistic and misleading statistics.

Last week the New York Times reported that the health insurance industry is enjoying record earnings while millions of Americans get less medical care. Wall Street investors are delighted with the industry's profits, and to health insurance executives, that's all that counts. Insurance CEOs want investors to buy their stock and keep share prices marching higher, and that's exactly what has happened. To achieve excessive profits, insurers are happy to gouge consumers and small businesses, do little to rein in medical costs and spend billions of our premium dollars on lobbying, secret political activities, bloated executive pay and stock buybacks.

AHIP's focus on profit margins is misleading and designed to protect their massive income by shifting attention away from their return on equity — a key measure of profits as a percentage of the amount invested. That return is a phenomenal 16.1% as of today. By that measure, health insurers are ranked fourth highest of the 16 industries in the health care sector. They also deliver a higher return for investors than cellphone companies, beer companies, mortgage companies, life insurance companies, TV broadcasters, drug store companies or grocery stores.

AHIP likes to talk about how insurance profits are a small share of national health spending — less then one penny of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S. — but that is an absurd, deceptive and self-serving statistic. Yet even their own chart of this data shows that the share of the health care economy sucked up by health insurance profits has more than tripled over the past decade.

One penny of the health care dollar is worth $347 billion over 10 years ending in 2019. That one penny would pay for more than one-third of the entire cost of the health reform program.

In response to a memo that Health Care for America Now (HCAN) sent to news outlets yesterday, AHIP attacked HCAN for pointing out the insurance industry's misleading use of statistics. Yet AHIP did not challenge the validity of HCAN's critique. That makes sense, because they are wrong on this issue.

The health insurance industry is also wrong to oppose the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by bankrolling the Republican repeal effort. The ACA expands coverage, ends the worst insurance company abuses, reduces health care costs, and reduces the federal deficit while building on the private insurance system.

The Republicans' relentless opposition to the law is a naked appeal to their extreme right-wing base and an attack on people already benefiting from it — millions of seniors, children, young adults, families and small businesses. It's time for AHIP to turn away from Republican politics and vigorously support implementation of the law.

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

On Wednesday the Republicans on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee are holding a "public" hearing about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at the state capitol in Harrisburg, Penn. Except they're not there to listen to the public and people like Pennsylvania's Stacie Ritter, whose family had good insurance and still had to file for bankruptcy because of massive medical bills.

Stacie and her husband Ben had to pay huge fees for the treatments their twin little girls, Hannah and Madeline, needed when they were diagnosed with leukemia. At the same time, Ben had to take time from work to help care for the twins and their other children. It was too much and they went bankrupt. Thankfully Hannah and Madeline are doing well today.

Unfortunately, the Republicans don't care about people like the Ritters. They want to repeal the new law that would help prevent other families from going through the same thing that happened to Stacie's family. They even want to repeal one of the provisions Stacie is most grateful for - the one that requires insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. That provision means Madeline and Hannah will always be able to get affordable health insurance despite their medical history.

The Republicans are in Pennsylvania on the first anniversary of this historic law to play politics and to grandstand. They've invited Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and other partisan opponents of the law to testify. Not invited: ordinary members of the public. So it's not really a public hearing - it's a show trial, another act of political theater in the Republicans' relentless effort to repeal and undermine the new law. Just down the hall, Stacie and others are holding a reality-based hearing in the Capitol Rotunda to make sure the stories of average Pennsylvanians are heard, especially those already benefiting from the law's many cost savings and consumer protections.

Stacie Ritter's story is all too familiar. People finding coverage or claims denied. People being forced to pay more because of a pre-existing medical condition or being denied coverage outright. People getting stuck on hold for hours to get a simple issue resolved by phone. People running up against annual or lifetime coverage caps and unaffordable co-pays and deductibles that cause more than 900,000 medical bankruptcies a year. All the while, insurance company profits soar, and CEOs make millions. That's why Stacie joined Health Care for America now to fight for change.

The ACA is putting a stop to this madness. It ends the worst health insurance company abuses and protects our care. It provides cost savings, consumer protections and greater health care choices. It puts a check on out-of-control profits that fuel premium increases that are crushing families and small businesses.

The Republicans derisively call the ACA "Obamacare" and rail against the "government takeover of health care." They'd rather not tell the truth about what the law really does because that information does not help their case.

Here are the facts:

• Millions of seniors are receiving free preventive care, such as mammograms and colonoscopies, and relief from skyrocketing prescription drug prices, including $250 checks for people who reached the "donut hole" and a 50% discount on brand name drugs. The ACA has provided these savings while eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare system.

• For small businesses, job-creating tax credits are available to help cover their employees. More small businesses are now providing coverage.
• Adult children can stay on their parents' health plans until they're 26, which provides much needed access to care and peace of mind (especially for the parents) in this tough economy.
• The ACA ends unconscionable abuses like dropping you because you fall ill or because you made a mistake in your paperwork. It bans the odious practice of denying your care or charging you more for having a pre-existing condition. It ends annual and lifetime caps on coverage.

• For the first time ever, the insurance companies are being held accountable, capping how much they can charge, limiting excessive profits and putting the brakes on bloated compensation for CEOs. Guaranteeing a good deal instead of a raw deal with our health insurance - that's what the ACA does.

The ACA is providing life-changing benefits, cost-savings and protections that are making a huge difference in people's lives right now.

The ACA is about more than health care. It's also about economic security for families struggling to make ends meet. We can't preserve and expand the middle-class if people have to worry about health care. People have enough to worry about with high unemployment, rising gas and food prices and keeping up with mortgage payments.

Instead of creating jobs and growing the economy, the Republicans are re-fighting the battles of the past and trying to take us back to the days when insurance companies had a stranglehold on our health care.

People like Stacie Ritter are insisting that we move forward. "This is America," she says. "I knew we could do better with our heath care than we've done in the past and I'm glad we have this law. We won't go back. We've got to move forward."

NOTE: Health Care for America Now has a chart that highlights the features of the Affordable Care Act and shows what the Republican repeal plan would do. You can download a printable, high-resolution version with citations here.

by Ethan Rome

You’ve probably read by now that Judge Vinson did the expected: The judge gave Republican governors and attorneys general what they wanted, a decision that advances the GOP’s extremist agenda to return control of our health care to the insurance companies. This is judicial activism on steroids. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say on the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, and it has corrected such lower-court mistakes when other major laws like Social Security, the minimum wage law and the Voting Rights Act were passed. Two other federal district judges have already upheld the new health care law.
Congress clearly has the authority to regulate the health insurance market, including protecting consumers from insurance industry abuses and reducing costs for families, seniors and businesses. The best way to protect consumers and control costs is to make sure everyone has health insurance, and that’s what the Affordable Care Act does.

With consumers already benefiting from the law, this litigation is really about the Republican Party protecting health insurance company profits at the expense of working families. The Republican politicians who marched in lockstep to bring this suit aren’t really interested in the new law’s individual-responsibility rule. This lawsuit is just another tactic in the Republican Party’s campaign to give our health care back to the insurance companies no matter what the cost.

The American people will not allow the courts or the Congress to bring us back to the time when insurance companies could exclude people because of pre-existing conditions, drop people for getting sick, or let benefit caps force people with serious diseases into bankruptcy.

It’s inevitable that Sarah Palin will declare that the Missouri referendum “refudiated” the new health care law enacted by Congress. We will hear the same from Missouri Representative Roy Blunt, who sides with Wall Street and the insurance companies instead of his constituents and thinks that qualifies him for a promotion to the U.S. Senate. They are both wrong.

The Missouri vote was nothing more than a Republican straw poll. It lacks any legal force, and it certainly wasn’t about health care. If supporters of reform thought this referendum was about the new law, we would have run a campaign against it. But it wasn’t, so we didn’t.

This referendum was really about local Missouri politics in an election dominated by Republican primaries for state auditor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives in the 7th and 8th districts, and many state legislative races. The truth is that this was a confusing, partisan ballot measure that included two unrelated questions—one that had nothing to do with the new law and the other that focused on only a single provision of it.

The Missouri referendum wasn’t a vote about ending unfair insurance company practices or making health care affordable. It wasn’t about stopping insurance companies from dumping you when you’re sick or ending the outrageous denial of coverage to children just because they have an illness requiring care. It wasn’t a vote on free preventive care for everyone or saving money for struggling seniors who rely on expensive prescription drugs. And it certainly wasn’t a vote on keeping millions of American families from being driven into bankruptcy by massive medical bills.

The Missouri referendum was a cynical partisan ploy to undermine the law before it even takes effect, just like the frivolous lawsuit filed by the state attorney general in Virginia. The Missouri vote was political theater for Republicans and an attempt to undermine a law that cuts health care costs for families and businesses and ends the worst of insurance company abuses.

People are just as tired of Republicans playing politics as they are of insurance companies denying care while making record profits.

TrueMajority member Melanie Shouse was wronged by the insurance companies:

Meet Melanie Shouse. A few years ago, Melanie was living the American dream when she transformed an old Dominos storefront into an expansion of her home business. But just as the store was opening, Melanie was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer and given months to live.

Melanie had insurance, and she went straight to the experts at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis. Working with the world-renowned doctors there, she’s beaten the odds and stayed healthy for years. But now her insurance company, a subsidiary of WellPoint, is refusing to pay for the medication her doctors recommend.

Read more…

Health reform is at the finish line. Melanie is just one of the reasons we need health care reform and we need to finish it right. We'll be posting one story every hour for twenty-four hours today to make sure we finish health reform right.

If you haven't joined our campaign to finish health care reform right yet, please join us and send a letter to Congress and the President, demanding they make health care affordable for everyone and hold the insurance companies accountable before a final bill is sent to the Oval Office for a signature.

Click here to join our campaign to Finish Reform Right.