“This bill would rob consumers of billions of dollars in rebates and give the money to insurance companies that are already making record profits. It’s outrageous to take money from struggling families and small businesses and hand it over to Wall Street-driven health insurance companies. This bill would eviscerate one of the toughest consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act, which has already brought down premiums in some states.

“Senators who join this effort are making a clear choice to put the unbridled greed of insurance companies ahead of the needs of their constituents. They want to hide sales costs in their already skyrocketing premiums in a way that won’t even help the insurance agents who are lobbying for this bill. Instead, the money will wind up in insurance company bank accounts.

“Senators should dismiss this anti-consumer legislation and side with the public, not the health insurance industry.”

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Nearly one-third of Medicaid spending goes to long-term care. The ACA includes a provision called the CLASS Act that was an attempt to create a new way for people to plan for future expenses and finance the in-home assistance they will need, such as hiring a home caregiver to help with tasks of daily living without requiring families to impoverish themselves to qualify for Medicaid. The repeal effort is purely political because implementation of the program has not been scheduled.

Here is a statement from Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, on today’s action by House Republicans:

“Once again, the Republicans are punishing the American people in an attempt to hurt President Obama politically, even if that means repealing the only health reform provision that could someday help seniors and people with disabilities live independently and stay out of nursing homes. The CLASS Act may not be ready for implementation yet, but the Republicans showed that they will never help seniors live with dignity and independence. The GOP will never provide relief to America’s middle-class families struggling with the overwhelming financial challenges of caring for their aging parents. If the Republicans would put politics aside, Congress could create a financially stable and fair structure for long-term care.

“As Republicans across the country step up their efforts to cut state and federal Medicaid budgets in their permanent war against the middle class, experts agree that the nation must devise a long-term care plan. It’s simple math: while two-thirds of the population is likely to need long-term care, few seniors can independently afford the staggering private cost of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Half of retirees have less than $55,000 in assets, and nursing homes charge about $75,000 each year.

“It is irresponsible for the Republicans to pretend that the long-term care problem will just go away simply because they ignore it. It’s painfully clear that Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders are as callous as they are hyper-partisan.”

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Romney is a staunch supporter of Congressman Paul Ryan's radical budget plan to end Medicare and Medicaid and dramatically increase health care costs for seniors struggling to make ends meet. Ryan wants to put Medicare beneficiaries at the mercy of profit-mad private health insurance companies and force seniors to fork over at least $6,400 more per year on health care while letting billionaires and corporations skip out on their taxes. Romney and the Republicans want to strip seniors of new drug benefits and preventive care provided by the Affordable Care Act.

Ryan's recent partnership with Senator Ron Wyden doesn't soften the blow any. It's the same bad plan with a twist and a lone Democratic supporter. Shame on Romney for lying to Florida seniors as he cheers on Ryan's plan to take away their health care and retirement security.

In their obsession to repeal "Obamacare," the Republican presidential candidates are committed to taking away dozens of consumer protections and benefits that are already making a huge difference in people's lives.

The Republicans' Medicare privatization plan is part of the GOP's larger attack on our country's shrinking middle class and the promise of the American Dream: that if you work hard and play by the rules you can have a good job with good wages and benefits, provide a better life for your children and retire with dignity.

As has been widely documented, Romney has an aversion to the truth and a problem keeping track of his own flip-flops. His lies about Medicare and Social Security are just the latest examples. There's only one true and consistent thing to be said about Mitt Romney: he's the ultimate candidate of the Wall Street profiteers who are so intent on making excessive amounts of money that they're happy to wreck our economy and destroy the lives of millions of America's families to get what they want.

“Mitt Romney has lied day after day on the campaign trail, but yesterday he topped himself when he pledged to preserve Medicare and Social Security. The truth is the exact opposite: Mitt Romney and the Republicans want to eliminate Medicare and Social Security as we know them and hand them over to Wall Street with a reckless privatization scheme. Romney is a staunch supporter of Congressman Paul Ryan’s radical budget plan to end Medicare and dramatically increase health care costs for seniors struggling to make ends meet. Ryan wants to put Medicare beneficiaries at the mercy of profit-mad private health insurance companies and force seniors to spend another $6,400 a year on health care while letting billionaires and corporations skip out on their taxes. Romney and the Republicans want to strip seniors of new drug benefits and preventive care provided by the Affordable Care Act.

“The Republicans’ Medicare privatization plan is part of the GOP's larger attack on our country's shrinking middle class and the promise of the American Dream: that if you work hard and play by the rules you can have a good job with good wages and benefits, provide a better life for your children and retire with dignity. Romney supports an extremist plan that is wrong for our country. Shame on him for lying to Florida seniors as he cheers on Ryan’s plan to take away their health care and retirement security.”

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

The ACA states that insurers must spend 80% of the premiums they collect on actual health services. States may request a waiver from the medical loss ratio rule if it would "destabilize the individual market" of that state. If insurers do not meet the requirement, they must pay the difference in rebates to their customers.

According to HHS:

[HHS has] determined that the evidence presented does not establish a reasonable likelihood that the application of an 80 percent MLR standard will destabilize Texas’ individual market. Consequently, we have determined not to adjust the MLR standard in Texas’ individual market and, thereby, ensure that consumers receive the benefit of this provision of the Affordable Care Act.

This promises to return $260 million to Texas consumers over three years. Other states have also attempted to obtain MLR waivers as part of a strategy by Republican leaders to eliminate and weaken the MLR provisions. In Florida, where HHS also recent rejected a waiver request ensuring consumer rebates in that state $145 million, Gov. Rick Scott twice tried to rip off consumers in his state on behalf of insurance companies.

The rejection of Texas's waiver request is a resounding victory for health insurance customers and a terrific example of the many consumer protections provided by the ACA.

Listen to clips from the radio programs:

The Thom Hartman Program

Download audio file (ethan-rome-on-thp-012012.mp3)

Jeff Santos on Labor Owned Radio

Download audio file (jeff-santos-ethan-rome-1-20-12.mp3)

The Rick Smith Show

Download audio file (ethan-rome-on-rick-smith.mp3)

“President Obama laid out a clear, sensible vision to restore the health of America’s economy, create jobs and address the income inequality that is weakening our nation. America needs to rally around this plan.

“But before the President even walked into Congress tonight, the Republicans were trash-talking his speech. They're too busy trying to hurt him politically instead of helping the country with real ideas and a willingness to roll up their sleeves and get things done.

“Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who took a break from his campaign to silence workers' voices on the job to give the GOP rebuttal, showed that the Republicans' priority is to gain political advantage no matter how badly that might hurt America’s families and businesses. Daniels recycled tired Republican rhetoric and bankrupt ideas to cover up the GOP's relentless assault on the middle class.

“Daniels can't hide the record. The Republicans have opposed making health care affordable, they’ve blocked every effort to create jobs, they’ve been trying to undermine the laws that hold banks accountable and they’ve rejected every step needed to revitalize the U.S. economy.

“As the Republicans pursue their toxic brand of hyper-partisan politics to help the 1 percent and the wealthiest corporations and ignore the rest of us, President Obama outlined concrete plans to give everyone a fair shot at achieving the American Dream.”

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama has a compelling story to tell the country about the importance of health security to America's middle class and why we have to stop the Republican assault on Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA is an extraordinary accomplishment and is already making a huge difference in people's lives by making health care more affordable for families and businesses and protecting consumers from insurance company abuses. Along with Social Security, these bedrock programs are essential to ensuring that everyone in this country has a fair shot at achieving the American Dream.

The president has plenty of examples to make his case. Thanks to the ACA, 2.5 million young adults were able to obtain health coverage this past year. The worst practices of big insurance companies, including denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, are now against the law. Health care is becoming more affordable for small businesses and seniors on Medicare. When fully implemented the law will provide tens of millions of Americans the same range of coverage choices as members of Congress. People will have peace of mind that they will always be able to afford good coverage — even if they lose a job, start a small business or retire early. These are powerful themes the President could discuss, and polling has repeatedly shown that they are highly valued by the American people despite relentless attacks on the law by the Republicans.

The president could use the speech to remind the nation that Medicare and Medicaid are the cornerstones of our health care system and provide equal opportunity for all. We don't want a society that leaves people to fend for themselves when they fall ill. Only if everyone has affordable health care can we have a vibrant middle class to power the world's leading economy.

The stakes are huge. If the Republicans get their way and turn Medicaid into a so-called block grant, millions of seniors would be thrown out of nursing homes. Middle class families would be slammed with crushing health care costs for their parents while struggling to make ends meet, save for their own retirement and send kids to college. Children and people with disabilities will go without needed care. Huge costs will be shifted to state governments, jobs will be lost and the economy will be hurt.

The Republicans want to eliminate Medicare as we know it and send our parents and grandparents into bankruptcy. Their plan would transform guaranteed health care benefits for seniors into a voucher scheme that would send hundreds of billions of dollars directly to private insurance companies. Retirees would be forced to pay two to three times more out of their pockets to care for themselves, and it would fall to adult children and extended families to bankroll the difference - whether they can afford to or not.

Every Republican plan to 'reform' Medicare or Medicaid is just another way to shift health costs to seniors and families who cannot afford to pay more. Were the Republicans to succeed in repealing the ACA, they have nothing to replace it with except a return to the days when consumers were at the mercy of profit-hungry insurance companies.

A lot of work remains to be done, but when it comes to health care the State of the Union is strong. President Obama is fortunate to have a Health and Human Services Department that's doing a solid job implementing the ACA and protecting our health security. We must stand strong to fight the GOP's hyper-partisan attacks on the health care programs that are making America healthier and moving our great country closer to achieving its promise.

In a letter to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, HHS was in agreement with a letter HCAN sent in protest of Florida's exemption earlier this week. According to HHS, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation did not demonstrate that MLR requirement would lead to decreased consumer access to brokers or insurers in the Florida market.

The rejection by HHS of Florida's exemption will put $145 million in health insurance rebates back into the pockets of Floridians. This second attempt to deny consumers rebates is a politically motivated ploy by extremist Florida Governor Rick Scott, a former health care executive who made a fortune running a company that conducted a massive fraud on Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Part of nationwide week of protest on 2nd Anniversary of Citizens United ruling

Washington, DC – On the second anniversary of the much-despised Citizens United ruling, protesters gathered at the high court and unfurled a large banner reading “U.S. Supreme Koch” to protest the undue influence that far-right special interests and billionaires like the Koch brothers wield over the Court and U.S. politics.

Two years ago, the Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates to secretive and unlimited corporate political contributions and gave a major boost to the rapidly expanding political empire of David and Charles Koch and those of other millionaires and billionaires.

“The Kochs and their kind are engaged in a hostile corporate takeover of our nation’s political system,” said John Sellers, co-founder of The Other 98%. "We've come to the scene of the crime today – the U.S. Supreme Court – to tell the justices exactly what we think of the infamous Citizens United ruling that made that takeover possible.”

“The Supreme Court has undermined government of, by and for the actual people by defining corporations as people and money as speech,” said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, the largest grassroots health care advocacy organization. “The Citizens United ruling has been a disaster for the middle class, which is under constant assault in Congress and in the Supreme Court by Republicans accountable only to big corporations and the wealthy. It’s crucial that the justices be independent of corporate influences when they rule on matters like the health care case, which will forever affect health insurance consumers and 100 million people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.”

Insurance companies and other big business interests, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have fought comprehensive health care reform for years, spending millions on lobbying, political contributions and misinformation campaigns that hurt consumers. Citizens United created a toxic political environment in which corporations can spend unlimited sums of money to oppose candidates and legislation that would benefit seniors, families and businesses.

Pictures and video clips will be posted later today at http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org and http://other98.com/citizens-united-supreme-court-action/.

The protesters represented a host of citizens groups, including The Other 98%, Health Care for America Now, Backbone Campaign, Greenpeace, Velvet Revolution and AFSCME.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

The Other 98% is a grassroots network of concerned folks and online activists fed up with the status quo in Washington. We've been fighting, since Tax Day 2010, against the bankers, CEOs and lobbyists who have hijacked our democracy to serve themselves at the expense of everyone else. We are everywhere. And we are hopeful.

Washington, DC – One year ago today, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Fortunately for millions of Americans who have been receiving important health benefits and consumer protections from the ACA, the Senate rejected the GOP’s actions. Here is a statement about the Republicans’ continuing campaign to undermine America’s health security from Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now, the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization:

“The Republicans in Congress want to repeal the health care law even though they have no replacement plan, which they’ve promised from the moment they passed repeal. Instead, they want to give our health care back to the insurance companies and force every consumer to fend for themselves. Their assault on health care is the tip of the spear in the GOP’s war on the middle class. Repealing the ACA would take away health coverage from millions of young adults, force seniors to pay more for prescription drugs, revoke health insurance tax credits from small businesses, and restore insurers’ unfettered power to jack up our rates, cancel our benefits and deny coverage for those with pre-existing health conditions.

“But the Republicans in Congress won’t be satisfied by taking away the ACA’s benefits and protections, which are helping millions. They also want to end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them. The GOP’s presidential candidates have done no better, competing over who would be the first to end cost-saving benefits and consumer protections that are making a material difference in the lives of millions.They’re in a race to see who can destroy America’s seniors and middle class faster.

“It’s just plain wrong that the Republicans, their corporate sponsors and other right-wing extremists are trying to take away these benefits and rights. This is a fight about core values, about whether we want a country where people are left to fend for themselves or one where people come together through programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to provide health security and peace of mind to working families. We must stand strong to fight off the GOP’s hyper-partisan attacks on health laws that are making the country a healthier, fairer place.”

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

(Washington, DC)—Social Security Works (SSW) and Health Care for America NOW (HCAN) today unveiled a new guide showing that the Republican Presidential candidates agree: If they had their way, they would raise the eligibility age, cut, privatize or do away with Medicare and Medicaid, two of America’s most successful and popular programs. The guide shows that when these Republican Presidential candidates say we need to “save” Medicare and Medicaid, what they really mean is we need to end Medicare and Medicaid.

“These programs are essential to preserving and expanding America’s middle class,” said Ethan Rome, executive director of HCAN. “The GOP wants to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as we know them as part of their assault on working families and the American dream. The Republicans only care about catering to the big corporations and the millionaires and billionaires who own them.”

“All five support cutting these programs so crucial to the wellbeing of America's children, families and seniors,” said Eric Kingson, co-director of SSW. “These views could not be more out of step with the American people! Medicare and Medicaid protect millions of Americans. Our families, communities, and indeed America’s recovering economy, cannot afford these radical cuts.”

Medicare and Medicaid have much at stake during the early Republican primaries and caucuses. The brief guide from HCAN and SSW includes past and current quotes about raising the Medicare eligibility age and privatization language from Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum.

The groups show how GOP candidates have proposed cutting funding of Medicare and Medicaid to children, families and seniors through the coded phrase of “block grants.”Below are some specific positions the Presidential candidates have taken in their race to the bottom for worst Medicare and Medicaid proposals:

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Social Security Works is the lead group in the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, a coalition comprised of more than 320 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans from many of the nation’s leading aging, labor, disability, women’s, children, consumer, civil rights and equality organizations.

Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

From the letter:

It is clear that the robust Florida individual insurance market will continue to provide options to consumers and, with the MLR in place, consumers will be able to measure and compare their plan options, contain premium costs, and get rebates of $145 million from insurers that fail to provide a good value. We oppose moving backward on consumer protections and urge HHS to reject Florida’s reconsideration request.

Click here to download a copy of this letter.

The brief has been filed by the NWLC and more than 60 other groups in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al v. State of Florida, et al case going before the Supreme Court on March 26. NWLC Co-President Marcia D. Greenberger said in a statement:

"Congress’s constitutional authority to regulate the national health care market – and the discrimination against women that is rampant in it – is settled law. Requiring insurers to provide coverage to anyone who seeks it, regardless of health status, will remedy the long-standing practice of refusing to sell insurance to women with so-called ‘pre-existing conditions’ such as pregnancy, a previous Caesarean section, or a history of having survived domestic abuse."

Organizations joining the brief include the American College of Nurse-Midwives, National Council of Women’s Organizations, Black Women’s Health Imperative, National Council of Jewish Women, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Partnership for Women and Families, and the Older Women’s League.

Gingrich has led this emergence with his blistering critique of Mitt Romney for being too good of a capitalist. There’s even a movie produced by a pro-Gingrich super-PAC that powerfully tells how Romney ruined people’s lives in his relentless quest for profits. Driven by the words of fired workers and a riveting anti-corporate script that could have been written by Michael Moore, Romney is blasted for shamelessly making big money by closing American businesses and eliminating thousands of jobs. I must admit, it's exciting to see what it looks like when the GOP puts capitalism on trial. In the past Romney would have been a Republican hero, a businessman who had what it takes to make tough economic decisions. But in this latest bizarre phase of GOP presidential politics, the guy is a monster.

Apparently the Republican field also hates special interest money in politics and the revolving door between government and corporate America. For weeks the candidates have hammered Gingrich for taking $1.6 million from Fannie Mae to be a “historian.” He’s laughably insisted that he never lobbied any of his former colleagues to earn that fee. Ron Paul and others have whaled on Rick Santorum for taking lobbying money from coal companies and insurers after he left the U.S. Senate. Imagine, a former elected official trading influence for cash!

But if Romney’s critics were serious (and they’re not), they'd be saying an “anything goes” approach to the free market isn't right. They would say he and all the other Wall Street sharpshooters made money at the expense of others and wronged thousands of innocent folks who believed in the American Dream.

The Republican hypocrisy is whiplash-inducing, even by the declining standards of American politics. Not that long ago Gingrich said that U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and U.S. Representative Barney Frank should go to jail for passing the landmark financial reform law that bears their names because it regulates the Romneys of Wall Street. Meanwhile the Republicans in Congress are practically employees of banks, Big Oil, insurance companies and other corporations that put profits before people.

As the candidates head into South Carolina, maybe they’ll reveal what they propose to do about the outrageous free-market excesses they’ve discovered. Exactly how would they control the Romneys of the world—teach classes on compassion and restraint at Harvard and Wharton? How have they explained this to their corporate owners and political sponsors like the billionaire Koch Brothers? I suspect the Kochs have a lot of respect for Bain Capital, the corporate vehicle Romney used for his turbocharged pursuit of private equity profits. Bain Capital made money by snatching up companies on the cheap, stripping valuable assets and even shutting some of them down. Bain collected a ton of cash while eliminating jobs and devastating families and communities. What could possibly be wrong with that?

Since the Republican presidential candidates say they like regular people now – even working and middle-class folks like the ones who give testimonials in the attack film against Romney – they should tell the Republicans in Congress to extend unemployment insurance and the payroll tax reduction. And they ought to pay for it by imposing higher taxes on the super-rich, a policy overwhelmingly supported by the American people, including the millionaires who would have to pay more.

The Republicans running for president will obviously say and do anything to get elected, even if they sound like Democrats for a little while. Whatever they may say about Romney, all the Republicans are captives of big corporations that see our country as little more than a market to exploit for their private gain.

The 1 percent and the Republican politicians they own are tearing away the foundation of one of our country’s greatest inventions, the middle class. Led by the Koch Brothers, right-wing extremists are working to undermine our democracy as well.

That’s why the Democrats have to make the 2012 election about whose side the candidates are on. Are they for the 1% and the big corporations that want to destroy the middle class, or are they fighting for the rest of us? Are they for an America “where everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share,” as the President said in Osawatomie, Kansas? Or are they for an America where the rich get richer while everyone else is left to fend for themselves in an ugly race to the bottom.

These are very different visions of our country. That’s why members of Congress and the President can’t give any ground on key issues like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. If everyone is in favor of cuts to these and other important programs, then the boundary between the two sides will be blurred beyond recognition, and the choice will not be clear on Election Day.

“This is just another attempt to eliminate Medicare as we know it. It's a purely political proposal, and it's just another version of the Ryan Republican plan to do away with Medicare and bankrupt seniors, but this time it's got one Democrat on board. Ron Wyden’s support doesn't make it bipartisan, and it doesn't change the fact that this plan is about turning over the Medicare Trust Fund to Wall Street and the health insurance companies and replacing guaranteed benefits with vouchers.

“Every Republican plan to ‘reform’ Medicare or Medicaid is just another way to shift health costs to seniors who cannot afford to pay more. I just don't understand why Senator Wyden would want to join Paul Ryan in picking the pockets of America's seniors and calling it a big idea.”

Washington, DC – The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today rejected a request from the state of Florida for a waiver from the medical loss ratio rule created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This action prevents consumers from being robbed of $145 million in health insurance rebates due under the health care law. The Florida request was the largest to be decided so far by HHS. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has estimated that families will recover rebates of up to $2 billion under the law.

On Oct. 26, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, submitted comments to HHS on the Florida application and asked for a public hearing on the matter. In its decision today, HHS said a hearing was unnecessary because of the analyses submitted by HCAN and other consumer groups.

HHS concluded that Florida officials failed to substantiate their claims that unless exceptions to the health care law were granted, consumers would be unable to access health insurance agents and brokers.

Here is a statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on the HHS ruling on Florida’s waiver request:

“The administration sent a clear message to health insurance companies that their days of ripping off consumers are over. HHS also said that politically motivated, bogus requests by extremist governors to protect insurance company profits will not be tolerated. This decision highlights how much money families will save because of consumer protections in the health care law.

“While Republicans want to eliminate this rule and strip all the benefits of the ACA from America’s consumers, the Obama administration is putting $145 million back into consumers’ pockets. Just this morning, House Republicans held a hearing to publicize their false claims that the ACA is harming small businesses, when the truth is exactly the opposite.”

Health Care Jobs Heal Economy While Protecting Lives of Seniors and Families

Washington, D.C. - Protesters from across the country held a speak-out and rally today, calling for Congress to focus on creating jobs rather than proposing health care cuts that harm patients and eliminate jobs from our weak economy. The event was part of a week of actions in support of the "Take Back the Capitol" initiative. On Tuesday, underemployed workers and jobless people joined full-time health care workers in visiting members of Congress. The delegations demanded job security and no cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Cutting spending on the nation's two main health care programs would result in immediate job losses in most states.

Nikki Brown-Booker, who has had a disability her entire life, traveled all the way from Berkeley, Calif., to recount how Medicaid has helped her personally while providing the opportunity for employment to others. Because of Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, she can hire home attendants to provide services she needs to remain independent and productive at home.

"Thanks to Medicaid, I was able to move out of my parents' house when I was 18, go to college, get a master's degree and become a productive, taxpaying member of the community - all while creating opportunities for others to also work," said Brown-Booker, a marriage and family therapist who works with parents and children who have disabilities.

The health care sector is the nation's biggest job creator, generating 20 percent of the country's new employment this year and accounting for 1 out of every 8 American jobs. Repeated proposals to slash health care programs like Medicaid and Medicare would cripple this engine for job growth and economic recovery and threaten the well-being of countless seniors, children, people with disabilities and working families.

"Instead of investing in jobs, Congress wants to invest in more tax breaks for the wealthy," said William McNary, President of USAction, the nation's largest network of state advocacy organizations and founding partner of Health Care for America Now. "We're not going to let that happen. Every dollar being wasted on tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires should be spent instead on providing and preserving needed health care jobs. Every dollar wasted providing corporate loopholes should be spent on shoring up Medicaid and Medicare, not cutting them. Every dollar wasted on a bloated military budget should be spent providing high quality, affordable health care for all."

Speakers joined hundreds of workers in a march to K Street, where protesters confronted corporate CEOs and lobbyists for some of the country's largest companies, which have avoided paying their fair share of taxes for years. These executives have managed to remain part of the country's wealthiest 1% while the other 99% continue to struggle in the face of constant threats to their health care and their livelihoods.

CO-SPONSORS: AFSCME, Alliance for a Just Society, Campaign for Community Change, Caring Across Generations, Health Care for America Now, Jobs with Justice, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National People's Action, PICO Network, SEIU, USAction.

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"Insurance commissioners ignored the NAIC's own research findings and supported efforts to rob consumers of $1.2 billion in rebates. The resolution they passed today attempts to eviscerate one of the toughest consumer protections in the health care law, a provision based on the NAIC's own recommendations last year.

"The commissioners who supported this proposal are tone-deaf to the skyrocketing health premium costs of average Americans. Commissioners said that of the many thousands of messages they received from consumers, not a single one supported the resolution.

"This vote was a disgrace. Instead of voting on the facts, the insurance commissioners buckled under pressure from the health insurance brokers and agents who made claims that weren't supported by NAIC data.

"Members of Congress and HHS Secretary Sebelius should dismiss this anti-consumer action, which would weaken the law that holds insurance companies accountable and puts a check on bloated CEO pay and record insurance company profits."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

"The voices of the 99% are being heard on the Super Committee. The Democrats held the line on protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and they insisted that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. While the Republicans have wanted to make this about nothing but giving tax breaks to the 1%, the Democrats have made the fight about fundamental priorities, about siding with America's seniors, small businesses and working families rather than siding with the corporate special interests and super rich.

"This has been a fight about core values, about whether we want a country where people are left to fend for themselves or one where they can count on programs like Medicare to provide health security for America's seniors and peace of mind to their families.

"Because the Republicans wanted to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires more than they wanted a solution, the Super Committee turned out to be the dead end that many expected. Now it's time to move on and get to the business of putting people back to work."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on the House vote scheduled for today on a "balanced budget" constitutional amendment proposal that would cripple the economy, put 15 million Americans out of work and doom Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security:

"Requiring a balanced budget every year without regard for the condition of the economy or important national needs would force deep cuts to vital programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and it would remake our country into a society where everyone is on their own.

"The Republican plan would put the gradual elimination of essential programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security into the Constitution. It would permanently protect millionaire tax breaks and corporate tax loopholes while destroying programs critical to middle class and low-income families. It would end the American Dream as we know it.

"Americans would earn less, the economy would shrink and access to decent health care would exist only for the wealthy. As one independent economic analysis found, the effect on the economy would be catastrophic.

"The Republican proposal not only discourages sound long-term investments in our future - it prohibits them. If the Republican proposal applied to household budgets, families would have to pay cash-in-full for their homes or their kid's college education instead of taking loans to fund the investment. The Republican proposal is designed for a 1% world, not for the rest of us.

"The balanced budget amendment may have an appealing title, but it masks what it would really do."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Washington, D.C. - Frustrated constituents from across the country spent this morning urging lawmakers to "wake up" and protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security from cuts being discussed in the waning days of the Super Committee negotiations.

Seniors, people with disabilities and workers started the day early by waking up Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a member of the Senate minority leadership, in "alarming" fashion at Bistro Bis, a local restaurant. Carrying gold alarm clocks and signs, angry protesters shut down a breakfast fundraiser for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Senator Kyl, the keynote speaker, hurried out as protesters entered the restaurant and chanted, "It's a new morning, it's a new day; Wake up Congress and make the 1% pay." Protesters followed Sen. Kyl to his vehicle and demanded to know if the Senator plans to protect the 99% of people who depend on these critical services or the richest 1% of Americans who don't want to pay their fair share of taxes.

To see video of 99% activists shutting down the fancy fundraiser for Sen. Hatch hosted by big health care corporations, click here.

Ferrol Wegner, 84, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, traveled to Washington all the way from Des Moines to find out why Sen. Kyl is so alert when he's listening to the wealthiest 1% of Americans but his attention drifts away when the subject is the concerns of average people. "We want him to listen to the 99%, not just the 1% who can afford to come to these fundraisers," Wegner said. "We expect members of the Super Committee to act in the best interests of the majority-people like me who depend on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security every day-instead of the richest 1% who only care about protecting their wealth."

Protesters then joined a larger crowd outside the restaurant and marched to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for a rally with Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The senators, joined by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), urged their colleagues on the 12-member Super Committee to reject cutbacks to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Seniors, faith leaders and people with disabilities from Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois and other states recounted personal stories about the devastation they would suffer if the bipartisan Super Committee slashes Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

The 12-member Super Committee is considering cutbacks for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as it approaches a Nov. 23 deadline for a deficit reduction plan. Cuts in those programs would irreparably harm seniors, workers, people with disabilities and America's middle-class and low-income families. At the same time it is contemplating various cuts, the Super Committee members continue to dismiss demands from the public that the deal accomplish its deficit-reduction goal by raising taxes on wealthy corporations and individuals instead of just cutting benefits from people who receive benefits from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Dr. Jessica Eng, a physician from Boston Medical Center, the largest safety-net health care provider in New England, described how the proposed cuts would harm her patients and the health of millions of others across Massachusetts and the nation. Dr. Eng echoed the message that no Super Committee deal is better than a deal that cuts Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Following the Senate rally, participants fanned out to visit the offices of Super Committee members and deliver the alarm clocks that should wake them up to reject any budget plan that cuts Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security for the 99% while protecting the richest 1%.

"Some Super Committee members are drawing a line in the sand, with the 1% on one side of it and the rest of America on the other," said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America Now. "Lawmakers should stay strong for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and demand that the super-rich and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes. No deal is better than a bad deal."

CO-SPONSORS: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Alliance for a Just Society, Alliance For Retired Americans, Campaign for America's Future, Campaign for Community Change, Caring Across Generations, Health Care for America Now, International Longshore And Warehouse Union, National Committee To Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Nurses United, National People's Action, PICO Network, SEIU, Social Security Works and Strengthen Social Security Campaign.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

]]> http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/17/frustrated-citizens-urge-super-committee-to-wake-up-focus-on-jobs-not-cuts-to-medicaid-medicare-or-social-security/feed/ http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/10/hcan-calls-for-justice-clarence-thomas-to-recuse-himself-from-health-care-case/ http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/10/hcan-calls-for-justice-clarence-thomas-to-recuse-himself-from-health-care-case/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:29:01 +0000 Melinda Gibson http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/?p=5875 For Immediate Release
NOVEMBER 10, 2011
Contact: Avram Goldstein 202-587-1634
agoldstein@healthcareforamericanow.org

Numerous Conflicts of Interest Make It Impossible for Thomas to Render Fair, Impartial Decision on Affordable Care Act

Washington, DC - U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has significant conflicts of interest that make it impossible for him to render a fair, impartial decision in the health care case being reviewed today by the Court, according to Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's largest grassroots health care advocacy organization.

"Justice Thomas has so many conflicts of interest he should recuse himself," said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. "Political groups determined to repeal or overturn the Affordable Care Act have been filling his family bank account for years. His wife Virginia has been a crusader in the campaign to defeat the law. She has raised money and taken money from organized efforts to kill health reform.

"At the same time, Justice Thomas personally has aligned himself with political activists and organizations dedicated to thwarting the law. He spoke at a secret conclave run by the billionaire Koch Brothers to raise funds for organizations like Americans for Prosperity. There is simply no way that Justice Thomas can render a fair decision in this important case."

Justice Thomas failed to disclose until January that his wife received income of nearly $690,000 between 2003 and 2006 from the Heritage Foundation, a leading proponent of overturning the Affordable Care Act.

Seventy-four members of the House of Representatives have taken the highly unusual step of requesting that Justice Thomas remove himself from participation in deliberations on the Affordable Care Act. If Justice Thomas fails to recuse himself, it will threaten the integrity of the entire Supreme Court.

A conservative group has issued a call for Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself from the same case. "This is part of a politically motivated and baseless attack designed to divert the public's focus away from the substantive and compelling evidence of Justice Thomas's conflicts of interest," Rome said.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

]]> http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/10/hcan-calls-for-justice-clarence-thomas-to-recuse-himself-from-health-care-case/feed/ http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/08/thanks-for-making-the-occupy-the-koch-brothers-guerrilla-drive-in-a-huge-success/ http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2011/11/08/thanks-for-making-the-occupy-the-koch-brothers-guerrilla-drive-in-a-huge-success/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:56:51 +0000 Melinda Gibson http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/?p=5870 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.

‘Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In' Plays in DC After Cain, Romney Kiss the Kochs' Rings at Americans for Prosperity Meeting

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the advocacy group The Other 98% and numerous progressive organizations (see list below) teamed up today to protest the billionaire Koch Brothers' corruption of the American political system at an unusual outdoor film festival in the nation's capital. The "Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In" runs tonight at the Washington Convention Center, where the Kochs' front group, Americans for Prosperity, is hosting a gala dinner as part of a two-day conference featuring speeches by GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mitt Romney.

Americans for Prosperity, which spends millions advancing its right-wing political agenda with the financial support of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and their companies, is holding 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 will gather 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. Several co-sponsors of Occupy the Kochs said the protest tonight shows that Americans are not going to accept a corporate takeover of our country.

"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%. "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."

"The Koch brothers are trying to create an America that works better for millionaires and billionaires and worse for the rest of us," said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. "Their American Dream is an American nightmare of continued income inequality with little or no government to protect the people."

"The Koch brothers' idea of a working democracy is one that works for them and their bottom line, not for everyday Americans," said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Public Campaign. "They should have no more say over what Congress does than any of the rest of us."

"We're Occupying the Kochs tonight because Americans are angry about the corporate takeover of our democracy," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "Democracy is rule by the people, not rule by corporations. There's no role for the global warming-denying Koch Brothers in our electoral politics, or for other giant corporations. We need major campaign finance reforms, including a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. FEC, to reclaim our democracy."

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.

WHAT: Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In at the gala dinner of the Koch Brothers' front group, Americans for Prosperity

WHERE: 1025 Seventh Street NW (corner of L Street), 1 block south of Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro station

WHEN: Friday, November 4, from 6:00 to 8:15 p.m. (Media should arrive by 6:45 p.m.)

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: Campaign for America's Future, Campaign for Community Change, Common Cause, Health Care for America Now, Justice Through Music, Oil Change International, The Other 98%, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, Rebuild the Dream, Tar Sands Action, True Majority, USAction, and Velvet Revolution. They will be joined by hundreds of people opposed to health insurers, Big Oil and Wall Street taking over our political process and destroying the middle class.

For more information, click here.

To follow the event on Twitter, go to #OccupyTheKochs. You can also text @GuerrillaTeamDC to 23559.

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Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing advocacy tool of the infamous Koch Brothers, is hosting a national conference Friday and Saturday cynically called, "Defending the American Dream." Featured speakers include Herman Cain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. They've got workshops on topics like killing collective bargaining and repealing health care reform.

Health Care for America Now and the advocacy group The Other 98%, along with several other organizations, are sponsoring a counter-protest Friday night to expose the corrosive role of corporate money in politics and the dangerous agenda of organizations like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) that want to keep the richest people and corporations from paying their fair share in taxes and to eliminate important programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. (Click here and here for event information).

Charles and David Koch are the biggest players in extremist Republican politics. They've personally contributed more than $85 million to right-wing causes over the last 15 years. They convene regular meetings of super-rich people and organize them to contribute large sums to their campaign 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'll do anything, no matter how harmful it may be to our country, to advance the interests of big corporations and the 1%.

In August of 2009 the drive for health care reform was almost derailed as the tea party disrupted one congressional town hall after another, dominating the news with anti-government Obama-haters spouting falsehoods about death panels. Most of the "grassroots activity" was astroturfing, powered by right-wing groups in Washington, D.C. and funded by the Kochs, who were dubbed the "financial engine of the tea party" by none other than Mitt Romney.

For those of us fighting for health care reform, the forces against us in those town halls almost stopped our campaign in its tracks. But something even more dramatic was taking shape. The so-called tea party movement was gaining steam, and it was getting help, direction and amplification from a variety of organizations that represent and are funded by corporate lobbyists, not real people. It was a movement conceived and driven by a Republican issue advocacy machine, and the Kochs' fingerprints were all over it. Then things got even worse in 2010 thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's destructive Citizens United decision, which gave a major boost to the Kochs' rapidly expanding political empire.

AFP is the Koch Brothers front group at the center of all this. Along with FreedomWorks and other organizations backed by the Kochs and their allies, AFP is dedicated to stopping progressive change everywhere they can and rolling back the clock on every important social and economic justice achievement in our country.

The Kochs and their front groups are trying to steal our democracy. They and their cronies have purchased the Republican Party to serve their agenda of destroying America's middle class, including crushing workers and their unions.

Back in February, Americans for Prosperity sent busloads of people to Madison, Wisconsin, to support Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to decimate Wisconsin's public service unions and the middle class they helped build, while more than 100,000 people rallied for their rights.

Right now in Ohio, the Kochs, AFP, Republicans like Karl Rove and a host of fanatical right-wing organizations are doing everything they can to block an effort by the 99% to repeal the new state law that strips public employees of the right to bargain for stronger and safer communities and a better life for their families.

All 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%.

Progressives are on offense right now. Let's keep that going.

For more information about Occupy the Kochs, click here. Follow news about the event on Twitter at #OccupytheKochs.

For NOVEMBER 4, 2011
Contact: Avram Goldstein 202-587-1634
agoldstein@healthcareforamericanow.org

‘Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In' Set for Nov. 4 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the advocacy group The Other 98% and numerous progressive organizations (see list below) are teaming up to expose the billionaire Koch Brothers' corruption of the American political system on Friday, Nov. 4, at an unusual outdoor film festival in the nation's capital. The "Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In" will take place at the Washington Convention Center, where the Kochs' front group, Americans for Prosperity, is hosting a gala dinner. The extremist organization, which spends millions advancing its right-wing political agenda, is holding 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 will gather by the hundreds 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 Big Oil and eliminate workers' rights to bargain for a better life and better public services.

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 the Occupy events and other movement protests across the U.S., and that momentum is building. This week in Washington, the Occupy K Street protest continues, National Nurses United is demonstrating at the White House and on Capitol Hill to demand that Wall Street banks pay their fair share in taxes, MoveOn is holding Make Wall Street Pay events in Washington and around the country, and Tar Sands Action plans to form a human circle around the White House on Nov. 6 to ask President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

WHAT: Occupy the Kochs Guerrilla Drive-In at the gala dinner of the Koch Brothers' front group, Americans for Prosperity

WHERE: 1025 Seventh Street NW (corner of L Street), 1 block south of Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro station

WHEN: Friday, November 4, from 6:00 to 8:15 p.m. (Media should arrive by 6:45 p.m.)

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: Campaign for America's Future, Campaign for Community Change, Common Cause, Health Care for America Now, Justice Through Music, Oil Change International, The Other 98%, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, Rebuild the Dream, Tar Sands Action, True Majority, USAction, and Velvet Revolution. They will be joined by hundreds of people opposed to health insurers, Big Oil and Wall Street taking over our political process and destroying the middle class.

For more information, click here.

To follow the event on Twitter, go to #OccupyTheKochs.

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"It's outrageous that health insurance companies would threaten to pass along to ratepayers a tax that should be paid by the company's Wall Street investors, especially when insurers are making record profits. At a time when Americans are struggling to make ends meet, this threat is the kind of reprehensible behavior from big corporations that has driven Americans into the streets in protest.

"The new tax was meant to capture some of the insurers' excessive profits to benefit the public, not get passed on to consumers by CEOs who make more money in a few hours than many people make in a year. Health insurance CEOs have collected more than $1 billion in personal compensation in the last decade while the majority of Americans are barely getting by.

"The health insurance companies' relentless pursuit of profit and disregard for people offers another window into how big corporations have abused people and twisted the economy to serve their own interests. The public won't stand for this just as Bank of America customers were unwilling to accept unjustified debit-card fees. No actuary or report can make this look like anything other than unbridled greed."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to cheat the families of his state out of $140 million in health insurance rebates. If Scott gets his way, it could harm consumers across the country.

Ripping off consumers and the health care system isn't new to Florida Gov. Rick Scott. He got rich leading a hospital company that paid a record $1.7 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties to the Justice Department for systematically defrauding federal health care programs. Scott went on to lead a high-profile campaign against health reform backed by the infamous right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers, and Scott used that campaign as a springboard to the governorship.

Now Scott wants his state to be exempted from federal rules that would require insurance companies to send $140 million in premium rebates to families over the next three years. Enter the big winners, the health insurance companies that will get the money instead of Florida's hard-working families.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted last year, health insurers that fail to spend at least 80% of your premiums on actual health services must give the difference back to consumers. This is one of the best and possibly least known provisions in health care reform. It requires insurance companies to become more efficient and keep less money for profits and CEO salaries. It says that people paying premiums should get more value for their money.

The goal of the rule isn't to force companies to pay consumer rebates, it's to hold insurance companies accountable and get them to change their behavior. But if they don't, they're supposed to pay, and they shouldn't get off the hook just because they like their profits more than the new law. They should not be rewarded for failing to meet a basic standard because they can get politicians like Scott to take their side.

And let's not forget the most important thing: While insurance companies are making record profits, struggling families are desperate for relief. The people of Florida need the $140 million they're owed. But consumers won't get their money if Rick Scott gets his way. The Republican governor — who's been doing everything in his power to thwart implementation of the ACA — has been shamelessly trying to manipulate the law to pad the pockets of a private health insurance industry that will collect $934 billion in premiums this year.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is doing Scott's dirty work. McCarty is a staunch opponent of the ACA who recently led an unsuccessful effort to gut the 80% rule at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. For his efforts, the National Association of Health Underwriters honored McCarty with the "Spirit of Independence Award." So the insurance industry can count on the insurance commissioner.

McCarty recently asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to give Florida's insurance companies special treatment. In order to get an exemption to the 80% rule, a state is supposed to meet some basic criteria, principally proving that its insurance market would be destabilized by the rule.

Florida doesn't meet any of the criteria, and its application to HHS fails to provide any supporting evidence. As Health Care for America Now (HCAN) detailed in a letter to HHS, the state offered no evidence that insurers would leave the state market, that consumers would have to do without the services of agents and brokers, or that anyone would go without coverage due to the rule. That's why HCAN asked HHS to reject Florida's request. Other national groups and 19 Florida health care and consumer organizations have done the same.

HCAN also asked HHS to hold a public hearing. Such a hearing would be the first of its kind — and the first opportunity for Florida's consumers to have any input on their state government's attempt to rob them of $140 million. It would also force the insurance companies seeking this special treatment to publicly face the consumers who will lose the millions of dollars they're entitled to under the ACA.

The Patient Bill of Rights in the ACA is about stopping insurance company abuses, and the 80% rule is an important part of it.

If Florida can get an unjustified exemption to this rule, it would send the message that anything goes, that the rule doesn't really matter and that insurance companies and the Republican politicians they own are in charge. We're counting on HHS and the Obama Administration to do the right thing and deny Florida's bogus request.

For Immediate Release - OCTOBER 27, 2011
Contact: Avram Goldstein 202-587-1634
agoldstein@healthcareforamericanow.org

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to hold a public hearing on the state of Florida's request to be exempted from rules that would require insurance companies to send $140 million in premium rebates to families. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurers that fail to spend at least 80% of premium revenue on actual health services must give back the difference to consumers. Florida's submission to HHS failed to provide any evidence that the MLR would destabilize the health insurance market and does not warrant a special exception from HHS.

"At a time when insurance companies are making record profits and families are struggling to make ends meet, taking away rebates from consumers is unjustified and unconscionable," said Ethan Rome, HCAN's executive director. "The state offers no justification for its proposal to undercut this pro-consumer regulation. If the state of Florida gets its way, consumers will lose $140 million in rebates and insurance companies will get that money instead."

Other states have asked HHS to let their health insurers spend more than the maximum 20% of their premium revenue on profits, CEO pay, marketing, lobbying and administration. But Florida stands alone in seeking an adjustment on such a massive scale. HCAN believes that an open hearing as permitted by recently adopted HHS regulations would serve the public interest and expose the substantial flaws in Florida's request. If approved, the hearing would be the first of its kind.

According to HCAN's letter to the Department, the state offered no evidence that insurers would leave the state market, that consumers would have to do without the services of agents and brokers, or that anyone would go without coverage due to the rule.

Florida's request emerged from a highly charged political environment. Prior to his election, Florida Governor Rick Scott led an industry-backed campaign against passage of the ACA, and the governor has since refused to implement various provisions of the law. Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has consistently been opposed to a meaningful rule on how much insurers must spend on actual health care. He led an effort to weaken the pro-consumer rule at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Governor Scott made his personal fortune at the helm of a hospital company that systematically defrauded federal health care programs. The company pleaded guilty to 14 federal felonies and was forced to pay a record $1.7 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties to the Justice Department. In 2009, with financial help from right-wing billionaires Charles and David Koch, Scott used his high-profile opposition to health reform legislation as a springboard to the governorship.

The insurance commissioner has been working for more than a year to deny these rebates to consumers, beginning in September 2010 with a sham hearing that he submitted to HHS as evidence supporting the Florida request. This state hearing was an invitation-only showcase for insurers and brokers to attack the rule, and consumers were denied the right to testify on the record.

"Florida's insurance commissioner should be using this law is to lower premium increases, not to gouge consumers," Rome said. "The goal is to lower premiums not reward companies that can't compete. The governor and the commissioner should spend less time opposing the law and more time implementing it so consumers get premium relief."

To read HCAN's letter to Secretary Sebelius, click here.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

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

At an Occupy Wall Street event in Minneapolis, last weekend protesters held up a sign that asked, "Had Enough?" A simple question. An expression of outrage. People are rightly and righteously angry, but they're also scared and worried about the future. That's why these protests across the country are supported by the majority of Americans. These are uncertain times and the system has failed them.

Some media and political pundits don't seem to get what the demonstrators are saying, but America's working and middle-class families do: People want their country back. People want to reclaim America before it becomes the unrecognizable property of the super-rich and the big corporations that see our country merely as a source of labor and natural resources to exploit for their gain.

People want jobs, homes, health care and a future. That's why they're fighting back in Minneapolis and cities across the nation. We see this spirit at the Occupy protests and in other struggles, especially in a number of state battles.

Many of us toss around the phrase "American Dream" so much that there's a risk it will lose meaning. For the protesters and the increasing number of folks in "middle America" who support them, the American Dream is real, and it represents one thing above all others - opportunity. While Wall Street sharpshooters wrecked our economy and took away peoples' homes, jobs and so much more, they also took away the future. And the Wall Street profiteers are making the present pretty rotten too.

Beneath the rhetoric about unbridled corporate greed and the grotesque income inequality ruining our country, there is a basic and understandable fear. People of all ages are terrified about finding jobs, affording a home and planning their lives. As it gets harder to afford college, it's becoming less clear what a college education gets you. In America that's a game changer. Getting an education is supposed to mean something, and all of us are supposed to do better than our parents did. That's the core aspiration of the American Dream.

Meanwhile, savings and pensions are turning into artifacts. We can't afford to save, and the jobs we do get don't have pensions. At the same time programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are under relentless attack by right-wing Republicans who answer to their special-interest corporate campaign contributors instead of their constituents back home.

We're at a moment in our history where any detailed list of policy prescriptions understates the kind of change we need. So the chattering class should stop asking the Occupy movement for a 200-point plan. America's middle class and the working poor are under assault by big corporations and the top 1 percent, and the moneyed interests are dangerously close to winning. These attacks are the real deal, and stopping them is what the protesters are talking about. We are all in different parts of the same boat, struggling today and worried about what's next. For people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, books, college degrees and great resumes won't be enough if the big corporations and the 1 percent own everything. That's the agenda - taking back our country for everyone in the 99 percent while we are still hanging on.

The 1 percent and the Republican politicians they own are chipping away at the foundation of one of the greatest inventions we've ever had in this country besides political freedom - the middle class. And led by billionaires like the Koch Brothers, extremists on the right are working to undermine our political democracy as well.

That's why the Occupy protests are so inspiring. Their message is as much what they are doing as what they're saying, and they are making it crystal clear that they've had enough. Activists from established groups on the left should look for ways to support Occupy efforts on the terms of the protesters, from turning out supporters for events to providing cash and supplies.

Of course, progressive organizations already have plenty to do. For example, people in Wisconsin have just launched a recall effort against anti-middle class, pro-corporate Gov. Scott Walker. They want their state back. Those of us involved in the budget debate in Washington, D.C., are following a so-called "super committee" that must protect low-income and middle-class programs like Medicare and Medicaid and ask the 1 percent to pay their fair share instead of perpetuating the status quo. That's not easy in a town dominated by corporate interests that care more about their bottom lines than anything else.

When it comes to state battles, one of the biggest and most important is in Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, corrections officers, firefighters, nurses, administrative assistants, sanitation workers, social workers and so many others hit the streets to gather petition signatures to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 5. This anti-democratic, anti-middle class legislation takes away the right of workers to bargain for a better life and for jobs, better services and stronger communities for everyone.

We can't have a middle class, a vibrant democracy and a just society without strong unions and a growing labor movement. And we can't have the country that we all deserve without putting people before corporate domination, a demand at the heart of the Occupy movement.

Below are few of the reasons that this waiver is a bad deal for Indiana's consumers:

• Indiana has offered no evidence that any insurers have exited the state or will exit the state or cease offering coverage absent an adjustment.
• Indiana has offered no evidence that, absent an adjustment, enrollees will lose coverage due to insurers leaving the state.
• Indiana has not demonstrated that access to agents and brokers will be disrupted if an adjustment is not granted.
• Alternative coverage is available to Indiana insurance consumers if an insurer exits the state.
• If granted, this adjustment request would cause a substantial loss to Indiana consumers.

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.

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.

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.

"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.'

"Any cuts to these essential programs would endanger the health of our parents, kids and neighbors, put the livelihoods of hardworking Americans at risk and hurt small businesses. Montana needs leaders who will create jobs, not take a meat ax to their communities.

"What Rehberg wants to do would devastate families and businesses in rural areas, where consumers pay more for health insurance and receive less care. Rehberg would stifle entrepreneurs trying to start new businesses and create jobs. Denny Rehberg has the wrong priorities.

"The only way the Super Committee can pass a rational, balanced plan is to ask corporations and the super-rich to pay their fair share of taxes, not to cut health care for kids, seniors and working families. Instead of asking the top 1% of taxpayers to pitch in and support their country, Rehberg wants to take health care away from the other 99% and make it harder for small businesses to survive. It's time for Denny Rehberg to stop siding with insurance and drug companies and other big corporations and do what's right for Montana and the nation."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

For Immediate Release - OCTOBER 6, 2011
Contact: Avram Goldstein 202-587-1634
agoldstein@healthcareforamericanow.org

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)          $1,543,606

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)              $101.600

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)           $1,308,702

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)          $3,239,594

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)         $347,526

Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA)          $929,544

Rep. Steve King (R-IA)             $128,050

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)            $2,893,682

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX)   $1,826,348

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)           $301,470

Source: Center for Responsive Politics

For Immediate Release - SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

Contact: Avram Goldstein 202-587-1634
agoldstein@healthcareforamericanow.org

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on the Republican presidential candidate debate and today's first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act's Patient Bill of Rights:

"During a discussion of vaccines at the GOP presidential debate last night, Rick Perry said, ‘I will always err on the side of life, as a governor and as the President of the United States.' If only that were so. The Texas governor has for years demonstrated his lack of concern for life by not lifting a finger to reduce the skyrocketing population of uninsured Texans. One of every four Texas residents has no health insurance, forcing many of them to go without access to life-saving care. The state rate is an astonishing 62% higher then thenational rate, meaning Texans are far more likely to die prematurely or file for bankruptcy.

"Perry isn't the only one suffering from severe health care denial. The Republicans in last night's debate used extremist language to attack the Affordable Care Act at least 17 times. All of them would rather spout their ideological boilerplate than admit that the health care law has broken the insurance companies' death grip on our care.

"Here's the reality: Today marks one year since the health care law's Patient Bill of Rights took effect, enabling 1 million uninsured young adults to get health coverage. It has ended insurance company abuses like lifetime limits on health benefits and bans on excluding children with pre-existing conditions from coverage. This law hasgiven millions of seniors more affordable prescription drugs and free preventive care through Medicare. But the Republicans are holding fast to their anti-Obama talking points, so don't expect to hear those inconvenient truths from them."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past three years to win passage of health reform and to keepCongress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Just the other day in Iowa, GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry said, "The American dream was available to me because America was never set up as a class society." A classless society? It's too bad the Texas governor didn't alert the Republicans in Congress before they started mouthing off about how President Obama's tax proposals are "class warfare." Republican leaders were caught flat-footed on Monday, and the class-warfare talking point was the best they could do.

But this claim is nonsense. As the president said, "This is not class warfare, it's math." It's also the right thing to do. The country is in a jam, and everyone needs to pitch in. The president made a forceful argument that it's a matter of fairness to ask the wealthiest in America to do their part. Specifically, the president wants fewer than 450,000 of 144 million taxpayers to pay a bit more. That barely qualifies as shared sacrifice, let alone "warfare." And let's not forget that the wealthy did pretty well under the Bush tax cuts.

The fact is that even if the GOP wanted to do they right thing, nearly every Republican in Congress has signed Grover Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection" pledge to oppose civilization and never raise any taxes in any way, ever - including closing corporate loopholes or asking the super-rich to pay a little more. Both of those things would actually help the middle-class taxpayers the Republicans pretend to protect.

Given the sweeping nature of Norquist's cult-like pledge, it effectively makes members of Congress who adhere to it less than full members because they've signed away their ability to use all the tools available to solve problems that involve money, and money-type problems come up a lot. The Republicans like to say that every problem is a spending problem. Well, when hedge-fund managers pay lower tax rates than families that can only dream about having enough money to invest in a hedge fund, that's a tax problem, not a spending one, and it's best fixed by changing the tax code.

Virtually every Republican utterance and action in the deficit debate has been reckless, irresponsible and totally driven by politics. Now that we're entering the official election season, it's naive to think Republicans would start governing now. But the pressure is on. The president has made serious proposals, and the GOP has to figure out how to go respond with a lot more than empty bumper-sticker lines like "class warfare." Slogans won't help much when the Super Committee gets down to business.

It's old news that the GOP functions as a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies, Wall Street banks and other big corporations. But these are new times. When the Republicans fight tooth and nail to keep three one-hundredths of one percent of taxpayers from paying their fair share, it's a stark reminder that they won't stand up for America's working and middle-class families no matter how bad people are hurting.

Many of the GOP's traditional allies in the business community know we need to take action now to get the economy moving with more resources and initiatives like the president's jobs plan. But the Republican Party's loyalty to inside-the-beltway extremists like Norquist exceeds even their commitment to serving their corporate patrons, and that's saying something.

The president isn't talking about class warfare. He's talking about economic firepower, and that's what America needs right now.

"Only 18 months after it was enacted, the health care law is protecting families and small businesses from outrageous premium hikes. Thanks to this second round of grants to states, the era when insurers could jack up rates at will is over.

"This funding will make sure that insurance regulators continue to build technical expertise that enables them to spot unjustified rate hikes and take steps to protect the public. Along with new standards for medical-loss ratios, rate review is putting downward pressure on health insurance premiums and making them more affordable for consumers and small businesses."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

While the Republican candidates for President made it clear in their debate this week that they are happy to let uninsured people die if they have a serious illness, the Republicans in Congress are plotting to make people with insurance pay even more for their coverage to boost insurance company profits. How? By stealing nearly $2 billion in rebates that insurance companies owe consumers and small businesses and giving the money back to the insurers.

At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, this would be an astonishing transfer of money from consumers to the already overflowing coffers of the health insurance industry, whose top five companies alone made $11.7 billion in 2010.

The heist is being promoted by the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. They want to repeal a provision of the Affordable Care Act, known as the medical-loss ratio (MLR). The MLR sets a minimum percentage of premiums (80 percent for individual and small-group plans and 85 percent for large group plans) that insurers spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits and bloated executive compensation. Under the law, companies that fall short of the minimums must rebate the difference to consumers. The GOP thinks repealing this requirement is such as good idea in this weak economy that they're holding a hearing on it Thursday.

The rebates are huge because insurance companies overcharge so much. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that consumers will receive $1.4 billion in rebates in the coming year. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners says the rebates could hit $2 billion.

Already the MLR rule is saving consumers money. Some insurance companies in California, Connecticut, Michigan and North Carolina have already rolled back rates, declared premium holidays or issued direct refunds. In Connecticut, policyholders saw rate decreases of as much as 19 percent. That's how the law is supposed to work - it forces insurance companies to change their pricing and makes them pay if they don't.

But the GOP cares more about the insurance companies than consumers and small businesses. You might even say the industry and other corporate interests and campaign contributors own the Republicans in Congress.

In fact, the health care and insurance industries have given the Republicans holding Thursday's hearing more than $21.7 million in campaign contributions, according to a new analysis by Public Campaign Action Fund. Maybe that's why they are willing to take so much money from consumers and give it to health insurers even as they rake in record profits on the backs of families and businesses being crushed by a bad economy.

We desperately need to help working and middle-class families, support small businesses and put America back to work. That's what our representatives in Congress should be doing, not robbing money from people trying to keep up with their bills.

Cross posted on the Huffington Post here.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, expressed outrage today at comments made last night at a GOP forum in which presidential candidates indicated they'd sooner abandon an uninsured person to die than see the government play a role in providing access to life-saving health care.

In response to questions from CNN's Wolf Blitzer, candidate Ron Paul said people should go without insurance if they like, and audience members shouted that a severely ill person should be allowed to die if he had no health insurance. Paul said uninsured people with expensive, long-term medical problems should turn to their churches and relatives rather than expect to be helped by a government safety net. None of the other presidential candidates objected.

See a clip of the GOP debate exchange here.

"Last night the Republicans made a shocking public display of their brazen disregard for the well-being of 50 million uninsured people," said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. "When the GOP talks about the freedom of uninsured people to wither and die, they're also talking about restoring the freedom of insurance companies to jack up your premium rates, deny your care and abuse families and small businesses. That's the way it was before the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. They reject the idea that our government has any role at all in setting rules that stop insurance companies from mistreating the public and that make health insurance affordable for families and small businesses. Republicans have zero concern about the needs of working and middle-class families who cannot afford the medical care they need."

Lack of health insurance causes 45,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Witnessing members of the audience at Monday's Tea Party forum shout that it would be better to let a 30-year-old man die than to have our government provide access to health care tells us all we need to know about the real family values of the Republicans, Rome said.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on today's report from the U.S. Census Bureau on health insurance coverage in 2010:

"The Census Bureau report is fresh evidence that full implementation of the Affordable Care Act can't come soon enough. The economy is in rough shape, and when people lose their jobs, they lose their health insurance. The ACA will stop this madness and make sure people have health insurance no matter what happens.

"Even in its first phase of implementation, the health care law has expanded coverage, helping 500,000 young adults get insurance - many of them through new access to their parents' health plans. The numbers of people who will be have access to life-saving health care will grow exponentially in 2014, when the main coverage expansions of the Affordable Care Act take effect."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on President Obama's plan to create jobs:

"Tonight the President asked Congress to take concrete actions to create jobs and support America's working and middle-class families. The President challenged Congress to decide whose side they are on and to support his American Jobs Act.

"The President's jobs bill will make a real difference in peoples' lives. The Republicans have supported its key provisions before and Congress should adopt the plan right now.

"Throughout these tough times, the Republicans have made clear they would rather protect big corporations and the super-rich than put America back to work. The GOP has acted to protect tax loopholes for corporate jet owners and Big Oil instead of protecting America's struggling small businesses and families. If the Republicans had their way, they'd decimate Medicare and Social Security and give more tax cuts to the very wealthy - proposals that won't create a single job or help any businesses keep their doors open. It's time for the Republicans to put politics aside and stand with America's working and middle-class families.

"The President also made clear that we need everyone to pitch in by paying their fair share of taxes. There is simply no way to create jobs, support business and revive the middle class unless big corporations and the super-rich pay their fair share."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on today's 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rulings on the Affordable Care Act:

"Today's court decisions in Virginia removed politically motivated legal roadblocks to implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This law is not going to be stopped by political or judicial sabotage. Opponents should stop playing politics with people's health care. The protections against insurance company abuses such as discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions are here to stay. Along with previous rulings issued by the 11^th and 6^th circuits, these decisions make clear that health care reform must move forward."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

For Immediate Release - AUGUST 12, 2011
Contact: Melinda Gibson 202-454-6189
mgibson@healthcareforamericanow.org

Washington, DC - Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on today's 11^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on the Affordable Care Act:

"The 11th Circuit corrects the lower court's extraordinary judicial overreach and upholds the major benefits and consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This decision makes clear that the courts will not undo health care reform and that insurance company abuses like discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions will not be tolerated.

The 11th Circuit sent a clear message to the politicians who brought this suit and every state in the nation that implementation of health care reform must move forward.

As for the individual responsibility provision, four courts, including the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, found the law constitutional. The law will work best and insurance will be most affordable if everyone has coverage.  That's what the individual responsibility provision is about and we are confident it will ultimately be upheld."

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Health Care for America Now is the nation's leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

HCAN Calls for Immediate Rebates Under Affordable Care Act Guidelines

Washington, DC — Profits at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies surged again in the second quarter as their customers continued to cut back on doctor and hospital visits in a slowing economy, according to new financial data released by the industry. Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy group, said the record-breaking profits show that the insurers continue to foist excessive and unjustified rate hikes on families and small businesses.

“While America’s families and businesses are struggling in a tough economy, insurance companies are racking up unconscionable profits,” said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. “Premiums have gone up 131% since 1999, and people are struggling with every kind of household expense. People need relief. The law says the insurers have to make these refunds, so they might as well do it now when people really need the money.”

Under a consumer protection provision in the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that insurers will owe up to 9 million customers as much as $1.4 billion in 2011 rebates payable next year. The new rule (medical-loss ratio) sets a minimum percentage of premiums (80% for individual and small group plans and
85% for large groups) that insurers must spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits and bloated CEO salaries. Companies that fall short of the minimums must rebate the difference to consumers.

According to an analysis by HCAN, Wall Street-run health insurance companies took $7 billion in profits in the first half of 2011 by charging more and spending much less on patient care.

In California, Connecticut and North Carolina, some insurers were so embarrassed by excessive profits piling up in their accounts that they rolled backed rates, declared premium holidays or issued direct refunds. “The entire industry should do the same on a national scale,” Rome said. Despite claims that insurance company premium growth reflects actual changes in medical costs, their increases have consistently been twice the rate of medical inflation.

See below for more information on insurance company profits.

Health Insurers Continue Profit Surge in Second Quarter

Combined profits for UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc., which cover one-third of the U.S. population, surged 13.5% to $3.4 billion in the second quarter. If the trend holds, the five companies will take a record $14 billion in profits in 2011. Through the economic recession and its aftermath from 2008 to 2010, combined profits for the five companies increased 51 percent. In 2010, profits grew 17 percent, excluding a one-time $2.2 billion gain from the 2009 sale of a WellPoint subsidiary.

The insurance industry claims to have a low average profit margin of 4.4%, but so far in 2011, Aetna has reported a health care profit margin of 11%, Cigna 7.4%, WellPoint 7.8%, and UnitedHealth 7.7%.

Insurers defend their increasing wealth by saying their profits represent less than one penny of every dollar of national health spending, but that is deceptive. One penny of every health care dollar amounts to $347 billion over the 10 years ending in 2019, according to government projections.

LOWER HEALTH CARE SPENDING

In the second quarter of 2011, growth in premiums rapidly outpaced increases in spending on patient care. Aetna led the industry in finding ways to avoid covering actual health care by shifting medical costs to working families and employers through skimpier coverage and higher deductibles. As a result, the share of premiums Aetna spent in the first quarter on medical care (known in industry parlance as the medical-loss ratio) dropped to 77.9%, a hefty 2.2 percentage-point decline from 80.1% a year earlier. UnitedHealth also trimmed its health care costs, spending 80.7% of premiums on patient care, down from 81.9% the year before. Insurers used to be free to devote any percentage of premium revenue to lavish CEO pay, marketing, administration, lobbying, the care-denial bureaucracy and claims handling services that foul up one in every five claims. The Affordable Care Act will finally rein them in with rebates scheduled for issuance in 2012.

“Americans are struggling to find work, hold onto their homes and provide for their families,” Rome said. “There’s no reason for insurance companies to wait a year to return premium overpayments that they owe and consumers need.”

Medical Loss Ratios Dropped for Most Insurers in Second Quarter

Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

Download the full report in pdf form here.

It would be easy to criticize Speaker John Boehner's reckless and irresponsible political theater, but yesterday's spectacle in Congress speaks for itself. Enough! Call Congress and demand a clean debt-ceiling increase now.

For good reason, raising the debt ceiling has always been a routine bipartisan act of Congress. It is dangerous and foolish to toy with default by linking debt-ceiling increase to any contentious legislative initiative. This is especially true of a budget debate that forces fundamental questions over whether our government should protect tax loopholes for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations or protect seniors and middle-class families, a debate further complicated because it exposes deep divisions within the House Republican caucus.

That's why a clean debt-ceiling bill is the best way to solve this crisis.

Speaker Boehner's effort today to get the votes for a debt package that is dead-on-arrival in the Senate is as pointless as it is dangerous. Boehner and the Republicans are bringing us one step closer to a crisis that will wreck our economy and disrupt the lives of America's families. Because of their extremism, seniors may not get their Social Security checks and our soldiers fighting overseas will have to worry about whether their families back home will get their pay.

Our nation's politics have historically been held together by core values about putting country above party, about working together for the common good, especially in times of crisis. The House Republicans are tossing those values out the window.

This has to stop.

We can't wait anymore — it's time for Congress to raise the debt ceiling immediately. You can click this link and tell Congress to act now.

Washington, DC – Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nation’s largest grassroots health care advocacy group, will join other progressive organizations today to stage more than 100 events nationwide to demand a debt deal that protects seniors and the middle class while making sure the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.

Republicans in the House and Senate are on the verge of inflicting major damage on our economy by refusing to drop a radical plan to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class by slashing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and preserving outlandish tax breaks for millionaires, private jet owners and big corporations.

“The Republicans are waging an all-out assault on the middle class in order to protect the super-rich and big corporations when we need a balanced approach to avert a crisis that will wreck the economy,” said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. “People are fed up with the Republicans, who want to slash Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security just to protect tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations. People are taking action because they want Congress to create jobs and the Republicans to stop wasting precious time pushing their extremist agenda.”

HCAN is joining with project coordinator MoveOn.org and a host of progressive organizations, including AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Education Association, Protect Your Care, SEIU, and USAction.

Today’s events are the continuation of a massive grassroots lobbying campaign that jammed telephone lines to Congress, brought picketers to congressional district offices coast to coast and engaged tens of thousands of people opposed to a debt-ceiling deal that slashes Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while giving tax breaks to millionaires, private jet owners and big corporations.

In the past two weeks HCAN has held more than 50 events across the country demanding members of Congress stop protecting millionaires and billionaires and preserve Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security for middle-class Americans. HCAN supporters this month also made 5,000 calls to senators and representatives' offices.

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Health Care for America Now is the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy organization. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

House Speaker John Boehner should be ashamed of his deceitful speech Monday night. He didn't tell the truth. After introducing himself as the speaker of "the whole House," Boehner spoke as a political partisan and not a practical problem solver.

Boehner is a hostage of the Tea Party fanatics in his caucus and the Republicans' obsession with protecting tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, like hedge fund managers, corporate jet owners, oil companies and other special interests.

Boehner's response to the president was an astonishing display of revisionist history and brutish partisan politics. Boehner described his plans in poll-tested generalities, but what he didn't tell the American people was that his proposal would cut $1.8 trillion from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, in order to protect millionaires, billionaires and big corporations from paying their fair share. It's almost cartoonishly diabolical. The GOP's approach would paralyze Washington by forcing Congress to revisit this issue again and again instead of creating the jobs our country needs.

Monday night, Boehner told one lie after another. Not half-truths or mischaracterizations. Lies. He saved the biggest lies for how he described the debt ceiling talks themselves. He said, "I made a sincere effort to work with the president," yet every time the deal gets closer to what the Republicans want they run away. He said, "The president would not take yes for an answer." That's what the president said about Boehner last week. The difference is, when the president said it, it was true and still is.

Boehner then said that the president "wants a blank check." That's absurd. How can anyone argue that a plan with trillions of dollars in spending cuts is a blank check? The cuts being discussed are historic. They're massive.

The simple fact is that the Republicans are not working with the president to avert a crisis, they're doing everything they can to create one. In contrast, President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress have repeatedly made clear that they're willing to work with the Republicans to develop a sensible, long-term budget and avert an economic disaster that will reverberate around the world.

President Obama has always said we need a balanced plan that includes both spending cuts and revenue. It's only fair that everyone should pitch in, including millionaires, billionaires and the big corporations, and it's critical that we protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from budget cuts that would devastate America's seniors and middle-class families.

The Republicans now have to decide whether they want to govern or keep saying no to protect the wealthiest people and corporations in America. The GOP's extremist position against a balanced approach won't create a single job or help a single business keep its doors open. The Republicans' fanaticism and brinkmanship is out of control and puts at risk our economy and the financial security of all Americans.

President Obama made clear again that he's willing to work with the Republicans to develop a sensible, long-term budget and avert an economic disaster that will reverberate around the world.

Boehner’s response to the president was an astonishing display of revisionist history and partisan politics. The Republicans have offered a reckless, short-term plan that insists on taking away Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits that seniors depend on in order to protect millionaires, billionaires and big corporations from paying their fair share. The GOP’s approach would paralyze Washington by forcing Congress to revisit this issue again and again instead of creating the jobs our countryneeds.

President Obama has always said we need a balanced plan that includes both spending cuts and revenue. It's only fair that everyone should pitch in, including millionaires, billionaires and the big corporations, and it's critical that we protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security from budget cuts that would devastate America's seniors and middle-class families.

The Republicans now have to decide if they want to govern or keep saying no to protect the wealthiest people and corporations in America. The GOP's extremist position against a balanced approach won't create a single job or help a single business keep its doors open. The Republicans' fanaticism and brinkmanship is out of control and puts at risk our economy and the financial security of all Americans.

The extremist GOP has recklessly politicized one of the most important governing opportunities of a lifetime - Speaker of the House John Boehner walked away from bipartisan debt-ceiling talks at the last minute to protect tax loopholes for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations.

It was an astonishing display of crass, reckless partisan politics to appease the Speaker's base of Tea Party fanatics in Congress and his special-interest campaign contributors, which increasingly control him instead of his better instincts to do the right thing.

The debt-ceiling talks are about setting priorities and making hard choices. Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor and the Republicans have made their choices clear: In the negotiations they have chosen to put tax cuts for big corporations and super-rich people before all other considerations.

The Speaker and the GOP have put ideological purity and pandering to extremist right-wing interest groups and their Republican mouthpieces in Congress before problem solving to avert a crisis. Before deficit reduction. Before job creation. Before helping America's seniors and working and middle-class families get by in this tough economy.

It isn't any more complicated that. They've made their choices clear. And so, too, has the president.

By all accounts the parties were moments away from a deal that met the vast majority of the Republicans' demands while forcing Democrats to accept a disturbingly long list of concessions on core principles and priority programs they hold dear. And yet giving the Republicans a lot of what they wanted was not enough because the Republicans' dirty secret is that they don't really care about the deficit. And as the president has said, the Republicans simply don't know how to say yes. Instead, the GOP has engaged in political brinkmanship on steroids to protect tax loopholes for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations that need those tax breaks less than anyone.

When the Republicans walked away from an imminent bipartisan deal, they threw the economy, the international markets and seniors and middle-class families under the bus. They're willing to default on Americans' financial obligations and default on the American dream, which has bee made possible by programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, college aid and much more.

It's now abundantly clear that the Republicans are willing to drive our economy off a cliff rather than ask corporations and the super-rich to pay their fair share. They're willing to end Medicare as we know it rather than ask corporate jet owners to give up their excessive and unjustifiable tax breaks. They're willing to slash Medicaid and literally kick millions of seniors out of nursing homes — and shift billions of dollars of costs to the states while costing millions of jobs — rather than force Big Oil companies to give up their special tax loopholes.

The GOP's recklessness and irresponsibility has no limits even at this perilous moment. Unfortunately, they're not in power to govern. They don't care about getting things done for the best interest of the country. They're in power to posture and position themselves for the next election, and that's the last thing the country needs right now. I'm still hopeful that the Speaker will come around to a responsible way to solve a problem, but I hope that doesn't include the deal that was on the table because Obama was giving away too much in his effort to get a deal that would avoid default.

What's missing from the talks is the simple fact that seniors and middle-class families didn't cause the debt and shouldn't have to pay for it. Shredding the economic security of struggling families and small businesses is simply the wrong way to go. It's a bad deal for America, even it it's bipartisan.

The answer now seems pretty clear — if a fair deal can't be arrived at promptly, the president and legislative leaders should do what's both achievable and what makes the most economic and policy sense: They should have a clean vote on the debt ceiling now so we can end the gridlock and get to the business of governing and addressing job creation and other top priorities.

Federal Officials Try Again to Bolster Plans For People With Medical Conditions

By Michelle Andrews

Jul 05, 2011

How low can they go? Experts agreed that pricey premiums for the new “pre-existing condition insurance plans” created under the health care overhaul were partly to blame for anemic enrollment in the plans, which reached just 21,454 after several months, compared with potentially hundreds of thousands that had been projected.

Starting July 1, the Obama administration reduced premiums by up to 40 percent in 17 states and the District of Columbia where it runs the new high-risk programs and encouraged other states to follow suit. The reductions were possible because federal officials now have state-specific data that allowed them to more accurately peg the premiums to the rates for individual plans in the state, as the law requires, says Steven Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Another provision of the health reform law could help make the plans—which are aimed at people with medical conditions who can’t get coverage on the private individual market—even more affordable.

Under the law, starting in 2012 insurers must spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect on medical claims, as opposed to administration or profit, or pay rebates to consumers for the excess amount collected.

Some insurers are already reducing premiums to meet the new “medical loss ratio” requirements. (Medical claims paid are considered losses in insurance jargon.) If tough economic times continue and people cut back on medical care, experts say other insurers may follow suit. “Plans are getting nervous about how big the rebates they’re going to have to pay are,” says Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University who’s a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

If insurers lower premiums in the individual market to meet the law’s new MLR requirements, that could be good news for the PCIP programs, whose rates are supposed to be no higher than standard rates in a state’s individual market.

Talk about further reductions can wait for another day. “It’s possible,” that the medical loss ratio requirements might further depress premiums in the PCIPs, says Larsen. However, “I wouldn’t care to speculate about that.”

Read more about high-risk insurance plans.

The President and Democratic Leaders obviously have a huge responsibility in the debt limit talks. But if there's ever been a time to drive a hard bargain, this is it. There's nothing irresponsible about staring down the Republicans and making them blink. These negotiations boil down to fundamental choices and priorities, and the differences between the sides could not be more stark. Democrats are for working and middle-class families. The Republicans are for rich people and big corporations. Seniors and middle-class families need to win this time.

That's why it was encouraging to hear White House spokesman Jay Carney sum it up so well on Monday: "Do we perpetuate a system that allows for subsidies in revenues for oil and gas, for example, or owners of corporate private jets, and then call for cuts in things like food safety or weather services?"

Carney's question was spot on, and Democrats should forcefully answer it with a resounding "no." Democrats should insist on cutting spending on things like tax breaks for Big Oil and owners of corporate jets before agreeing to any other cuts (as Drew Westen has suggested). There's no basis for whacking seniors and middle-class families by cutting vital programs before ending outrageous tax loopholes for people and companies that don't need them. When it comes to Medicare and Medicaid, there's no rationale for taking a meat ax to these programs at all.

Deep Medicaid cuts, for example, will cause serious, irreparable harm to people. Millions of seniors would be thrown out of nursing homes. Middle-class families would be slammed with crushing health care costs for their parents while struggling to make ends meet, save for retirement and send kids to college. Children and people with disabilities will go without needed care. Huge costs will be shifted to state governments, jobs will be lost and the economy will be hurt.

Democrats have to resist the Republican plan to destroy Medicaid as fiercely as they are fighting the Republican proposal to end Medicare as we know it. They shouldn't cave in on this issue. That would be devastating for people and for the political fortunes of Democrats.

As for tax loopholes for the corporate jet set and others, Democrats should never agree that eliminating tax breaks is the same as increasing taxes. It's not. It's a cut of wasteful, obscene and unaffordable government spending on people and corporations that are awash in money and don't need more - especially in the form of handouts paid for by middle-class taxpayers. It's worth shouting this every minute of every day.

These tax breaks are as pointless and unconscionable as they are extravagant. Can we really afford to spend $21 billion of our tax dollars giving a break to Big Oil, the most profitable companies in the history of the world? Or spend $3.7 trillion continuing the Bush tax cuts for the rich? The Bush tax cuts are responsible for about a third of the national debt. And there are obviously more important things to spend tax dollars on - like a real jobs program that puts people back to work.

America can't afford useless tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations. It's been shown repeatedly that cutting taxes for the super rich does nothing to create jobs and grow the economy. Tax cuts for high-income people and companies only make rich people richer at a time when middle-class families are struggling to hang on. Instead, we should be raising revenue by increasing taxes on folks in the highest income brackets, as Rep.Jan Schakowsky of Illinois has sensibly proposed. Asking America's wealthiest people to pitch in and pay their fair share is good policy and politics.

The Republicans aren't interested in deficit reduction or the budget. They are mounting a frontal assault on the middle class. It's about shrinking government and remaking our society so millionaires and corporations get even richer while the rest of us are left with crumbs.

People are hurting and understandably angry. Some Republicans don't know this, and most don't care. But Democrats do. That's why it's worth fighting so hard for seniors and the middle class in the debt limit talks. The stakes are high. The federal government can't default on its debt obligations. We also can't tear apart the programs that preserve and expand the middle class. We can't default on the American Dream. Democrats must keep alive the promise of economic security and opportunity for the people who built this country and make it work.

Insurers, awash in billions of dollars in record profits and excess capital, should give consumers their money back

The health insurance industry continues reporting record-setting profits while socking consumers with unjustified and excessive rate hikes. Today, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) called on the Wall Street-run health care profit machines to accelerate the consumer rebates required by the Affordable Care Act and immediately give back billions in premium overcharges to families and businesses.

Year after year insurance companies have imposed double-digit premium hikes on America's families and businesses to pay for their excessive profits and financial shell games.

The insurance companies say that their premiums reflect costs, but that's simply not true. Rates have gone up by an astounding 131% since 1999. That's twice the rate of medical inflation. It's also three times greater than wage growth, and it's busting family budgets and employer balance sheets.

Fortunately the Affordable Care Act is changing things. Under a consumer protection provision in the new law, the Health and Human Services Department estimates that insurers will owe up to 9 million customers as much as $1.4 billion in 2011 rebates payable next year. The new rule - called the medical-loss ratio - sets a minimum percentage of premiums (80% for individual and small group plans and 85% for large group plans) that insurers spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits and bloated CEO salaries. Companies that fall short of the minimums must rebate the money to consumers.

Some insurers in California, Connecticut and North Carolina have already rolled backed rates, declared premium holidays or issued direct refunds. The rest of the industry should do the same nationwide.

Here are five reasons why insurance companies can and should roll back rates now:

1. Insurance company profits have gone too far.

Through the economic recession and its aftermath from 2008 to 2010, the combined profits for UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. increased 51 percent.

In the first quarter of 2011, the combined profits of the five companies, which cover one-third of the U.S. population, surged 14% to $3.6 billion. If the trend holds, they'll rake in a record $14.4 billion in profits in 2011.

2. Premiums are going up while medical spending is going down.

Premiums have risen 131% since 1999 for families with employment-based insurance. America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry's mouthpiece, likes to blame customers for rising premiums. People who buy health insurance have the annoying habit of using it when they get sick. But premiums have increased at twice the rate of medical inflation.

And, as a percentage, insurers are spending less of our premium dollars on actual medical care, and more on administrative costs like lavish CEO pay, marketing, lobbying, and the care-denial bureaucracy. The ratio of medical to administrative costs is known as the medical-loss ratio. In the first quarter of 2011, Cigna led the industry in finding ways to avoid covering actual health care - the share of premiums Cigna spent in the first quarter on medical care dropped to 77.3%, an extraordinary 5.6 percentage-point decline from 82.9% a year earlier. Aetna trimmed its health care costs from 81.1% of premium revenue to 77%. And Humana reduced its patient-care spending rate by 3.5 percentage points.

3. CEOs Spend Billions on Dividends and Stock Buybacks to Boost Share Prices and Enrich Themselves.

Record profits and reduced health care spending don't tell the whole story. Insurance companies use other Wall Street tools to quietly direct customer cash into their own pockets. For instance, insurers bought back $1.8 billion in their own stock in the first quarter - a practice that reduces the number of shares available in the market and boosts stock prices.

Since 2003, the five largest for-profit companies have allocated $66.9 billion in customer cash to buying back their own stock to reward insiders and Wall Street investors. So far this year, share prices for the five health insurers have risen 38% to 52%, compared to less than 3% for the broad market index. This benefits CEOs who hold large stakes in their own companies and who get bonuses, stock awards and stock options for guiding share prices upward. Buybacks do nothing to improve public health, make insurers more efficient or reduce premiums.

The five big for-profit health insurers have been so profitable that they're shoveling it back to investors. WellPoint announced that it plans to pay $400 million in dividends this year, while UnitedHealth plans a dividend of $449 million and Aetna expects to pay $230 million.

4. Insurance companies hoard cash in the name of "solvency."

In addition to excessive profits and stock buybacks, insurers have also been building massive capital reserves. On December 31, the nation's for-profit and nonprofit health insurance companies were holding $97.3 billion in risk-based capital to cover unexpected medical claims - six times more than state regulators require, according to Citigroup Global Markets.

5. While insurance companies are awash in cash, families and businesses are barely getting by.

It's unconscionable that insurance companies continue to impose double-digit premium hikes on America's families and businesses to pay for their excess profits and financial shell games at a time when consumers and employers are struggling in this tough economy.

At the end of this year, the new health law requires insurers to square up and pay us back for their excesses. But insurers shouldn't wait to give back our money. They should start paying consumers their rebates right now.

Washington, DC—With the health insurance industry reporting record profits while continuing to sock consumers with unjustified and excessive rate hikes, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is demanding that insurers accelerate rebates required by the Affordable Care Act and immediately give back billions in premium overcharges to families and businesses.

“While America’s families and businesses are struggling in this tough economy, insurance companies are making money hand over fist,” said HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome. “They’re making record profits by spending less on health care and playing financial games to boost their earnings and build up billions of dollars in cash reserves. Premiums have gone up 131% since 1999. The insurance companies should put an end to their price-gouging and roll back their rates right now.”

Some insurers in California, Connecticut and North Carolina have rolled backed rates, declared premium holidays or issued direct refunds. “The rest of the industry should do the same on a national scale,” Rome said.

According to an analysis by HCAN, the nation’s leading grassroots health care advocacy group, Wall Street-run health insurance companies generated huge profits in the first quarter of this year by charging more and spending much less on patient care.

At the same time, the insurance companies have quietly shifted billions of dollars to Wall Street investors through stock “buybacks” and built capital reserves substantially larger thanrequired by regulators. Meanwhile, despite insurance company claims that rising premiums reflect actual increases in medical costs, their rate hikes have consistently been twice the rate of medical inflation.

Under a consumer protection provision in the Affordable Care Act, the Health and Human Services Department estimates that insurers will owe up to 9 million customers as much as $1.4 billion in 2011 rebates payable next year. The new rule (medical-loss ratio) sets a minimum percentage of premiums (80% for individual and small group plans and 85% for large group plans) that insurers spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits and bloated CEO salaries. Companies that fall short of the minimums must rebate the money to consumers.

“Families and businesses are barely hanging on while the insurance companies are swimming in cash,” Rome said. “There’s no reason to wait. The insurers should start paying consumers their rebates right now.”

Read the full report here.

“Congress clearly has the authority to regulate the health insurance market, including protecting consumers from insurance industry abuses and making health care affordable for families, seniors and businesses. The best way to protect consumers and control costs is to make sure everyone has affordable health insurance, and that's what the Affordable Care Act does.

“As for the individual mandate, everyone knows the Republicans invented the idea. They didn’t decide it was unconstitutional until it became a part of the health care law they had a political reason to oppose.

“We are encouraged that the judges today discussed the law on its merits without injecting overt partisanship into the process, and we are confident the Affordable Care Act will ultimately be upheld.

“The American people will not allow the courts or Congress to return us to the time when insurance companies could exclude people because of pre-existing conditions, drop people for getting sick, jack up rates when they please or let benefit caps force people with serious diseases into bankruptcy.”

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

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If the Republicans get their way and turn Medicaid into a so-called block grant, millions of seniors would be thrown out of nursing homes. Middle class families would be slammed with crushing health care costs for their parents while struggling to make ends meet, save for their own retirement and send kids to college. Children and people with disabilities will go without needed care. Huge costs will be shifted to state governments, jobs will be lost and the economy will be hurt.

All of this is why Democrats have to resist the Republican plan to destroy Medicaid as fiercely as Democrats and their allies are fighting the Republican proposal to end Medicare as we know it.

Now is the time to intensify this battle. We're right on the merits, we're winning on Medicare, and the public is with us. Just as voters are overwhelmingly opposed to privatizing Medicare and replacing it with inadequate vouchers, there is also strong public support for preserving Medicaid services like critical nursing home care for seniors. Half of Americans report a personal connection to Medicaid, either for themselves or a friend or family member.

The political environment has changed dramatically since the Republican plan was first proposed. Democrats and advocacy groups have taken the offensive with a huge national Medicare fight. Democrat Kathy Hochul ran on the issue and scored an upset victory in the deeply red 26th congressional district of New York. While four Republican senators stood up to their party and rejected this misguided proposal, the rest of the GOP has closed ranks and made support of the plan a litmus test for presidential candidates.

The Medicare proposal is part of a Republican assault on the middle class that also includes this draconian attack on Medicaid and the people who benefit from it — seniors, children, and people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. They're making these and other cuts (like tuition assistance for college students) to pay for tax cuts for the rich, and tax breaks for Big Oil and other special interests.

Medicaid covers nearly 60 million people, about half of them children. Seniors and people with disabilities make up one-quarter of Medicaid enrollees and account for two-thirds of Medicaid spending. Medicaid is the primary payer for 64 percent of all nursing home residents. These folks count on it to protect them at a time in their lives when they have no other choices.

How would the Republican Medicaid scheme work? Under the current system, state Medicaid programs receive federal matching funds based on the number of people in need and the costs of care in that state. Under the GOP's block grant proposal, states would instead receive lump sums set in advance and capped. The Republican plan eliminates Medicaid's guarantee of coverage and would slash nearly $800 billion in services over the next decade. Federal spending on Medicaid would be cut by 35 percent in 2021 and in half by 2030. So it's not a courageous innovation from House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan — it's a shift of billions of dollars of costs to state taxpayers and a dramatic reduction in needed services.

If states wanted to maintain their current level of Medicaid services, they'd have to make unacceptable cuts in other areas or raise new revenues. In reality, those states would be forced to make substantial and painful cuts. Fewer people would be covered, and their benefits would be scaled back. Other states, such as those with Republican governors who have been agitating in favor of this plan, would impose especially deep cuts. These cuts would have a far-reaching impact on families, businesses, state governments and regional economies:

• Millions of seniors would be left without nursing home coverage, their families forced to dig into their own pockets to care for them. The average cost of nursing home care in the U.S. is $74,800 a year, while the median household income is only about $52,000. The math just doesn't work.
• Three million jobs would be robbed from our national economy, jeopardizing our recovery when job creation should be the top priority.
• Millions of children in low-income families would have to make do without adequate medical services, hurting their quality of life and the quality of their education. For example, children with conditions like unmanaged asthma and chronic allergies would miss school and find it difficult to concentrate when they are in attendance, compromising their school performance and limiting their educational and economic prospects.
• Billions of dollars in health costs will be shifted to the states, which will no longer be able to turn to the federal government for resources to care for more people in need because of economic downturns or emergencies.
• Millions of Americans in the sandwich generation will find it impossible to save the hundreds of thousands of dollars they will need for their own retirement and health care along with the health care needs of their parents. Combined with other pressures like cuts in college aid, working and middle class families will fall farther and farther behind.
• What's more, the block-grant plan would shift hundreds of billions of dollars in costs onto doctors and hospitals, sending private health plan premiums even higher.

The Republicans' Medicaid & Medicare plan isn't just an attack on health care — it's a systematic effort to undermine the economic security of all of America's families. We can't preserve and expand the middle class if people don't have affordable health care they can count on. These days, people have enough to worry about with high unemployment, rising gas and food prices and mortgages they can barely afford. Democrats have forced the Republicans to blink on Medicare. They should do the same on Medicaid, and the rest of us should do our part to help.

Excerpt from Ethan Rome's testimony:

While much of the country is still struggling in this tough economy, health insurance companies have posted record profits with premiums that are crushing America’s families, seniors and businesses. That’s why the provisions of the law that hold the health insurance companies accountable, end their worst abuses and curb unreasonable rate hikes are a critical part of the ACA.

Thanks to the law, we now have a minimum percentage of our premiums that insurers must spend on actual medical care instead of wasteful overhead, excessive profits, and bloated executive compensation.

This rule, known as the medical-loss ratio, combats the long-term downward trend in insurers’ spending on medical care as a percentage of premiums…

When we hear opponents of the ACA talk about repeal, what they’re really talking about is protecting excessive insurance company profits and giving our health care back to the insurance companies.

Read Ethan Rome's full testimony (including supporting documents) as submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee here.

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.

The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., will hear arguments Tuesday on contradictory rulings by two Virginia federal judges on attempts to invalidate the new health care law's requirement that everyone who can afford private insurance must buy it.

The encouraging news for those of us who support the law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is that the results so far are good: of the 31 lawsuits challenging the ACA in federal courts, only two judges have ruled against part or all of the law. Most of the other cases have been dismissed or are still wending their way through the lower courts. Of the five judges who have ruled on the merits, three have upheld the law.

In one of the Virginia cases, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled that the individual responsibility provision, also known as the individual mandate, is a proper exercise of congressional authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

Judge Moon is right: 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 affordable health insurance, and that's what the ACA does.

As all the legal challenges wind through the courts, there have been several significant developments that provide important context for the litigation:

• Most states are proceeding at a good pace with implementation - including many of the 26 listed as plaintiffs in the Florida legal challenge now on appeal in the 11th Circuit. Virginia itself passed a law, signed by its Republican governor, declaring its intent to create a state exchange.

• The ACA is already making a huge difference in the lives of millions of Americans. For example, 600,000 young adults now have insurance thanks to the ACA requirement that they be allowed to enroll in their parents' workplace health plans. People now have zero co-pays for preventive services, children can no longer be rejected by insurers because of pre-existing conditions, and insurers must end lifetime limits on care. Seniors in the Medicare "donut hole" have discounts on prescription drugs, and 4 million of them received $250 checks last year. Small businesses are receiving job-creating tax credits for providing workplace coverage, and now more small businesses are offering coverage despite the slow economy.

• Contrary to their "repeal and replace" promise on the campaign trail, Republicans have failed to offer a replacement health care proposal of any kind. Instead they've obsessively worked to repeal and defund the ACA, a project that appears to have stalled out. Just last week GOP leaders threw up their hands and acknowledged the futility of their efforts.

• The Republicans spearheading the political and legal attacks on the law have demonstrated mind-blowing hypocrisy on the individual responsibility provision. While they've excoriated the mandate - and argued again and again that it violates the constitutional rights of every American - they've embraced a mandate in their Medicare privatization scheme, which the Republicans in the House voted for last month as part of their 2012 budget. The Republican plan ends Medicare as we know it and would devastate America's seniors and families. Ironically, it also requires that seniors buy private insurance in a way that's nearly identical to the insurance requirement in the ACA (although that's where the similarity to the ACA begins and ends).

The ACA lawsuits are part of a serious attack on the people who are benefiting from the law - millions of seniors, children, young people and families. The politicians who want to overturn the law can yammer on about the Constitution, but what they can't do is explain how taking away important protections and benefits is good for actual people.

We are confident the law will ultimately be upheld. The U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say, and it has corrected lower-court mistakes when the nation has enacted other historic laws like Social Security, the minimum wage law and the Voting Rights Act.

We also believe the American people will not allow the courts or the Congress to return us to the time when insurance companies could exclude people because of pre-existing conditions, drop people for getting sick, jack up rates when they please or let benefit caps force people with serious diseases into bankruptcy.

The two cases being heard Tuesday, just like the Florida challenge, are driven by partisan politics. The Republicans' obsessive efforts to repeal and defund the ACA reveal that this litigation is really about the Republican Party protecting health insurer profits at the expense of working and middle-class families - and about giving our health care back to the insurance companies.

If the Republicans have their way and privatize Medicare, it will put millions of seniors at the mercy of health insurance companies and force them to pay $39 trillion more for Medicare coverage than they would under existing law, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). That's why this is a massive windfall for insurers. The GOP budget plan will also shift trillions of dollars in costs onto America's seniors and families. When the program begins, new Medicare enrollees would have to pay at least $6,400 more each year out-of-pocket for private coverage equivalent to current Medicare benefits. And the average Medicare beneficiary's contribution to the cost of Medicare benefits would skyrocket from 25 percent under the existing system to an astonishing 68 percent in 2030, according to CEPR and the Congressional Budget Office.

The Republican plan will enrich insurance companies at the expense of consumers and actually increase the overall net cost of health care by $34 trillion over the next 75 years, the planning period Medicare trustees are required to use. The increased costs are because of the private health insurance industry's excessive profits, obscene CEO salaries and the costs of the bureaucracy it creates to deny care to consumers. These private plan administrative costs often eat up 20 or even 30 cents of every insurance premium dollar compared to Medicare's roughly 3 cents. And in the past few weeks it's become clear that the industry's profits keep going up as consumers are being crushed by ever-rising co-payments and deductibles.

The sheer waste of Medicare privatization is truly staggering. According to an eye-opening report by CEPR's David Rosnick and Dean Baker, the Republican plan will ultimately force seniors to pay $39 trillion more for health care through 2084 than if Medicare were left alone. That's equal to a tax of about $110,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

What we ought to do is increase our efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse instead of impoverishing seniors, wasting massive amounts of taxpayer funds and giving the insurance companies control of seniors' health care. That's what the Affordable Care Act does, along with other Medicare reforms within President Obama's deficit reduction proposal.

The Republican plan, drawn by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, picks winners and losers in a big way. The winners are big corporations, like the insurance companies and their Washington lobbyists who spend millions to maintain a stranglehold on health care and the Republicans in Congress. The losers are America's working and middle-class families.

The Republicans also give massive tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires like the Koch brothers. To pay for this, they make savage cuts to Medicaid that will destroy the economic security of 60 million people - seniors, people with disabilities, poor families and children. They eliminate Medicare as we know it, and make deep cuts to dozens of programs of services that support America's families, from Head Start to Pell grants that help kids go to college.

Eliminating Medicare, giving seniors vouchers designed to lag far behind actual health care costs, and handing seniors' health care to the insurance companies is just plain wrong. Significantly increasing overall health care costs, as the Republican plan will do, is also wrong.

The Medicare privatization plan is part of the GOP's larger attack on our country's shrinking middle class and the promise of the American Dream: that if you work hard you can expect to have a good job with good wages and benefits, to provide a better life for your children, and to retire with dignity.

Washington, D.C. – Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nationwide coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on the Republican budget proposal that would abolish Medicare and Medicaid:

“The Republicans have passed a 2012 budget proposal that is completely fraudulent, and everyone knows it. They call it the ‘Path to Prosperity,’ but it’s actually a path to poverty for America's seniors and the middle class. It's not a deficit-reduction plan, it's an assault on working families that lets the deficit stand while giving massive tax cuts to corporations and the super-rich by saddling seniors and middle-class families with thousands of dollars in new out-of-pocket costs.

“The GOP scheme to convert Medicaid funding into block grants is nothing more than a massive cost shift to the states that will force deep cuts that hurt seniors, children, people with disabilities and the working poor.

“No matter how much Speaker Boehner tries to spin the Republican plan to privatize Medicare as something else, it will eliminate guaranteed benefits people count on and shift huge out-of-pocket costs to seniors. The Republican plan will put nearly 60 million seniors at the mercy of private health insurance companies while handing over billions of dollars to the industry. While the Republicans have been obsessively focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act, attacking women's health care and making life sweeter for billionaires and millionaires, we’re 100 days into this session of Congress and they haven't done a single thing to create a single job.

“Their blueprint is not even a legitimate deficit reduction plan. Republicans acknowledge that their plan wouldn’t even balance the budget for another 30 years. Today's Republican vote is political theater when what this country needs is serious, responsible leadership.”

Read HCAN’s April 14 letter to Members of the House

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

The Republican budget proposal released by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin would give millionaires and political campaign contributors huge tax breaks while punishing seniors and working families. Ryan's extremist plan would decimate Medicare and Medicaid and terminate the Affordable Care Act, undermining the economic security of America's struggling middle class.

The Republican plan isn't based on the principle of shared sacrifice. There's no fairness. The idea that we solve big problems in this country by working together and sharing the burden can't be found. The super-rich and big corporations aren't asked to pitch in. Instead the Republicans manipulate the tax code so the rich get even richer. This budget blueprint changes the rules and reshapes this country in a breathtakingly dangerous way.

The Republican budget attacks every single one of us. Health care programs that everyone in this country depends on would be eviscerated. We'll all be covered by Medicare. Many of us have friends and relatives who receive Medicaid benefits, including millions in nursing homes. And the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, has already made a huge difference in the lives of millions in its first year - and ultimately will directly touch 200 million of us.

The GOP's budget breaks the fundamental promise of this country: That if you work hard and play by the rules, you can take care of your family and retire with dignity and peace of mind.

How do the Republicans intend to reduce the deficit? They want seniors and hard-working families to pay more for health care and get less coverage.

The Republicans want to:

• End Medicare as we know it: The Republican budget eliminates traditional Medicare. It trades seniors' guaranteed health care benefits for vouchers that go directly to private insurance companies, risking their health and financial security when care is denied or premiums are raised. Under Ryan's plan, the value of the vouchers would rise more slowly than private premiums, forcing seniors to make up the difference and fall farther behind with each passing year. Those who can't afford it will be out of luck. The enrollment age would rise from 65 to 67.
• Give mammoth tax cuts to millionaires and big corporations. At a time when income disparities are as big as ever, the Republicans would widen the gap. This year U.S. corporations have taken the biggest profits in the nation's history and corporate taxes are at the lowest levels in generations (some corporations don't pay taxes at all!). But the Republicans want to cut another $1.5 trillion from the tax obligations of the wealthiest individuals and companies. This is a bonanza for corporate lobbyists and campaign contributors.
• Rip apart America's safety net. The Republicans want to convert Medicaid into state block grants that will shift costs to states, lower payments to hospitals and doctors, cost three million jobs, and impoverish seniors and their families by shifting to them the burden of paying for nursing homes and other essential long-term care services.
• Put insurance companies back in charge of our care. The plan would allow insurance companies to jack up our rates and deny our care whenever they want. The Republicans would do away with cost savings and consumer protections under the Affordable Care Act, like the ban on denying care to people with pre-existing conditions, the big savings on drug costs for seniors and new caps on how much of each premium dollar goes to overhead and profits. Repealing the ACA would keep 32 million uninsured people from gaining quality, affordable health coverage.
• Help Wall Street-run health insurance companies make record-breaking profits and pay their CEOs outrageous sums to deny people the care they paid for and need. The Ryan plan would hand over nearly 65 million seniors to the private health insurance industry. Private insurers selling Medicare Advantage plans already cost 11 percent more than the conventional Medicare program, the nation's most efficient health plan. There's no reason to think they could perform any more efficiently with 100 percent of Medicare beneficiaries.

The Ryan plan is an assault on the middle class that shifts billions of dollars to the big corporations and richest Americans. It robs future generations of the opportunity to do better than their parents and to share in the prosperity of a great nation. While the corporate lobbyists and campaign donors reap the benefits, the Republican plan makes the American Dream unachievable for the vast majority of people in this country.

Join the fight for these programs today. Click here to call your Member of Congress and tell them to vote NO on the Republican's extremist budget.

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.

On Tuesday Meghan McCarthy wrote a story in the National Journal that asked, "Are GOP Leaders Going Soft on 'Obamacare?'" "Top tea partiers in Congress," she wrote, "openly worry about the commitment to defund the health care law."

Soft on "Obamacare." That's not exactly how I would term it. These tea party folks clearly have high standards for vigorous opposition. After all, in their brief time under the far-right leadership of Speaker John Boehner, the Republicans in the U.S. House have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund it and eliminate all funding for life-saving health care services for women. They've launched several senseless investigations, and they obsessively and almost psychotically trash the new health care law using any microphone they can get near. When it comes to getting rid of "Obamacare," I'd say Speaker Boehner appears to be giving it his all.

But for "top tea partiers" like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), that's not good enough. According to McCarthy, they've been "leading an effort to strip an estimated $105 billion in mandatory funding from the statute," but Bachmann "fears that the Republican leadership will try to placate the conservative base with empty gestures that leave the funding in place."

Talking about her Republican leaders in advance of Tuesday's budget extension vote, Bachmann explained: "I think there's going to be a fake appeasement with the Planned Parenthood thing and a fake appeasement with the 'Obamacare' thing."

What Bachmann means is that the House leaders set aside their efforts to defund civilization as we know it in order to get agreement on a short-term budget. That's why she was attacking her leaders, and possibly (and regrettably) used the word "appeasement" as a thinly veiled reference to Neville Chamberlain's foreign policy before World War II. Bachmann, as we all know, likes to make historical references, even when that means rewriting history as she did over the weekend, when she confused the role (in prepared remarks - twice!) that New Hampshire and Massachusetts played in the start of the Revolutionary War. Bachmann's explanation, by the way, was the best part: "So I misplaced the battles of Concord and Lexington by saying they were in New Hampshire. It was my mistake, Massachusetts is where they happened. New Hampshire is where they are still proud of it!" I love that.

Here's the thing: It's true that Bachmann and King are fanatical whack jobs who represent the hyper-extremists in the Republican House majority (like the 54 Republicans who voted against the budget bill on Tuesday because it didn't cut enough). But they're just plain wrong in saying that the relentless opposition to the Affordable Care Act by their leaders is inadequate. Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are doing just fine trashing the health law and backing that up with legislative action.

If Bachmann and King want to criticize Boehner and other Republican leaders, they should dump on them for hiding behind partisan political rhetoric that obscures the negative impact that repealing the new health care law would have on America's families, seniors and small businesses - all of whom already are benefiting from the law's cost savings and consumer protections. Why don't Bachmann and King tell the truth about what it would mean for their constituents if the health care law was defunded and repealed - and urge Boehner to do the same? That would show that they're true to their principles.

For starters, the extremist Republicans could say that 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 felt like it. That's not so hard to say, and it's clearer than a bunch of political mumbo-jumbo about "Obamacare." Why not try a little "straight talk," the kind Sen. John McCain was so fond of before the 2008 Republican presidential nominee morphed from a maverick into a political Neanderthal during his tough Senate reelection campaign last fall?

Next week, to celebrate the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, thousands of people will be participating in events from coast to coast to highlight the benefits and protections of the new law, such as the ban on insurance companies denying coverage and care because of a pre-existing condition. Since the Republicans are against these kinds of consumer protections, why don't they just come out and say what they're really for and against?

The Republicans should tell cancer patients with crushing medical costs that the GOP wants to reinstate annual and lifetime benefit limits that will force them into bankruptcy and deny them the care they need. They should let young adults know they have to quit their parents' health plans while looking for a job in this tough economy. The Republicans should go door-to-door and tell thousands of seniors to cough up the $250 donut-hole checks the new law provided to help them buy prescription drugs. The Republicans should tell seniors they're ending the 50% discount on brand-name medicines and hold town hall meetings to let small businesses know they're taking away job-creating tax credits.

If the Republicans reach out to the public and tell the truth about repeal, we’ll all know they have the courage of their convictions. If the GOP’s leaders personally take away the insurance cards of children with chronic medical conditions, maybe that will even satisfy Representatives Bachmann and King that the GOP has not gone soft on “Obamacare.”

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.

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.

Ethan Rome - Executive Director, Health Care for America Now

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.

Washington, D.C. – Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the nationwide coalition that led the successful fight for health reform, released the following statement from HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome on efforts by Republicans in Congress to defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

The defunding bill exposes the Republican budget proposal for the anti-consumer sham that it is. Instead of putting America back to work, the GOP wants to take away important cost savings and consumer protections from America’s families, seniors and businesses. The GOP wants 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 felt like it.

Republican House members should tell the truth about what they’re doing. They should tell cancer patients with crushing medical costs that the GOP wants to reinstate annual and lifetime benefit limits that will force them into bankruptcy and deny them the care they need. They should let young adults know they have to quit their parents' health plans. Each Republican member of Congress should go door to door in their districts and tell thousands of seniors to cough up the $250 donut-hole checks the new law provided to help them buy prescription drugs. The Republicans should tell seniors they’re ending the 50% discount on brand-name medicines.

They should have town hall meetings to let small businesses know they’re taking away job-creating tax credits and to tell the parents of sick children who finally got coverage because of the ACA that the Republicans are canceling their insurance.

The Republicans don’t have a legislative agenda on health care – they have an obsession, and they appear to be incapable of getting over it. Meanwhile, the GOP isn’t doing a single thing to create jobs, and that’s what America needs – not another health care debate.

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Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots coalition of more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states representing 30 million people. HCAN led the fight over the past two years to win passage of health reform and to keep Congress from being steamrolled by corporate special interests.

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