Sep 25 2009
Across the Country, USAction Affiliates Challenge the Insurance Industry — and Prepare for the Final Push for Health Care Reform
Americans are sick and tired of insurance industry abuses, and on Tuesday, Sept. 22, USAction affiliates — working through the Health Care for America Now coalition — helped provide a forum for people to demand quality, affordable health care with a public health insurance option.
HCAN and other allies organized more than 150 insurance industry events across the country; of those, 28 events were put together by USAction affiliates and partners. Other events were organized by SEIU and MoveOn.org, and TrueMajority, USAction’s online department, worked with MoveOn to help point people to the rally nearest to them.
Nationally, some of the premier highlights involved actions in front of major insurance company headquarters in Minneapolis (United HealthCare), Indianapolis (WellPoint) and Philadelphia (Cigna). In Philadelphia, USAction Executive Director Jeff Blum attended, and was featured on local television. In addition, two other large-scale actions took place in Hartford and in Milwaukee, where Citizen Action of Wisconsin organizer Brian Rothgery managed to engage Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly at a luncheon she was keynoting.
At all events nationwide, Americans demanded that health insurance company CEOs pledge to do the following:
- Not stand between a doctor and a patient when it comes to deciding what care that patient needs.
- Not deny coverage or raise rates for individuals or businesses based on a pre-existing medical condition and end arbitrary caps on payments for necessary medical care.
- Terminate any policy or incentive that rewards employees financially or otherwise for denying care and rejecting claims.
- Not use any resources – including funds, employees and facilities – to lobby against and oppose any aspect of the health reform proposals supported by President Obama and being considered by members of the United States Congress, including but not limited to a national public health insurance option
Across the country, the “Big Insurance: Sick of it” events varied considerably in terms of the number of people who participated, the creative activities they engaged in and the number of local media outlets that provided coverage. But they all had one thing in common: a demand for good health care coverage we can afford, with the choice of a strong national public health insurance option.
And today, we’re closer than ever before.
TrueMajority just sent out an email about health care reform which includes this quote:
“A special procedure called reconciliation can be used to pass a bill through the Senate with 51 votes.”
I am fully in support of the “public option” for health care reform. But banking on the perversely-named “reconciliation” procedure in order to pass a public option is a foolish, near-sighted, and DANGEROUS choice.
Even during the near-dictatorship of the Bush regime, the Senate did not break its long history of needing 60 votes to force cloture. DO NOT GO THERE NOW! It may get something important for us all now — but it sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
Your simplistic description of the reconciliation procedure in your email is offensive to anyone who actually wants to use their brain to think about issues. It verges on deceptive, the same sort of partisan deception methods that the right wing uses.
DON’T GO THERE.
Charles, the Senate has had the option of using reconciliation once a year since 1974, and the Byrd rules stipulates that it cannot increase the deficit beyond ten years. The Senate has taken advantage of this in past years, and in recent examples, the Senate used reconciliation to push through Clinton’s FY ‘94 budget and the first round of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
I disagree with you that this is a ” partisan deception method,” and rather, I feel that it is a valuable part of the legislative process that could possibly help us achieve a robust public option for health care.