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ACTION ALERT: February 3, 2010 -- Combat the media and “conventional wisdom” spin on health care reform
The mainstream media is full of reports and "conventional wisdom" that, in the wake of the recent special Senate election in Massachusetts, comprehensive health care reform efforts in Washington are dead, but THAT IS NOT TRUE. Comprehensive health care reform is still very much alive in Congress.
Last week, over 800 health activists from around the country converged on Washington for the annual "2010 Health Action" conference, including nearly 50 New Yorkers. While there, we made visits to the offices of both our Senators (Gillibrand and Schumer) and 12 Reps. from across New York (Acuri, Bishop, Clarke, Maffei, Maloney, McCarthy, Murphy, Nadler, Ownes, Rangel, Tonko, and Weiner.) The message we delivered was "Keep moving forward on comprehensive health care reform." And the message we heard back was "Never fear -- we ARE working on how to do just that, but it may take another few weeks to complete negotiations on a final bill and then finish up the legislative process."
At the conference itself, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Donna Edwards, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, DCCC chair Rep. Chris Van Hollen, and White House counsel Valerie Jarrett all assured us that Congress and the President are committed to finishing up comprehensive health care reform by this spring. No one is going to walk away or scale back the bill in scope.
A new, interesting wrinkle:
The only remaining process remaining for Congress to accomplish comprehensive reform is now a "simple majority" process in the Senate. This new situation means that real improvements can be made in a final bill. These include creating a new public health insurance option as an alternative to private health insurance and/or perhaps allowing people over age 50 or 55 to buy-in to Medicare. A "Dear Colleague" letter now being circulated on Capitol Hill supporting these moves already has over 80 signatures (and growing.) It is being led by Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine and Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado.
So,... our job now is to keep pushing Congress to "get the job done." Here's what YOU can do this week:
1. Show up for a press conference organized by our friends at MoveOn, taking outside the NYC office of Sen. Charles Schumer TOMORROW MORNING, TUES. FEB. 2nd at 8:30 a.m. Sen. Schumer is a key leader on health care reform, and we'll be there to encourage him to "keep leading the charge." Please join us outside 757 Third Ave. (at 48th St.) in midtown Manhattan.
2. You've done it before, and you gotta' keep doing it again -- pick up your phone and call Sen. Schumer, Sen. Gillibrand, and YOUR OWN member of Congress to thank them for their leadership, and tell them to "get health care done."
3. Take some friends and neighbors and go visit YOUR own member of Congress at his/her local district office. Show them New Yorkers want and need comprehensive health care reform. Be sure to share your own story of why and how health care reform is important to you.
Thanks for all you do in the fight for health care for all New Yorkers and across America.
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