Yesterday, Senator Joe Lieberman joined with Oklahoma arch-conservative Senator Tom Coburn to announce a plan to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67. Stand with us and Tell Senator Lieberman: Hands off Medicare.
Read more.| Can you join us for the rally for Sustinet?
Weds. April 27th, 6PM Union Station 1 Union Place, Hartford |
Two years ago, over a thousands people came together at Hartford Union Station to call for healthcare reform and launch Sustinet, Connecticut’s home grown healthcare reform plan.
That groundswell of grassroots support sparked the momentum to win the campaign’s first big victory: passing legislation, over Gov. Rell’s veto, to put together a Board to design a plan for quality, affordable health coverage for all.
Now the plan is done, and it’s time for the legislature to act again, to put the plan into motion. But to make it happen, we’ll need an even bigger groundswell of support.
Can you join us for a giant rally for Sustinet at Hartford’s Union Station?
Click here to register for the rally for Sustinet.
Can’t make it? We still need your help:
Take a moment to call your State Senator and ask them to support the Sustinet plan.
What is Sustinet again?
It’s Connecticut’s home grown healthcare reform plan.
The centerpiece of the plan is a non-profit public healthcare option that municipalities, small businesses, non-profits and individuals could buy into. It would be a low cost, high quality plan like the kind elected officials get. After all, if our elected officials get great healthcare coverage, why shouldn’t we all? And with economies of scale, it’ll drive down costs and also compete with unaccountable private insurers.
Combine that with smart reforms to make healthcare delivery more efficient and provisions to make sure we get every penny of federal healthcare funding Connecticut is eligible for, and that makes Sustinet.
But big changes that are worth fighting for take major efforts. And that’s why I’m asking you join the healthcare4every1 campaign, along with Working Families and countless other unions, non profit organizations, small businesses and concerned citizens in converging on Hartford’s Union Station to tell our leader’s that we demand healthcare reform. And it’ll be fun too.
Click here to RSVP to the rally right now.
And if you can’t make it, you’re not off the hook. We still need your voice:
Click here to tell your State Senator that you support Sustinet.
Thanks again. We can’t make big change without you.
Last year’s federal healthcare reforms were a step forward — but they left a lot of us unsatisfied, because they didn’t do enough to rein in the big insurance companies and make health insurance more affordable.
We don’t have to wait for Congress to take up reform again. We can make healthcare fairer, smarter, and more affordable right here in Connecticut.
Please join me and hundreds of other activists (and Governor-elect Dan Malloy!) in attending an important rally for Sustinet tomorrow, sponsored by the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care.
Here are the details:
Stand for Health Care
Tuesday, Dec 14th at 5:30 p.m.
Emanuel Lutheran Church
311 Capital Avenue, Hartford (google maps)
(Across the street from the Legislative Office Building)
If you can join us, click here to sign up so I know you’re coming. And feel free to bring a friend.
It’s not every day that you take on Insurance companies and win. So get ready for this:
Yesterday afternoon, after pressure from consumers and ordinary people like you, acting Insurance Commissioner Barbara Spear Announced that she was denying Anthem’s request for a 20% rate hike.
For 48,000 Anthem individual health insurance policy holders in Connecticut, this will certainly be a welcome holiday gift. Especially after Commissioner Sullivan, who rubber-stamped 85% of all insurance increase requests (sometimes without even a public hearing) this is certainly a welcome change.
Read the rest of this post.
It was only two months ago the last time Anthem sought a rate hike — a 47% increase on some policies. Now they’re at it again: They want to hike health insurance premiums for 48,000 Connecticut residents by 20%. It isn’t right for profitable companies to push for higher premiums at a time when policy holders are hurting.
Email acting Insurance Commissioner Barbara Spear and tell her to deny the rate hike.
I’m not sure why this isn’t making major headlines across the country or at least in Connecticut. But according to the newsletter of the American Medical Association Aetna is planning to hike premiums in 2010 and expects some between 600,000 and 650,000 members covered in employer-based health plans will drop coverage because it is too expensive.
“They’re running a business, and their obligation is a very singular one: to increase shareholder profits,” said David Gibbs, an insurance industry consultant.
It’s moves like this that make it increasingly impossible for defenders of the status quo to pretend that our health insurance system isn’t broken.
Aetna’s own CEO has been pretty blunt about his opposition to a public option. He says he doesn’t want his company to have to compete against the government because the government also makes the rules. But maybe what he really doesn’t want is competitor that doesn’t need to satisfy Wall Street investors hungry for a profit (Aetna’s profit last year was $1.7 billion). Or perhaps he doesn’t want a competitor that doesn’t have to pay a CEO $54 million dollars.
Williams has been clear about his position (and the industry’s) on healthcare reform. According to Forbes.com :
“He’s against a government-run plan but favors universal coverage and forcing insurers to take all comers. He advocates cutting costs by standardizing payments among insurers, doctors and hospitals. ‘I don’t meet anyone who doesn’t think we should get more people covered,’ he says.”
Right. That’s why you’re raising premiums and dropping 600,000 members from coverage. At what point does it become totally impossible to take these people seriously?
Last week Joe Courtney of Connecticut’s 2nd Congressional District came out publicly against taxation of “Cadillac” health plans as a way to pay for healthcare reform.
He’s 100% correct about this. There are several problems with the taxation of high-cost benefits. The biggest is that the high cost of a healthcare plan often has no relationship to the actual income of the beneficiary, and in some cases no relationship to the actual quality of the plan itself. Small businesses and individuals, both of whom lack the purchasing power to drive down prices, already pay far more than a large business would pay for the very same health benefit. Regional disparities and other factors also result in different employers and individuals paying far more for what may actually be a modest benefit package. As a result they may be paying Cadillac prices, but they’re getting the Pinto plan.
For employees, especially those in small businesses, having a decent health plan often comes at a cost in terms of wage concessions or an ever-growing portion of healthcare premiums coming out of each paycheck. For many of these employees having a high-cost (but not necessarily high value) plan doesn’t make them rich. In fact, if anything, having a high-cost plan makes employees less well off since they are already losing more of their income to maintain benefits.
In political terms, taxing benefits would be a catastrophic mistake. In the debate over healthcare during the Presidential election a year ago, this was the major line in the sand that distinguished Obama and the Democrats from McCain and the Republicans. If Congress includes taxation of health benefits in their healthcare reform plan, it would represent a betrayal of the President’s position during the presidential campaign, and a break from his promise not to pay for healthcare reform by raising taxes on the middle class. It’s also just the kind of thing disingenuous Republican challengers will have a field day with during next November’s campaign.
Representative Courtney deserves all of our thanks for taking a clear stand on this issue. Take a minute to call thank him by calling (860) 886-0139.
And while you’re at it, call the rest of our Congressional delegation and ask them to sign onto Representative Courtney’s letter.
Rep. John Larson (CT – 1) – (860) 278-8888
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT – 3) – (203) 562-3718
Rep. Jim Himes (CT – 4) – (866) 453-0028
Rep. Chris Murphy (CT – 5) – (860) 223-8412
This is the biggest, highest-stakes week yet in the national campaign for real comprehensive healthcare reform. It’s the last week of an August recess that began with mobs of anti-healthcare protestors protestors (backed by lobbyists) confronting members of Congress around the state.
This is the last chance to send our US Representatives back to work — and to remind them that the vast majority support access to high quality and affordable healthcare for everyone, and a strong public option.
Four members of congress are holding healthcare townhall meetings all across the state tomorrow. And Reps. Himes and Courtney are going back for a second round on Thursday.
If you care about healthcare reform, you’ve got to go to one. These are vitally important. This is no exercise. Show up and don’t let teabag protesters take them over.
Check out the listings over the fold and make sure to show up to one.
SEPT 2 – FOUR TOWN HALLS:
Healthcare Townhall
with Rep. John Larson
Weds, Sept 2, 5:30 – 7:30
West Hartford Town Hall
50 S. Main Street, West Hartford
Be there at 4:30 for the rally
Healthcare Townhall
with Rep. Joe Courtney
Weds, Sept 2, 6:30 – 8:30
Montville Highschool
800 Old Colchester Rd.
Be there at 5:30 for the rally
Healthcare Townhall
with Rep. Jim Himes
Weds, Sept 2, 6:30 – 8:30
Norwalk High School
23 Calvin Murphy Drive
(Corner of County Street and Strawberry Hill Ave)
Be there at 5:30 for the rally
Healthcare Townhall
with Rep. Chris Murphy
Weds, Sept 2, 5:30 – 7:30
Shepaug Valley High School,
159 South St, Washington, CT
Be there at 4:30 for the rally
SEPT 3 – TWO TOWN HALL:
Healthcare Townhalls with
Rep. Joe Courtney
Thurs, Sept 3, Noon
UCONN’s Jorgensen Auditorium
2132 Hillside Rd, Storrs CT
HealthcareTownhalls with
Rep. Jim Himes
Thurs, Sept 3, 6:30 – 8:30
Bridgeport City Council Chamber
5 Lyons Terrace, Bridgeport
Be there at 5:30 for the rally
Yesterday, the legislature overturned Governor Rell’s vetoes on two important healthcare bills, and came one vote shy of overturning another one. But there’s still plenty left to do.
The legislature overrode the Governor’s veto of Sustinet, which establishes the framework for a universal healthcare system that could be implemented in 2012, pending further legislative approval (and financing) in 2011. Next, the janitor’s standard wage bill. This bill ensures that state-contracted janitors can maintain healthcare for their families. What would have been the hat trick, the Healthcare Partnership Bill, which would allow municipalities, small employers, and non-profits, to join the state health insurance plan, failed when Senator Joan Hartley left the chamber instead of voting, leaving the bill one vote shy of an override.
There’s a lot of much deserved celebration going on today. If they gave oscars for organizing, The Universal Healthcare Foundation, and SEIU local 32 BJ certainly both deserve one. After all, the legislature overrode the Governor’s veto of Sustinet, which sets forth the plan for the most ambitious universal healthcare in the country — and in the Insurance Capitol, no less. Surely, it’s a tremendous accomplishment.
But now what? The bill that was overridden yesterday puts the framework of the Sustinet plan in place — remember, the plan won’t go into effect without further legislative action in 2011.
You think the CBIA and the insurance lobby fought hard this time? Just wait until the vote to actually fund the Sustinet plan. We ain’t seen nothing yet.
All it took was peeling away a single Senator, Joan Hartley (D, Insurance Lobby) to kill the more modest (but effective immediately) Connecticut Healthcare Partnership.
The campaign to put the Sustinet plan into action will be even harder. So it’s time to start a collective brainstorm to answer this question: what will it take to make the Sustinet plan a reality in 2011?
I’m asking for your help. What kind organizing should we be doing? Which elected officials need the most pressure and how should that happen? What can we do in the next 2 years to turn this planning stage into a real healthcare plan that is accessible and affordable for everyone in Connecticut? Please join the conversation.
We’ve got a Democratic President and Democrats in pretty solid control of both chambers in Congress. So for the first time in sixteen years, there’s a real chance to reform our dysfunctional healthcare non-system. Yet it’s hard to avoid the nagging feeling that we’ll somehow find a way to screw it up again.
Of course, some things were different back in 1993. Hartford had a professional hockey team, Kurt Cobain was alive, and Al Franken was funny (sort of). But some things haven’t changed: Back then, like now, most people surveyed thought the country needed serious change in our healthcare system. Then, like now, people supported the idea that the Federal Government should establish a system of national healthcare that offers insurance to all who need it. And then, just like now, powerful lobbying groups are lining up to protect the status quo and kill the real reform we desperately need.
One of those groups, a bit closer to home, is our friends at the CBIA. Amazingly, in this Sunday’s Courant I read something that John Rathgeber said that I actually agree with: “The 2010 election will be competitive and likely decided by independents who will choose the candidate they feel will best address the economic challenges that lie ahead.”
Agreed. The good news for us, not such good news for Darth Vader, uh, I mean Rathgeber, is that among independents, 73% support the creation of a public healthcare option for everyone in the country, according to the most recent New York Times/CBS poll.
Including a robust public plan in the federal healthcare fix isn’t just the right thing to do from a policy perspective, it’s also politically advantageous.
Under the false (and circular) claim of pragmatism, they insist a robust public option can’t pass.
Suffice it to say, this issue is going to dominate the headlines throughout the summer. We’ve all got our work cut out for us. If you can make it, I encourage everyone to attend the national rally for healthcare reform sponsored by Healthcare for America Now, and of course, locally we need to continue to support the Sustinet and Pooling legislation, both of which could face a veto from Governor Rell.