11 | January | 2011 | Be a Seed for Change

TELL US YOUR STORY

Next week, Republicans will vote to repeal health care reform as political payback for the insurance companies and other big businesses that spent gobs of money to elect them. We’re collecting stories to show the real people who will lose if insurance companies and greedy CEOs win.

>> Tell us your story about how health care reform has helped you, your family or people you know.

>> Then read and comment on other people’s stories and tell your friends.

The new Republican House majority was just sworn in yesterday—but we don’t have to wait to find out whose side they’re on. They’re showing us from Day One that it’s politics as usual—they’re on the side of the insurance companies and other big businesses that spent gobs of money to elect them.

Instead of helping put America back to work, instead of helping rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and instead of fixing our foreclosure mess, the new House Republican majority wants to undo all the progress we’ve made over the past two years, starting with a vote next week to completely repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Repealing health care reform would strip away the crackdowns we’ve fought so hard for on insurance company abuse. It would lead to the deaths of an estimated 30,000 people a year because they wouldn’t be able to get affordable insurance. It would add $10 billion a year to the deficit. And it’s also a waste of precious time—a cheap shot to score political points.

But the new Republican majority in the House is more interested in playing political football with our health than in protecting children, seniors and middle-class Americans.

We can’t go backward. We can’t go back to letting insurance companies refuse coverage to sick children, limit our medical care or bring back lifetime and annual caps on benefits that drive more families into bankruptcy. To start fighting back, we’re collecting stories about how the Affordable Care Act is helping real people, right now.

Many parts of the new Affordable Care Act are already in effect and helping tens of millions of U.S. families get quality health care.

Tell us your story about how health care reform has helped you, your family or people you know.

Then read and comment on other stories and tell your friends.

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. You might be benefiting from the Affordable Care Act right now and not even know it. Here are some of the ways health care reform is already helping millions:

Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and young people can stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. Have your kids—or the kids of someone you know—been helped? Let us know.
Insurance companies can’t drop people from coverage when they become sick or put a lifetime cap on benefits. Have you or someone in your family with a serious illness benefited? If so, let us know.
Insurance companies must cover preventive care such as mammograms, annual physicals and cancer screenings without deductibles or co-pays. Has this preventive care rule helped you?
For Medicare recipients, the new law already has provided a $250 prescription drug rebate. This year, it will lower drug costs even more and eventually close the donut hole (the gap in coverage when seniors must pay full price for their needed medications.) If the Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, seniors would have to pay the government back and would get no further benefits. Has this benefit helped you pay for needed prescriptions? Do you need the donut hole closed so you don’t have to choose between food and medicine?

Unrest in Southern Sudan

Dear AlterNet Reader,

Another potential war is looming in Sudan — a country widely known for the brutal conflict in its Darfur region.

On January 9, voters in Southern Sudan went to the polls to cast their votes to decide whether they would secede from the north. While results won’t be known for a week, the outcome may heighten tensions in a decades-old conflict between the regions.

The International Rescue Committee is preparing to help innocent families, should violence and tribal strife suddenly escalate in the aftermath of the vote. We are preparing for an influx of people crossing the border from the north and those fleeing violence within Southern Sudan itself.

We have readied emergency supplies, including clean water, food and shelter materials and are distributing them across the region.

Right now, your donation to the IRC will enable us to deliver practical support and aid to people — like those in Southern Sudan — who are struggling to survive.

The IRC has worked in Southern Sudan for more than 20 years. In addition to emergency aid, our staff there — a majority of whom are Sudanese nationals — currently provide essential services like health care and education to more than 600,000 people.

While the political tensions between the north and south are vastly complex, one thing is simple. We must do everything in our power to protect innocent lives. That is why the IRC is providing critical aid to families in Sudan and in 40 other countries and 22 U.S. cities.

With your support, we can continue this important work.

Sincerely,

All of us at the International Rescue Committee

P.S. Ninety cents of every dollar we spend is used to support IRC programs all over the world. And we are proud to have earned four stars from Charity Navigator for four straight years.