Tag Archives: insurance

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AFL-CIO …


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:

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a message from OFA


Organizing for America

House Republicans are moving forward to repeal all provisions of health reform, with a final vote scheduled for next week.

If they get their way, insurance companies will once again have the right to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, drop or limit coverage if you become sick, and charge women higher premiums than men. Seniors will lose critical prescription drug savings and free preventive care under Medicare.

It’s sad but not surprising.

The motivations here have little to do with good policy. Repeal is just the first agenda item of a new Republican majority that is much more interested in appeasing their right-wing base and looking out for special interests than working together to create jobs and grow the economy.

Behind the scenes, insurance-industry lobbyists are working overtime with Republicans to take us back to the days when their clients were able to do whatever they wanted.

But this movement is different. We don’t take our cues from special interests or lobbyists, and we never will. We don’t take their money either, relying solely on support from folks like you — and it only makes us stronger.

Right now, Organizing for America is putting together a team of dedicated organizers and volunteers to defend our progress, stop repeal, and expose the Republican plan for what it really is.

Will you donate $5 or more to help protect our progress — and stop the repeal of health insurance reform?

We fought to pass the Affordable Care Act because it was the right thing to do.

Its provisions are fair, reduce the deficit by more than $230 billion over the next 10 years, cut costs, and protect all Americans from the worst insurance industry abuses. The law is already making a difference in people’s lives.

Among other provisions, the Affordable Care Act:

— Prevents insurers from raising premiums by double digits with no recourse or accountability;
— Requires insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on health care, not CEO bonuses — and if they don’t, they have to provide you a rebate;
— Frees families from the fear of losing their insurance, or having it capped unexpectedly, after an injury or illness; and
— Prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against pregnant women or denying coverage to children born with disabilities.

The Republican alternative at this point consists of a two-page addendum to the two-page repeal bill. It’s a plan to make a plan to have a plan.

Even without a coherent proposal, they won’t have trouble raising money to drum up support for repeal. Republicans’ close relationship with entrenched interests has benefited them in campaigns that did not begin — and will not end — with health reform.

But we’re fighting back with everything we’ve got — building a large-scale, grassroots effort to stop this repeal and protect our progress. Your support will fund the organizing that generates calls to Congress, neighborhood canvasses, and letters in our local papers.

Together, we’ll make sure our message is heard and understood: We stand by health reform and will not tolerate attempts to put insurance companies back in charge.

Donate $5 or more to fight repeal and protect our progress:

https://donate.barackobama.com/NoRepeal

Thanks,

Yohannes

Yohannes Abraham
Political Director
Organizing for America

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First Test …


One week from today, the new Republican House Majority will attempt to take a giant step backwards for our nation by holding a vote to repeal the health reform law that protects Americans from insurance company abuses.

This is our first test of how grassroots Democrats will respond to the Republicans’ disgraceful attempt to roll back our progress for America’s middle class families. We must hold House Republicans’ feet to the fire for taking government funded health care for themselves while voting to deny it to American families.

That is why we urgently need your support to raise $100,000 in grassroots contributions to hold Republicans accountable before their shameful vote on Wednesday.

Contribute $5, $10 or more today to help us respond to the Republicans’ shameful vote to take away quality, affordable health care from the American people and put insurance companies back in charge.

In the weeks since last November’s election, grassroots Democrats have not missed a beat in our effort to regain the Majority in 2012. Thanks to you, we surpassed our December grassroots goal by raising over $250,000. I cannot thank you enough.

Now we need your continued support to hold Republicans accountable for their misplaced priorities by voting to repeal health care reform rather than focus on creating jobs for America’s middle class. Every dollar you contribute will be used to keep the pressure on Republicans through hard-hitting ads, fact-checks, petition drives, Rapid Response efforts, and so much more.

Contribute $5, $10 or more today to help us respond to the Republicans’ shameful vote to take away quality, affordable health care from the American people and put insurance companies back in charge.

The world is closely watching our commitment to protecting all of our historic progress for America’s middle class families. Let us begin right now by holding the new Republican majority immediately accountable for trying to repeal health care reform.
Nancy
Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

P.S. We cannot remain silent as Republicans shamefully vote to take away quality affordable health care from the American people. Please urgently contribute before our Wednesday deadline to hold them accountable and send a powerful message of strength to the media.

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Help Us Protect Against New Attacks on HCR – Your Gift Matched


National Women's Law Center

You have to wonder — which part of the landmark health care law do they want to repeal?

Is it the part that ends the practice of charging women higher health insurance premiums than men?

Or perhaps it’s the part that bans the practice of denying coverage to rape victims because insurers consider rape and domestic violence to be “pre-existing conditions?”

This year’s landmark law was an urgent and long-overdue step forward. And we’re not going to let it fall victim to partisan politics.

With your help, we can defend our gains — and make new progress — for women and families in 2011.

Please make an urgent contribution to the Center’s year-end campaign — every dollar you donate will be matched dollar for dollar by our Board of Directors, up to a total of $60,000.

Last year, Congress considered ways to fix our broken health care system, and the Center went to work. We sought to stop insurers from charging women higher premiums than men. We sought to require insurers to provide insurance to 32 million Americans who had none. And we sought to end the trauma of women being denied coverage by insurance companies that consider Cesareans, domestic violence and rape to be “pre-existing conditions.”

We researched and documented the discrimination women face. We put women’s health needs front and center through our attention-grabbing “Being a Woman Is Not a Pre-existing Condition” campaign. We provided expert testimony on Capitol Hill documenting the inequities and discrimination that women faced every day as they sought quality health care for themselves and their families.

And with the help of so many people like you, we won.

The health care law was the culmination of years of work by the Center and its allies — documenting the abuses by insurance companies, organizing policy advocates, activating supporters, and building Congressional support Member by Member.

With your help, we will carry on the fight for women and families in America — in the workplace, in the classroom, on the soccer field, and in the doctor’s office.

And until December 31, every dollar you donate will be matched dollar for dollar by our Board of Directors, up to a total of $60,000.

On behalf of women and families everywhere, thank you for your generous help.

Sincerely,
Nancy Duff Campbell Nancy Duff Campbell
Co-President
National Women’s Law Center 		Marcia Greenberger Marcia Greenberger
Co-President
National Women’s Law Center
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Don’t Believe the Hype about Today’s Court Ruling on the New Health Care Law


National Women's Law Center

Help Spread the Word
All we’ve got are the facts and you — 2 out of 3 judges have found the health care law constitutional. So why is the conservative media saying the law is at risk? Forward this email to your friends and help us fight the misinformation machine.

The headline should read, “2 out of 3 judges have found the new health care law constitutional,” but we have a feeling the conservative media machine has something else up its sleeve.

After being unable to stop the passage of the new health care law, opponents decided to try to challenge the law in court as unconstitutional. So far two courts have rejected these challenges — a Michigan court and another court in Virginia which found the law constitutional. However, today a judge in Virginia has handed down the first ruling that one piece of the law is unconstitutional. This judge has no greater authority than the other two but that is no matter to conservative media pundits, who have sounded the alarms for the death knell of the health care law.

We need your help to spread the word — forward this email to five of your friends today.

Millions of women across the country are already benefiting from the new health care law. Since September 23, insurance companies can no longer drop you when you become sick or deny health coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Also, when you enroll in a new health plan, you no longer have co-pays for recommended preventative health care services like mammograms and pap smears. And the law provides even more relief to women, like making it illegal to charge them more than men for insurance. But opponents of the new law just don’t care.

Make no mistake — the minimum coverage provision that was struck down in this one court is an important piece of the new law that will help ensure the success of the important insurance reforms that will end the harmful and discriminatory insurance practices that women have faced. While we are certainly disappointed in today’s ruling, it is not the final word. The conservative media machine shouldn’t use this one ruling — one of three — to undermine the health care law we’ve all worked so hard to pass.

Not so fast — we’ve got the facts. Help us spread the word that the sky is not falling, the insurance companies have not won, and the health care law is alive and well. Forward this email to five of your friends today.

Opponents of the law are not going to stop. We know that they will try to fight the law all the way to the Supreme Court. But we are confident that this important law is constitutional and will be fully implemented to the benefit of millions of women and families around the country.

Interested in the status of the legal challenges to the health care law? Check out this helpful chart from the Washington Post.

Sincerely,
Lisa Codispoti Lisa Codispoti
Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center