national health reform 
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Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 10:15:00 AM EDT
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As members of Congress headed home for break, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed out their version of the healthcare bill. They wanted to arm members of Congress with the facts, so they put out district by district breakdowns:The Committee has prepared, for each member, a district-level analysis of the impact of the legislation. This analysis includes information on the impact of the legislation on small businesses, seniors in Medicare, health care providers, and the uninsured. It also includes an estimate of the impacts of the surtax that is used to pay for the legislation. Here's a sampling of the information they provide for someone like Leonard Lance about the benefits for his district, even though he has said he will oppose the bill:America's Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in the 7th Congressional District of New Jersey: up to 18,200 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 8,100 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 800 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; health care providers would receive payment for $30 million in uncompensated care each year; and 21,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance. You can see the benefits by district for each member of Congress:You can see the full bill text and a summary put out by the committee as well. If you support this bill, your member of Congress needs to know about it. If you call, get your member of Congress to take the pledge. Our representatives are being inundated with phone calls and emails opposing healthcare. We need people who support the healthcare overhaul to start putting some action behind the talk, otherwise we'll be counting the time until the next chance to do something about healthcare.
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Tue Jun 02, 2009 at 01:15:00 PM EDT
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I got this email yesterday about an effort to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill including the choice of a public insurance plan within the year: Last week, we began circulating an open letter from state legislators to the Obama Administration and Congress articulating important principles for reform, including a public plan. The letter will be delivered by a delegation of legislators to meetings with the White House and Congressional leaders in June.
In just over a week, the letter has gathered over 200 signatures from 36 different states, including one from your home state of New Jersey.
That one Legislator signed on to the effort from New Jersey is the Chairman of the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee Herb Conaway. Here's what the group says about their efforts:States are on the front lines of health care. As state budgets constrict, states and the federal government must collaborate to ensure that existing health care programs are robust and that new measures to improve health care in America achieve the fundamental goal of quality and affordable health care for all.
States are known as the laboratories for reform, and state lawmakers possess keen lessons-learned that can inform the development of a federal health care policy. These lessons go beyond the policies of health care reform, such as how to expand access to coverage, reduce health disparities, improve health insurance markets, develop quality improvement initiatives, and reduce prescription drug costs. State legislators have developed the political strategies needed to move progressive health care strategies in states - building coalitions among colleagues, collaborating with key stakeholders like small businesses and consumer advocates, and developing media strategies to inform the public and media about bold legislation and expand public support for reform.
State legislators are a key power constituency in the broader health care reform effort by helping to frame the public agenda in their state. Through legislative proposals, media campaigns, public hearings, and other strategies for influencing public discourse, state legislators can help maintain the public drumbeat for bold and progressive federal health care reform. I know there are many would who would prefer to see a single payer option, but if that goal isn't reached we will have to consider other possibilities to solve the problem. If you think this is a good idea and would like to contact your State Legislators to have them sign on to this effort, you can click here or on the badge above. They plan to bring a delegation of legislative health care leaders to Washington to share the insights and lessons learned, and map a strategy for coordinating state and federal health care reform efforts. I'll put the full text of the letter below the fold.
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