<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Fyi...<div> --Jenifer<br><br>--- On <b>Wed, 2/10/10, Allison Jones <i><allison@healthcareconsumers.org></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Allison Jones <allison@healthcareconsumers.org><br>Subject: [cchcc-l] What's going on with health reform? An overview.<br>To: cchcc-l@lists.shout.net<br>Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 9:48 AM<br><br><div class="plainMail">Dear Friends,<br><br>Staff of the Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) attended a<br>national health advocacy conference in Washington, DC at the end of January,<br>where we learned a lot about health reform. I want to share with you the<br>most important things that we learned.<br><br>Below is a VERY brief overview of the information I would like to share with<br>you. Over the next few
days, I will be sending you additional messages that<br>provide more information on each of the points outlined below. But I thought<br>I would start with just a brief, simple overview. I know some of you will<br>have lots of questions, and I hope our subsequent e-mails will help answer<br>some of those questions.<br><br>Here is a very brief overview of what CCHCC learned in Washington, DC:<br><br>1. The Massachusetts special Senate election did change the legislative<br>landscape for health reform - it would now be near impossible, given the<br>political dynamics, to pass another health reform bill through the Senate,<br>because the 60 vote filibuster-proof Democratic majority is gone.<br>Reconciling the House and Senate bills and getting that reconciled version<br>through both chambers is not a political possibility. A new strategy is<br>needed.<br><br>2. The President and leaders in Congress understand that doing nothing is<br>NOT an option. Your
advocacy efforts ARE working!<br><br>3. Legislatively, the best way forward is to have the House pass the Senate<br>version of health reform, PLUS have both chambers pass budget reconciliation<br>legislation, in which some "fixes" would be made to the Senate bill.<br><br>4. The budget reconciliation process is nothing new or unusual, and is a<br>perfectly appropriate way of making changes to the Senate health bill.<br><br>5. The Senate bill has many VERY good provisions that would go into effect<br>THIS YEAR and would help millions of Americans and thousands of CCHCC's<br>constituents. Some of these provisions may surprise you (they surprised me!<br>We've been so focused on witnessing the ugly legislative process and all the<br>compromises made along the way, that it's been hard to focus on positive<br>developments).<br><br>6. Stay tuned for action alerts calling on you to contact legislators to<br>tell them that "doing nothing is not an option. Pass
the Senate bill plus<br>budget reconciliation and make health reform a reality!"<br><br>Stay tuned for more messages where I will provide more details about the<br>items above, and look for opportunities to take action!<br><br>I hope this message gives you a sense of how we can move forward on national<br>health reform.<br><br>Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support, and to<br>let you know that I truly believe that, with all of us staying active, we<br>can make health reform happen this year!<br><br>Best wishes and thank you,<br>Claudia Lennhoff, CCHCC Executive Director<br><br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>Champaign County Health Care Consumers<br>44 E. Main Street Suite 208<br>Champaign, IL 61820<br> <br>Phone: (217) 352-6533<br>Fax: (217) 352-9745 <br>E-mail: <a ymailto="mailto:cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org"
href="/mc/compose?to=cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org">cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org</a><br>Web: www.healthcareconsumers.org<br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br><br>Support health care justice - donate to CCHCC today! Visit our website to make a tax-deductible contribution today. <br><a href="http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/index.php?action=Donation" target="_blank">http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/index.php?action=Donation</a><br>_______________________________________________<br>To manage your subscription to the CCHCC email list, please click the link below.<br>cchcc-l mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:cchcc-l@lists.shout.net" href="/mc/compose?to=cchcc-l@lists.shout.net">cchcc-l@lists.shout.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.shout.net/mailman/listinfo/cchcc-l" target="_blank">http://lists.shout.net/mailman/listinfo/cchcc-l</a><br></div></blockquote></div></td></tr></table><br>
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