[Peace-discuss] CCHCC's response to the Senate health bill

Tue Dec 22 09:44:56 CST 2009

Fyi...

--- On Mon, 12/21/09, Allison Jones <allison at healthcareconsumers.org> wrote:

A MESSAGE FROM CCHCC'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends,

Many of you responded to CCHCC about our update and action alert regarding
the Senate's health care bill.

Please read below for the following:
* QUICK UPDATE ON SENATE'S BILL
* CLARIFYING CCHCC'S POSITION
* CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE REALITIES
* CCHCC'S IDEAL HEALTH REFORM
* SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
* NEXT STEPS - KEEP UP THE FIGHT!

QUICK UPDATE ON SENATE'S BILL:
Early this morning, the Senate voted to end debate on a package of
controversial revisions to the sweeping $871 billion health reform bill.

The 60 to 40 party-line vote, cast shortly after 1 a.m., will keep the
Senate on track to pass the bill on Christmas Eve. If it passes, the measure
will then have to be merged with a roughly $1 trillion plan passed by House
of Representatives in January.

CLARIFYING CCHCC'S POSITION:
On behalf of CCHCC, I want to make one thing clear:  We do not think the
Senate's bill is good enough. We do not think that this bill will provide
for the REAL health reform we've been fighting for.

However, we DO support its passage out of the Senate.

The reason we support its passage is for procedural reasons. In order for
health reform to move forward, the Senate MUST pass this bill.

CONGRESSIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE REALITIES:
The political and logistical realities in Congress are that the Republican
party is in unanimous opposition to health reform in the Senate. Therefore,
to move anything forward and avoid a filibuster, the Democrats MUST have 60
votes to break a filibuster. What this means is that a single Democrat or
Independent can have a tremendous amount of power over the rest of the
Democrats who are trying to move health reform legislation. A single
Democrat or Independent (such as Joe Lieberman), can hold the rest of the
Democrats hostage to his demands. 
And that is why the Democrats have had to work so hard, and compromise so
much, to maintain the 60 vote majority needed to move legislation forward.

I don't like it any more than you do, but just as we advocates see this as
an opportunity to push for our agenda, those legislators who also have
agendas are using this as an opportunity. And the Democrats in the Senate do
not have enough of a majority to say no to their members. It stinks, I know..

If this bill were killed and Congress would have to start over on health
reform, it wouldn't happen at all. It's clear that the political will for
REAL reform is lacking; yet doing nothing is not an option. And despite the
problems with this bill, if this were to become the final health reform
bill, it would still help millions of people. But, this does NOT have to be
the final version! We still will have a chance to advocate and push and win
improvements during the reconciliation/conference process between the House
and the Senate's bills. So stay tuned and be ready to gear up to take lots
of actions in the New Year!

CCHCC'S IDEAL HEALTH REFORM:
If CCHCC had our way and we got to design health reform for our nation, we
would have started by improving and expanding Medicare to everyone. Medicare
works! The infrastructure is there. Medicare is cost-efficient. Medicare
lets you choose your doctor. So simple; so obvious. And it would save our
nation SO much money!

Rest assured that even as this health reform process rolls forward, we are
going to continue to work with others around the state and the nation to
build the single payer movement. We can do more than one thing at a time: we
can work to build single-payer even as we weigh in on the bills that are
going through Congress, and we fight to win the best legislation possible.

SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
When Congress started working on the Children's Health Insurance Program
(CHIP), we did not oppose it just because it only focused on children and
excluded adults, and didn't cover all the services we wanted it to cover.
CHIP was also somewhat of a giveaway to private health insurance companies
as they would receive state and federal dollars to help cover the premiums
for new enrollees. But we got it passed, and it immediately helped tens of
thousands of children, and then over the years, we expanded it so that it
would allow states to get matching funds to cover the parents of the
children. You could say that initially, CHIP was inadequate. We could have
opposed it because it wasn't good enough. But we didn't oppose it. We knew
it was a foot in the door, it would make concrete improvements in people's
lives, and it was something to build on.

Likewise, these health reform bills are something to build on, and it will
take a lot of work! There is a lot that we at CCHCC do not like about both
the House and the Senate bills.

NEXT STEPS - KEEP UP THE FIGHT!
Remember that the next battleground on health reform will be once the Senate
passes its bill, and the House and the Senate bills need to be reconciled
through a conference process.  We will have to work VERY hard to get
improvements enacted in the reconciled bill. And the fact of the matter is
that we're going to have to keep working for many years to make the
improvements that will undoubtedly be needed. And we are committed to that
ongoing struggle, and we hope that you are too.

Yes, there is a lot to be critical of in the Senate's health bill. 
Please don't mistake our advocacy for its passage as an endorsement of the
bill. This is merely a procedural move that is necessary in this long
struggle. But we HAVE had an impact -- advocates from around the nation were
able to force insurance regulations, like prohibiting annual and lifetime
caps, back into the bill. And so that's the way it's going to go - back and
forth - and we have to make our voices heard every step of the way.

The important thing is to keep fighting and pushing, and to understand that,
right now, the political reality is that we are NOT going to get the health
reform we dream of. But that doesn't mean that we can't win some
improvements and some victories.

I would much rather spend my time fighting to improve legislation than to
have no legislation on the horizon at all. Doing nothing truly means that
things will get worse and worse. We at CCHCC can't take that. Our clients
can't take it. My own uninsured family members can't take it.

If you have criticisms of either the House or the Senate bill, good! It
means you are paying attention. If you're paying attention, then please,
continually call on your senators, representative, and the leaders of the
House and the Senate, and the President, and tell them what you think and
what you want. Keep asserting yourself. Write letters to the editor of the
local papers. Maybe there will be enough of us out there to counter the
messages they are continually getting from the insurance industry lobbyists..
But whatever you do, please don't give up and don't walk away.

I hope this long message helps to clear up some confusion. Thanks for
letting me try to explain our position. Believe me, we are as disappointed
as you that health reform did not become what we hoped and dreamt that it
would be, and what we fought for it to be. And while it won't be the REAL
reform we hope for this time around, it will help millions of people, and we
will just have to keep fighting to improve it, year after year.

Again, thank you.

Best wishes,
Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Champaign County Health Care Consumers
44 E. Main Street  Suite 208
Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: (217) 352-6533
Fax:   (217) 352-9745 
E-mail: cchcc at healthcareconsumers.org
Web:    www.healthcareconsumers.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Support health care justice - donate to CCHCC today! Visit our website to make a tax-deductible contribution today. 
http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/index.php?action=Donation
_______________________________________________
To manage your subscription to the CCHCC email list, please click the link below.
cchcc-l mailing list
cchcc-l at lists.shout.net
http://lists.shout.net/mailman/listinfo/cchcc-l

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20091222/4f602865/attachment-0001.html