Marc Stier at Large

I sent this as an email to 15,000 of my closest friends, the health care activists in Pennsylvania, this morning. Dear Friends, We have another day or two until the Senate takes up health care reform. Before that happens I want to give you an update about where our campaign is going and what you can do to move it forward. Where we are At this point in our campaign, the most important thing I want to say is that we progressives have to learn how to win. It’s been a long time since we have enacted major legislation that dramatically improve the lives of working people and the middle class. And while, we have built a huge movement and made a lot of progress this year, I’m still not sure we know how win. In saying that we have to learn how to win, I mean to say a… Continue reading

Members of the HCAN coalition are divided about the Stupak amendment to HR 3962. Some are pro-life. Most of are pro-choice. As a organization, however, we are working to remove the Stupak amendment from both the Senate bill and the bill that comes out of the conference committee. What’s Wrong With The Stupak Amendment In our view, the Stupak amendment is not about federal funding for abortion. It is much broader than that.  It prevents millions of women from getting insurance coverage that covers abortion services and that is widely available now. Continue reading

Introduction I want to set out why, after over twenty five years of thinking and writing about health care reform, and two and a half years as a health care activist, I’ve always been ambivalent about single payer. That ambivalence is well known to progressive activists in the state. To judge by what they say to each other in emails that friends forward to me, let alone from what they’ve said out in the open, I’ve been public enemy number for single payer advocates in Pennsylvania for a long time. Partly that’s because I’m the leader of HCAN in Pennsylvania, and we have created the largest issue campaign in Pennsylvania history behind the Obama health care plan, a plan that has a very good chance of being enacted this year and that embodies our principles not those held by advocates of single payer. But that’s by no means the whole… Continue reading

Pennsylvania HCAN and our partners did another seventeen events to push health care reform along this week. Click on the links to go to detailed accounts of these events along with pictures and press reports. Our Erie Coalition met Congresswoman Dahlkemper at the Erie Airport on Sunday November 8 to thank her for vote.   We held a health are forum in Williamsport the same day with citizens who have been active in lobbying Congressman Carney.   We did six drop-in thank you events at the offices of Congressmembers Brady, Carney Doyle, Kanjorski, Schwartz and Sestak on Monday November 9.   We did a thank you event for Representative Patrick Murphy on Tuesday November 10.   And we did nine other events on Thursday November 12, thank you events for Representatives Carney, Dahlkemper, Doyle, Kanjorkski and Schwartz who voted for the legislation and shame on you events for four Representatives… Continue reading

All the work we have been doing to create a guarantee of quality affordable health care for all is coming to a point: The House vote on HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act is scheduled to take place this Saturday, November 7 at around 6:00 pm. The vote will be close. We don’t know whether we it will pass or not. It really depends on you. Three members of Congress in Pennsylvania–Jason Altmire, Chris Carney, and Paul Kanjorski–undecided. If we can get more of their constituents to call them, they would be more likely to decide in favor of reform. Continue reading