Category: Public Policy

It was two steps forward and one step back on health care reform yesterday. That’s why we need you to make a critical phone call to Congressman Patrick Murphy this morning to ask him to reaffirm his support for a public health insurance option in the health care reform legislation being drafted in Congress? You can call toll free at 1-888-436-8427. Yesterday, in a letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus President Obama reaffirmed his support for giving all Americans “the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans.” “This will give them,” he wrote, “a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.” But the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 51 House Democrats that includes Representative Murphy, said yesterday that the public health insurance plan should only come into effect if it is “triggered” by a failure of… Continue reading

Letter to the editor, City Paper, April 29, 2009 We appreciate your video on the HCAN Bridge to Health Care event [The Clog, “Health Care for America NOW! protests at the Ben Franklin Bridge,” Daniel Schwartz, April 14, 2009]. But your report gives a misleading account of the current debate over health care. Continue reading

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Published in the Chestnut Hill Local, April 2, 2009 Commentary: We need a strong bridge to adequate health care by Marc Stier The Pennsylvania and New Jersey chapters of Health Care For America Now, a nationwide organization advocating for President Obama’s health care reform program, are holding a march for quality affordable health care at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on Saturday, April 4 at 1 p.m. There will be rallies at Franklin Square in Philadelphia and near the north walkway of the bridge in Camden. And then the Pennsylvania and New Jersey contingents will march across the bridge and meet in the middle.  Why have we chosen to do this event at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge? Because the path Americans take from hard work to quality affordable health care has become a tightrope over a chasm.  Continue reading

We are at a crossroads for healthcare President Obama’s budget, which includes $634 billion in the budget as a down payment on health care reform, is before the Congress. This is critical. If Congress does not pass a budget that funds health care reform, it won’t happen this year in any form. Click here to call your Members of Congress to tell them to fund health care reform now! President Obama with your support has said that we can’t fix our economy if we don’t reform health care. But the momentum we have built for winning quality affordable health care for all this year will stop in its tracks if the President’s budget fails. Health Care For America NOW ahs put together some easy-to-use talking points to help you send a strong message to your Members of Congress that you support the President’s budget. Can you give your Members of… Continue reading

Daily News, February 11, 2009 People who suffer from chronic diseases are vulnerable to temporary maladies. Those with heart disease, asthma or diabetes sometimes find a bad accident or the flu creating an acute crisis. People sometimes discover chronic illnesses only when acute problems make them evident. And sometimes, it is impossible to deal with a medical crisis without addressing the underlying chronic problems. What is true for our health is also true for health care. Health care in theUnited Statessuffers from chronic maladies. The current economic crisis is showing us how bad they are. That’s why an economic recovery bill that includes initial steps toward health care reform is before the Congress now. One chronic problem is the rising cost of health care, which increases two to three times faster than inflation. Businesses, governments and individuals face insurance premium increases of up to ten percent per year. The recession… Continue reading

The Economic Recovery Package that passed the House last week is now before the Senate. The Republicans are planning a filibuster. Some Democrats are wobbly. And so we are going to need at least two and possibly more Republican votes. The right-wing is going all out to defeat the bill, thinking that if they beat President Obama now, they can derail his entire domestic program. We can’t allow them to succeed. Continue reading

Stop speeding on the drives! Remember how the city demanded that the state police replace the city police in patrolling the Expressway, just as they patrol interstate highways in the rest of the state? Well it happened with interesting consequences elswhere anyone who live in NW Philly should know about. The police officers who formerly patrolled the Expressway have no been reassigned to East (Kelly) and West (ML King)River and Lincoln Drive. The officers who used to be assigned to the drives have been reassigned to the districts. This is a good thing in a few respects. It in effect gives us more police officers on patrol in the city. And the reassigned Expressway officers are taking their job a lot more seriously than the old timers they have replaced. Wednesday morning, for example, seven people had been stopped and warned or ticketed for speeding by 9:30 in the morning.… Continue reading