The Health Care For America Campaign in Pennsylvania

Penn ACTION and our Executive Director, Marc Stier, led the Health Care For America Campaign in Pennsylvania, which was critical to enacting the Affordable Care Act in Washington. Here is an overview of the strategy and achievements of the biggest issue campaign in Pennsylvania history—Health Care For America Now. We mobilized Congressional champions for healthcare reform. Some of our members of the House—such as Allyson Schwartz, Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, Joe Sestak, and Mike Doyle—and Senator Casey were long time supporters of health care reform. But in Washington, there is a huge step between an abstract commitment to some ideal and the hard, slogging work of moving legislation through Congress. So first task was to light a fire under potential champions for health care reform. This began during the election of 2008. We focused the election on the health care issue. And together with HCAN groups in 42 other states, we… Continue reading

What did you do during the class war, Mommy and Daddy?

Published in the Daily News, September 23, 2010 THOUGH I lead a progressive grass-roots organization, I’m a little embarrassed by the question that serves as a title for this essay. For 25 years, I taught political philosophy, most recently at Temple University. The key to my teaching was to encourage students see both sides of every issue. I was always proud when my students didn’t know where I stood politically. Teaching both sides of the issues rubs off. So, even now, I’m politically just a little left of center. I supported the Obama health-care plan rather than single-payer not out of political expedience but conviction. I believe that a hybrid public-private plan is most likely to give us the most effective health-insurance system. So, I’m uncomfortable saying we are in the midst of a class war right now in America. But it’s time for all of us on the left,… Continue reading