Health Care For American Now (HCAN) is holding a national Rally and Lobby Day—we’re calling it called Health Care ’09: We Can’t Wait—on June 25th on the mall in Washington.
We hope to bring 1000-1500 Pennsylvanians to Washington for the rally. Free buses will be leaving from locations around the state. (I’ll be announcing those locations in a day or so.)
The rally will be at 11:00. Then we will gather in one very large room for a Town Hall meeting at which we expect to see a number of our members of Congress. We will head by to Pennsylvania at about 6:00 pm.
You can pre-register for the event at http://www.hcanpa.org/dc.
Let me tell you why you should join us:
We are on the verge of historic action.
We are on the verge of enacting the most important social welfare legislation since Social Security was created in 1935. And you want to be part of making it happen.
We are the verge of saving hundreds of thousands of lives and, improving the quality of life for millions. And you want to tell your children and grandchildren that you were part of the movement that did this
We are on the verge of finally filling in the huge gap in the social safety net of America—our failure to provide a guarantee of quality, affordable, health care for all. And you want to take your place in history with everyone who created the rest of the social safety net .
We are on the verge of enacting polices that will reduce the rapid rise of health care costs and begin rebuilding our economy from the bottom up, on the basis of growing wages not overinflated housing values. And you want to claim some credit for doing this.
We are on the verge of solidifying progressive rule over this country for the next generation. And after every electoral victory over the next twenty five years, you want to say it wouldn’t have happened without you.
There is simply no question that health care legislation—which can do all this and more—is going to be enacted in 2009. The only question is how good it is going to be. You can help make it as good as it can and should be.
Our strategy for winning
I started work with Health Care For America Now (HCAN), the largest health care campaign going and perhaps the largest organized issue campaign in American history about a year ago. And if someone would had predicted then, that we would be where we are right now, I would have said, “from your lips to God’s ears.” Things have been going just that well.
For one thing we have a clear, winning strategy for expanding the bubble. The HCAN principles, which then candidates Obama and Biden endorsed in October 2008, three central elements.
1. Creating new regulations on health insurance that would require all insurance companies to offer comprehensive health insurance to everyone and would prohibit them from charging more to people who have pre-existing medical conditions, who are women of child bearing years, or who are older.
2. Creating a new, public health insurance option open to all.
3. Creating new subsidies for both public and private health insurance that would make it affordable for everyone
This is strategy designed to be immune to the attacks that defeated the Clinton plan. No one is going to be able to say that President Obama wants to take away their private insurance and put them in a health insurance plan run by a government they don’t trust. Under the Obama / HCAN principles, if you like your private insurance—and more and more people don’t like it—you get to keep it. But if you don’t, you can get other private insurance or join a public insurance plan.
If we can make the public plan as good as we hope, We think that many Americans will join it because it will be cheaper and better than private insurance. By voting with their feet for a good public health insurance plan. Americans will relegitimate government action for the next generation.
Our leaders are really leading this time.
- President Obama has not retreated an inch from his commitment to health care reform this year. It is clearly his top priority for the rest of the year
- The Democratic leaders of Congress have embraced our strategy and President Obama’s commitment as have the committee and sub-committee chairs of the two Senate and three House committees charged with health care reform.
- A budget was passed by both House and Senate that not only contained a $634 billion downpayment on health care reform but also contained a provision—called a reconciliation rule—that would prohibit a filibuster against health care reform if it is not enacted before October 15.
- Already there is majority in the House of Representatives for what is likely to be the most controversial part of upcoming legislation—the new public health insurance plan.
- We are not quite there in the Senate although we are picking up support every day. And only a minority of Senators have said no to the most far reaching reform proposals before them.
Legislation is coming soon
Legislation will be introduced soon. This legislation will be the real thing. It will make sure that all Americans have affordable health care. It will control health care costs. It will decisively shift power away from insurance companies. It will encourage innovative approaches in health care delivery. And it will encourage the choice and competition in health insurance that we need to keep innovation flowing and costs down.
Will the legislation be perfect? No. But it will not only go enormously far in attaining the central goal progressives have long sought—getting everyone good health care—but will also control costs and pave the way for future transformations of the health care system that get even closer to our ideal.
The special interests are trying to stop us
As we move toward real reform, the insurance companies and their allies are going to do everything they can to stop us. We have already seen TV ad campaigns against reform coming from the health care industry. More are on the way.
Insurance companies want to block a public health insurance plan. And they want to weaken the regulations on their industry.
We need you to join us
We are on the cusp of history making events. Between now and September, we will see how good health care reform is going to be; how many lives we will save; how far we go in filling the gap in our safety net; how much we raise the standard of living of working people; how much we can control health care costs and jump start wage growth; and how far we can go in solidifying support for progressive government.
We need you and your friends, neighbors and co-workers to recognize that this is the critical time and that your work can make a difference.
We need you and your friends, neighbor and co-workers to recognize that in doing so, you can be part of a special moment in history.
We need you to join us in Washington DC on June 25th.
For more information about the campaign go to