{"id":1827,"date":"2009-06-01T21:48:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T02:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.marcstier.com\/wordpress\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2011-07-23T22:05:40","modified_gmt":"2011-07-23T22:05:40","slug":"yes-we-hcan-rally-and-lobby-day-for-health-care-on-june-25th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"Yes We HCAN–rally and lobby day for health care on June 25th"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health Care For American Now (HCAN) is holding a national Rally and Lobby Day\u2014we\u2019re calling it called Health Care \u201909: We Can\u2019t Wait\u2014on June 25th on the mall in Washington.<\/p>\n

We hope to bring 1000-1500 Pennsylvanians to Washington for the rally. Free buses will be leaving from locations around the state. (I\u2019ll be announcing those locations in a day or so.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

You can pre-register for the event at http:\/\/www.hcanpa.org\/dc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you why you should join us:<\/p>\n

We are on the verge of historic action.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

We are on the verge of finally filling in the huge gap in the social safety net of America\u2014our 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 .<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have happened without you.<\/p>\n

There is simply no question that health care legislation\u2014which can do all this and more\u2014is 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.<\/p>\n

Our strategy for winning<\/p>\n

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, \u201cfrom your lips to God\u2019s ears.\u201d Things have been going just that well.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

2. Creating a new, public health insurance option open to all.<\/p>\n

3. Creating new subsidies for both public and private health insurance that would make it affordable for everyone<\/p>\n

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\u2014and more and more people don\u2019t like it\u2014you get to keep it. But if you don\u2019t, you can get other private insurance or join a public insurance plan.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Our leaders are really leading this time.<\/p>\n