{"id":446,"date":"2009-08-01T01:45:50","date_gmt":"2009-07-31T19:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.stier.net\/?p=446"},"modified":"2011-07-23T22:04:56","modified_gmt":"2011-07-23T22:04:56","slug":"where-we-are-on-health-care-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"Where we are on health care reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t make yourself crazy!
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I generally don’t recommend health care activists follow the ins and outs of the legislative process in Washington. There is always a tug of war between progressives and conservatives and it changes as we move from one field of play to another, that is from one committee to another and then to the floor of each house of Congress. Bills get better and they get worse.
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There is little that any of us can do to influence the details of legislation at each of these moments.
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The fundamental thing we need to do is to shape the overall environment in which legislation is being considered by getting the word out about health care reform; building our movement; and keeping pressure on our members of Congress by means of letters, phone calls, emails. We especially need to focus on those who seem to be wavering in support of real healthcare reform.
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HCAN PA will in the next day or two announce a series of August events that aim to build pressure for reform, including welcome home events for our members of Congress that start on Monday.
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Of course, when there is something critical you can do at any moment, as we did with our phone banking in to Blue Dog districts this week, we will let you know.
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Where we are right now.
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As the members of the House of Representatives leave for a recess and return to their districts, I want to give you an update about where we are.
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In the last week, as a result of opposition on the part of some Blue Dogs to elements of it, HR 3200\u2014the bill put forward by the chairs of the Ways and Means, Education and Labor, and Energy and Commerce committees\u2014was modified a bit in ways we opposed. And then, today, after progressives in the House complained, it tilted a bit back in our direction.
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So, even though it is not exactly what we want, we are in the strong position of having a good bill, HR 3200, ready to move to the floor of the House of Representative when our members return in September. And that is our message for the month: support HR 3200. It contains:
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