Friday, April 13, 2007
In this Washington CAN! e-newsletter, you will find:
- Children, Youth March for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
- US Senate to Vote on Medicare Rx Price Negotiation Next Week (Take Action)
- OK, everyone, into the risk pool (Write a Letter to the Editor)
1) House Blocks Insurance Industry Amendments
Take
Action in Senate!
Yesterday, the state House of
Representatives rejected insurance industry amendments to SB
5930 that would have given private insurers greater flexibility to discriminate
in price, limit benefits, and cherry pick the healthy for coverage.
Now we need the Senate to stand up to the
power of the insurance industry. Contact
your Senator today!
Call 1-800-562-6000
Or visit http://action.washingtoncan.org
Message: “Please pass
the House version of SB 5930. Support
quality, affordable health care for small business, not insurance industry profit.”
Background:
Last month, the insurance lobby was
successful at amending the Governor’s health care legislation (SB
5930) in the Senate to
· gut standards
for the quality of health care coverage, and
· allow pricing discrimination
that would hurt those who are older, sick and most in need of care.
With your help, we were successful in
defeating these dangerous amendments in the House of Representatives. Thanks for your calls & emails!
In addition, the House amended SB
5930 to implement the Small Employer Health Insurance Partnership – a program
providing premium assistance for low-income small business employees.
Will
the Senate stand up for struggling small businesses or side with powerful
insurance companies? Contact your Senator today!
Call 1-800-562-6000
Or visit http://action.washingtoncan.org
Message: “Please pass
the House version of SB 5930. Support
quality, affordable health care for small business, not insurance industry profit.”
2) Children, Youth March for Comprehensive Immigration
Reform
Demand End to Laws and Policies that Separate Families
On Wednesday, hundreds of children and youth
rallied in downtown Seattle, calling for comprehensive immigration reform and
an end to immigration policies that tear families apart. Washington CAN! helped to coordinate the march in partnership with Hate Free Zone and other allies.
You can read and watch coverage of the march
here: KOMO TV, Seattle
Times, Seattle PI,
KPLU.
"Our representatives in
The march and rally came during an
increasingly charged debate over comprehensive immigration reform in
The children participating in Wednesday’s
march called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that:
· protects all
workers,
· reunites
families,
· provides a path
to citizenship, and
· ensures due
process for all.
3) US Senate to vote on Medicare Rx price negotiation next
week
Next week, the US Senate will vote to decide
if our government should have the option to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.
Drug companies are paying millions to
lobbyists on
Call 1-800-828-0498
Ask your Senators to vote YES on the
Medicare Prescription
Drug Price Negotiation Act.
What should you say?
- Vote YES on the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation bill.
- Many seniors in
- 86% of Americans agree: Medicare should use the bargaining
power of millions of seniors to negotiate lower drug prices.
Why now?
Currently, the government is prohibited from
using the bargaining power of 43 million Americans in Medicare to negotiate
with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices. Earlier this year,
the House of Representatives passed a bill to give the government the option to
do just that. Now, it’s the Senate’s turn to just say NO to the drug companies.
Yesterday, Washington CAN! released a new report,
prepared by the Institute
for America's Future, revealing that
Call 1-800-828-0498
Ask your Senators to vote YES on the
Medicare Prescription
Drug Price Negotiation Act.
Check out the excellent OpEd by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler in this week’s Seattle PI.
Today, if you pay health insurance premiums, go
without coverage, offer employees an insurance plan or provide health care to
patients, you already know that our system is broken and starting to fail.
...Slicing up the health insurance market to cherry-pick
the good risk is not the real answer. Yes, pulling the young and healthy from
the pool will certainly bring the cost of their insurance coverage down. But
abandoning older and less-well workers to swim alone in the emptier pool will
just as certainly cause their costs to rise.
Broad pooling spreads the costs for everyone.
Universal coverage is the answer.
Commissioner Kreidler's OpEd provides a perfect opportunity to amplify our message about the need for insurance reform and universal coverage. Will you write a letter to the editor today?
With
over 30,000 members across the state, Washington CAN! is the
state’s largest grassroots community organization. Washington CAN! fights
for progressive social change at the local, state, and national levels, with a
focus on issues that most directly affect the lives of Washington residents.
Our mission is to achieve economic fairness in order to establish a democratic
society characterized by racial and social justice, with respect for diversity,
and a decent quality of life for those who reside in Washington State. www.WashingtonCAN.org
You are receiving this message because you are a member of Washington CAN! or you have signed up to our free e-mail update service. If you have had this message forwarded to you and would like to continue receiving our action alerts, or you need to change the e-mail address to which these notices are transmitted, please email us at subscribe@washingtoncan.org. If you wish to no longer receive our e-newsletter, please send a message to unsubscribe@washingtoncan.org