Everyone Deserves Health Care as a Right

From the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force:

Yesterday the Senate started debating their version of health care reform. Choice USA is organizing a National Call to Action tomorrow! Help make sure our senators take our voices to their fights on the floor.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed at the last minute in the House version of health care reform. We don’t want the same thing to happen in the Senate. If language like Stupak’s makes it into the Senate bill, abortion will become all but impossible to access. We deserve better than this. Health care reform should increase our access to care, not further restrict it. Here’s what you can do to keep the Senate from Stupaking:

• Join Choice USA’s National Call-In! Call your Senator at 1-888-423-5983. Step one: ask them to keep an anti-choice Amendment like Stupak’s from ending up in their bill. Step two: remind your Senator to strike down the Hatch’s abstinence-only funding Amendment. Our legislators need to know we’re still watching. Click here for a Call-In Day script and check out these tips on how to use Facebook and Twitter to amplify your voice.

• Head to an event in your state. Check out what’s happening near you!

We deserve to be fought for on the floor. Let’s not allow the Senate to negotiate their bill by sacrificing the comprehensive health care women and young people need!

See you on the phones and at rallies around the states tomorrow!

Our Lives Are at Stake…Literally

President Obama is trying to reform our broken health care system, which has left more than 45 million Americans uninsured1 and millions more with insurance that won’t provide the treatment they need.2

Some in Congress are with Obama. But the insurance industry, with help from Republicans3 and so-called centrist Democrats,4 is leading the charge to kill a key part of his plan — a government-run insurance plan that would increase the number of Americans covered, called the “public option.” Industry groups are spending millions — $35 million in lobbying costs alone5 — to convince people that they won’t be able to choose their doctor, that government will be making their medical decisions, that they’d be forced to take the government’s plan, and that the plan is part of some socialist plot — all lies. In reality, the insurance industry is trying to protect its enormous profits on the backs of everyday people.

For Black folks, the stakes couldn’t be higher: we are twice as likely as Whites to be uninsured, we have more than double the rate of infant mortality, we face more than twice the rate of diabetes-related deaths than Whites — and the list goes on.6

While the fight rages in Washington, our voices are simply not at the table. You can help change that. Join us in telling Congress that we believe every person in this country should have equal access to affordable health care, regardless of race, income, or any other factor. And please ask your friends and family to do the same. It takes just a moment:

colorofchange.org

Americans understand the idea of the public option and overwhelmingly support it — three out of four people want the federal government to offer insurance coverage.7,8 But powerful lobbying groups like America’s Health Insurance Plans, Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, and the American Medical Association — representing the insurance industry, the drug industry, and doctors — are doing everything in their power to maintain the status quo.9

Several organizations have pushed back, including MoveOn.org — a key partner of ours in this fight — but it will take all of us standing up if we want to win.

A public option makes sense for the country as a whole, and it makes particularly good sense for Black folks. Many of us make too much to qualify for Medicaid but either aren’t eligible for or aren’t adequately covered by private, employer-based plans. Overall, 21% of Blacks are uninsured, compared to 12% of Whites.10

We need a public insurance option, but that’s not the only thing we should be fighting for. We need to push for equity in all aspects of our approach to health care. Every community deserves quality medical treatment, research and resources. That’s not what we’re getting now, and the numbers prove it:

* 22% of Black women say cost keeps them away from the doctor’s office, compared to 15% of White women11

* Black women have the highest rates of new AIDS cases, cancer mortality, obesity and low-weight infants of any ethnic or racial group12

* There are 13.6 Black infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.7 White infant deaths per 1,000 live births13

* There are 47 Black deaths from diabetes-related illness per 100,000 people, compared to 22.5 White deaths per 100,000 people14

* There are 60.1 new AIDS cases per 100,000 people among Blacks, compared to 6.7 new cases per 100,000 people among Whites15

Our opportunity to address the disparities that keep too many of us from enjoying long, healthy lives is now.

Take a minute to tell our lawmakers that the first step toward improving our health care system is including a public plan that makes good health something everyone can afford. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:

colorofchange.org

Health Care & You…Help the Cause

Monday morning, an unlikely gathering of health care industry and union leaders emerged from the White House, announcing a historic agreement to lower medical costs and save the average family up to $2,500. This kind of broad coalition would have been unthinkable in the past, when the old politics of division and short-term self interest held sway. But this is a new day.

Yesterday afternoon, President Obama announced the three bedrock principles that any comprehensive health care reform must achieve: (1) reduce costs, (2) guarantee choice, and (3) ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care. And he set a hard goal for getting it done by the end of this year.

For those determined to oppose reform, the President’s announcement means lobbyists are already scrambling across D.C. For the rest of us, it means there’s no time to lose. As we speak, Congress is negotiating the details for health care reform, so the first step is showing where the American people stand.

Click here, to sign a declaration of support urging Congress to follow President Obama’s three core principles for health care reform — and to enact them before the end of this year!