AFSCME and Americans United for Change have produced an ad spotlighting sickening premium hikes on individuals and small businesses — as high as 75 percent — as a closing argument for why Congress should stand with their constituents and not the greedy insurance companies making record profits.
Ads from Health Care for America NOW! (HCAN) along with the AFSCME, Catholics United, and SEIU were released today urging Members of Congress to listen to us, not the insurance companies, and vote to pass comprehensive health care reform now. The ads are scheduled to run Tuesday through Friday to coincide with the upcoming vote.
Below is an example of the ad running in the NY-20 district of Rep. Scott Murphy:
This is the week when Democrats in Congress can prove that it is still possible for our political institutions to stand with the American people in a time of crisis.
This is the week when we will tell who is looking out for political cover and who is standing with patients, families and doctors who need health care reform.
Let’s be clear about what is at stake when the House votes on health care reform. How you answer these six questions will answer how you stand on health care reform:
Should insurance companies be able to deny patients coverage if they have a preexisting condition? This bill will end the ability of insurance companies to abuse Americans who have pre-existing conditions.
Should insurance companies be able to end your insurance coverage when you get sick? This bill will end their ability to do that.
Should insurance companies be able to double premiums and deductibles whenever they want with no controls on their actions? This bill will regulate the insurance companies and allow the government to prevent massive hikes in premiums and deductibles that individuals and business have to pay.
Should insurance companies have to pay for preventive care? This bill will require it.
Should parents be able to keep their unemployed children on their policies until the young adult turns 26? That’s in the bill.
Should taxpayers be paying more than $500,000 in subsidies to the insurance companies? Those sweetheart deals end when President Obama signs health care reform.
Health care reform will lay the groundwork for covering an additional 31 million uninsured Americans. A family of three earning $37,000 a year would pay less than $200 per month for good health insurance for the entire family. The family’s out-of-pocket costs would be limited too, so even if someone in the family faced a serious illness, they would not have to pay more than $4,000 in out-of-pocket expenses.
Don’t believe the corporate flacks and Republican talking heads who tell you this is a complicated issue. There is nothing complicated about it. The only people on Capitol Hill who are confused about health care reform are the people in the pockets of insurance company executives. The folks you see on cable TV, who say we need to start over and spend another year — or another decade — before we pass the reform Americans need, are folks who are reading talking points written by insurance company lobbyists and Republican party pollsters. They say that the public opposes reform, but what the public really opposes are the Republican attempts to water down reform and keep the insurance companies happy.
Now, the top Republicans in Congress are spreading the lie that President Obama’s reforms will hurt Medicare recipients. They are making this up, just as they made up the charges about socialized medicine, government control of health care and death panels. These frauds — and that’s what these politicians are — claim that Medicare will be threatened by President Obama’s reforms. These are the same characters who have tried for years to cut Medicare funding and privatize Social Security. Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor can run from their records, but they can’t hide. Seniors are not going to buy their new found love of Medicare.
These are the same people claiming we can’t afford health care reform. They ignore the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office, which concluded that health care reform actually cuts the federal deficit. That’s because President Obama is cutting the waste and fraud that Republicans and the insurance companies allowed to spread in the health care system. He’s asking wealthy Americans to pay a bit more so that Medicare will be more solvent and the federal government’s health care costs will decline in the years ahead. Seniors will be happy to know that these reforms will end the donut hole they face on their prescription drug benefit, so they won’t have to worry about losing their savings to prescription bills.
If you care about regulating the insurance companies, cutting the deficit, strengthening Medicare and helping working families, you need to take action today. Call your member of Congress and tell them to support health care reform. You can call your U.S. representative now toll free at 888-460-0813. Tell them the time has come to stand up to the insurance companies. The time has come to pass health care reform.
AFSCME members are doing their part. We will make tens of thousands of calls and write letters. We will spend $1 million on television ads this week to let members of Congress know that working families will not let the insurance industry and their front groups dominate the television airways as this historic opportunity to end insurance company abuses comes to a vote.
Don’t be fooled by the insurance companies, the Chamber of Commerce and the GOP operatives. If we fail to defeat the insurance companies, Americans will look back at this week as the one when we lost the best chance in generations to pass a bill to help working families deal with health care. Call your representative and tell them to support health care reform. It’s time to rein in the abuses. It’s time to control skyrocketing costs. It’s time for an up-or-down Congressional vote . It’s time to tell the insurance companies: Your time is up.
Doug Moore, executive director of UDW, the Homecare Providers Union, and an International vice-president of AFSCME helped lead a demonstration last week as part of the March for California’s Future.
The march is a 48-day, 260-mile trek to call attention to the urgent need for California’s elected officials to rebuild a government and economy that work for all. AFSCME and its allies are working to reclaim a fair and equitable tax system that invests in the future of the state.
“I stood among many dozens of marchers and supporters who congregated there, some holding signs and shouting slogans, others singing or praying, to highlight how budget cuts are eroding our state parks and quality of life. Standing on a site rich with a legacy of hope for a better future and a fairer society, we called for the governor and legislature to restore public service and public education funding and services for all Californians.”
Participants in the March for California’s Future
The demonstration occurred at what is now Allensworth State Park, formerly the site of the first California town built, inhabited, governed and financed entirely by African Americans.
“It is in our hands now to make sure that Allensworth – both the park and the legacy – will survive. It is up to us to assure that this important chapter in our history is left for the next generation to visit and appreciate.
Stand up for historic parks like Allensworth. Fight for quality public services and public education.”
On March 9th, hundreds of AFSCME members joined thousands of union members and health care advocates brought together by Health Care for America NOW! to perform a citizens’ arrest of health insurance executives as they were meeting at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC to plan their continued efforts to defeat health care reform.
Watch this video to see our message to the insurance companies: your days of denying care, dropping patients when they get sick and jacking up health care costs are over. We need reform, we need it now, and we won’t let their lobbyists or their money stop Congress from passing it.
Doug Moore, UDW Executive Director and AFSCME IVP has a message for California politicians: “The status quo is over.”
The future of California is at stake and nobody knows this better than public workers in the Golden State. That’s why AFSCME members are stepping out to raise awareness of the vital services state and local employees provide to keep their communities strong.
UDW, The Homecare Providers Union, and AFSCME Local 625 member Irene González are spearheading a 260-mile march from Bakersfield to Sacramento.
González, a senior investigator aide for Los Angeles County, was recently joined by AFSCME members, other public employees, and hundreds of supporters, well-wishers and members of the media to launch the March for California’s Future in Bakersfield, Calif.
Their message was clear: For too long, legislators have tried to balance the state budget on the backs of working families. Not anymore.
“To those politicians in Sacramento who like the status quo and who resist change, we have a message: ‘The status quo is over,’” said Doug Moore, executive director of UDW and an International vice-president of AFSCME. “You either deliver on your promises and meet the needs of your constituents, or we will put you in the unemployment line so you can see how the other half lives!”
The core marchers working to support public services and dedicated to walking 260 miles include a Los Angeles probation officer, a San Diego community college professor, a teacher and community organizer from Watsonville, a retired Berkeley adult educator, and two Los Angeles teachers. They have been joined along the way by hundreds of others.
After 63 miles of marching, participants, AFSCME members and allies held a major rally Wednesday at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park to highlight how budget cuts have forced the closure of state parks and severely curtailed services and operating hours. The park is located at the site of a town once founded and governed by African-Americans. It was established to commemorate the achievements and contributions of African-Americans to the development of California.
Californians want and deserve a public education; they want and deserve safe streets and workplaces; they want and deserve affordable, accessible health care; they want and deserve access to public parks and libraries; and they want and deserve clean water. Unfortunately, community services are slashed year after year. Elected officials need to fight for the public’s interest now.
Polls routinely show that a majority of California voters support public services and want to see programs like education, environmental protections, child care, health care, job training, and mental health services adequately funded. Californians are marching want to promote fairness and equality in our public policies.
“California has always been seen as a place where anything was possible, if you worked hard enough. Unfortunately, equality of opportunity in the Golden State has diminished,” said González. “We want fair taxes. We want better education. We want to be able to live the American Dream for not only ourselves but for the future for our kids.”
Watch television coverage of the March kick-off in Bakersfield:
AFSCME members at the March 9th “mass citizens’ arrest” of health insurance executives. (Photo by D.W. Matthews Studios, LLC)
Thousands of demonstrators, including hundreds of AFSCME members, participated in a “mass citizens’ arrest” of health insurance executives as they met in our nation’s capital on Tuesday to plan their continued efforts to defeat health care reform.
AFSCME activists from Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania joined the protest in front of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C. where the health insurance lobbying group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), was holding its annual policy conference.
“We’re doing something that we should have done a while ago,” AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee told the Los Angeles Times. “Whatever it takes, we’ll do.”
Speaking to the Huffington Post, McEntee let our elected representatives know they are on notice:
“I hope this sends a message to Congress. I think we have to demonstrate that we are not going to stand aside, that we are going to take them out if they don’t help us at all.”
George Estright, a member of AFSCME Local 2162, told the AFL-CIO Now Blog why he traveled from Harrisburg, PA, for the rally:
“We support health care reform to control insurance company profits. It’s not right for working Americans to pay for 200 percent profits for insurance companies. We need something that is fair and equitable.”
This ad in today’s issues of Politico, Roll Call and The Hill, urges Congress to pass President Obama’s health care reform plan now.
As the leaders of America’s health insurance industry meet today at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC, thousands of working men and women are urging Congress to take a stand against the insurance companies and their efforts to kill health care reform.
Busloads of AFSCME activists from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland have come to the nation’s capitol to confront insurance company executives who drop coverage for sick people and jack up rates to create unconscionable profits.
AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, joining more than 3,000 protesters outside the hotel where insurance company CEO’s and lobbyists are attending their annual policy conference, urged Congress to stand up to the insurance companies.
“For them, the bottom line is making money,” McEntee said. “They are paid millions to fight something every American should have – quality, affordable health care.”
AFSCME took out full-page ads in the three key Capitol Hill newspapers – Politico, Roll Call and The Hill – today urging Congress to pass President Obama’s health care reform plan now.
In a smart opinion piece posted this week, Harry J. Holzer, professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department, says it’s time to stop trying to blame unions for what’s wrong with the economy:
Conservatives are attacking labor unions and President Barack Obama’s relationship with them. …. As an economist, I don’t always agree with America’s union movement, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and I wouldn’t argue that union actions are always beneficial or costless. But a sensible discussion requires a careful, dispassionate look at the theory and evidence on unions — rather than right-wing ideology and stereotypes dressed up as analysis.
A diverse group of Californians, including a San Diego community college professor, two Los Angeles probation officers, a Watsonville teacher, a retired Berkeley adult educator, and a retired L.A. teacher begin a 48-day “March for California’s Future” today.
The march, sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and a coalition of labor, education, and civil society groups including the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), will begin with a rally at Mount Moriah Baptist Church in L.A., after which marchers will travel to Bakersfield to begin their walk.
Following in Cesar Chavez’s footsteps, hundreds of firefighters, nurses, in-home care workers, students, and police officers will join the marchers for parts of their 260-mile trek from Bakersfield to Sacramento.
“We want to restore quality public education and public services, rebuild a government that serves all Californians, and create a fair tax system to fund our state’s future,” said Irene Gonzalez, a Los Angeles County probation officer and executive board member of AFSCME Local 685.
Consider three bills — two of them passed under budget reconciliation, the third heading for budget reconciliation. Each had an effect on the fiscal health of the nation, calculated by the Congressional Budget Office. The first two, the tax cuts pushed by President George W. Bush, blew a hole in the budget. The third, the Senate’s health reform bill? As you can see from the CBO projections, that’s a different story.
AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital services that make America happen. With members in hundreds of different occupations — from nurses to corrections officers, child care providers to sanitation workers — AFSCME is the voice of the dedicated workers who take care of America, and is a leading advocate for all working families.
Doug Moore, UDW Executive Director and AFSCME IVP has a message for California politicians: “The status quo is over.”
AFSCME members at the March 9th “mass citizens’ arrest” of health insurance executives. (Photo by D.W. Matthews Studios, LLC)
The 48-day “March for California’s Future” begins today. Learn more at 
