Sen. Obama Signs Onto Health Care For America Now Campaign

[Hope And Change]

Senator Obama Signs Onto Health Care For America Now Campaign

Obama and More than 70 Other Members of Congress Commit To Guarantee of Quality, Affordable Health Care For All

Washington, DC – Today, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) signed the Health Care for America Now statement declaring that he is on the side of quality, affordable health care for all and opposed to leaving Americans on their own with unregulated health insurance.


See the "Which Side Are You On?" statement here (pdf):
http://hcfan.3cdn.net/517370ec1fddf45044_vbm6ivw3d.pdf


"Health Care for America Now's goal this year is to get the next President and a majority of Congress committed to the principles of quality, affordable health care for all and opposed to policies that would tax our benefits at work and leave us on our own with the unregulated, bureaucratic private insurance industry," said Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now. "With Senator Obama's signature, we are taking a major step towards getting the next President and Congress to make comprehensive health care reform a priority in 2009."

Since mid-August, more than 70 members of Congress have committed to the HCAN principles of quality, affordable health care and rejected the course of taxing health benefits and pushing people on their own into a deregulated private health insurance market. The HCAN statement asks members of Congress to choose between two very different prescriptions for health care reform with specific, contrasting policies.

"With Senator Obama's leadership we expect to see more members of Congress joining our grassroots campaign for guaranteeing quality, affordable health care that we all can count on," Kirsch said.

"Ensuring Americans in Illinois and across the country have access to affordable, comprehensive healthcare coverage is one of my top priorities," said Senator Barack Obama. "We must do everything we can to expand healthcare access, lower drug costs, and improve quality of care for working families, seniors, and children. I am proud to join HCAN's efforts to tackle the tough challenges we face in reforming our nation's healthcare system."

Health Care for America Now is a national grassroots campaign bringing together millions of individuals and more than http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/who_we_are/">275 organizations with the clear goal of winning comprehensive health care reform in 2009. The broad-based coalition is made up of community-based organizations, unions, women's groups, doctors, nurses, patient advocates, small businesses, faith-based groups, think tanks, and leading netroots activists.

On July 8th, 2008, the http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/health_care_for_america_now_launch_press_release">HCAN campaign launched in Washington, DC and 52 cities (including 38 state capitals) across the country. Over the past couple of months, supporters in 40 states have been holding grassroots actions to expose the bad practices of an industry that makes money by putting profits over people's health. HCAN's ongoing outreach involves asking individuals, organizations, businesses, and members of Congress, "Which Side Are You On?" – the side of quality, affordable health care for all or the side of leaving us alone to fend for ourselves in the bureaucratic, unregulated insurance market. More than http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/congressional-support-for-health-care-for-america-now/">70 Members have signed on so far.

"We applaud Senator Barack Obama for his courage and leadership in focusing on this issue," said William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action IL and USAction president. "Quality, affordable health care for all is a key human rights issue - transcending race, class, gender, and geography. At a time when people are losing their jobs and losing their homes, it's our moral obligation to provide health care security for these families. HCAN is fighting to provide security for our families and stability for businesses and workers and to ensure a new prosperity for all Americans."


Health Care for America Now ("HCAN"), a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, is a broad coalition of nonprofit and political organizations that are working to promote quality, affordable health care for all Americans. HCAN and each of its members conducts and funds only activities appropriate to its tax and election law status.


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http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/content/senator_obama_signs_onto_health_care_for_america_now_campaign">Link

Senator Obama: "I'm proud to join HCAN."

Posted on October 6th, 2008 by http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/author/jason-rosenbaum/">Jason Rosenbaum in http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/category/solutions-that-work/">Solutions that Work

Via http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1008/Obama_backs_Health_Care_for_America_Now.html?showall">Politico:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has signed on to the progressive Health Care for America Now campaign’s principles – a move that bolsters the clout of the nascent organization and could provide him with artillery support as he starts to pound the health-care issue on the presidential campaign trail.

With the $700-billion economic recovery bill now law, Obama has turned his sights on health care. This weekend, he delivered a health-care reform speech in Virginia and launched http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Obama_Coin.html?showall">an ad critical of McCain’s health reform plan. Health Care for America’s announcement adds more amps to an emerging campaign theme.

Obama’s endorsement of the http://hcfan.3cdn.net/517370ec1fddf45044_vbm6ivw3d.pdf">group’s principles is not altogether surprising. They closely mirror Obama’s health-reform platform. Health Care for America’s principles were based on the proposal of University of California at Berkeley political scenic professor Jacob Hacker, who’s also advised Obama.

"Ensuring Americans in Illinois and across the country have access to affordable, comprehensive health-care coverage is one of my top priorities," Obama said in a statement released by the group. "We must do everything we can to expand healthcare access, lower drug costs, and improve quality of care for working families, seniors, and children. I am proud to join HCAN's efforts to tackle the tough challenges we face in reforming our nation's healthcare system."

Senator Obama has joined over 70 of his peers in Congress in signing onto Health Care for America Now's vision for quality, affordable health care for all in 2009.

Obviously, having a voice as big and powerful as Barack Obama's forcefully reaffirms that real health care reform is a priority in America, and a priority that will be first on the legislative docket in January.

Meanwhile, conservatives continue their bait-and-switch tactics when talking about health care. Between declaring http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2008/08/28/john-goodman-think-tank-head-and-john-mccains-health-care-advisor-there-are-no-uninsured/">that there is no such thing as the uninsured, http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.27.6.w472/DC1">kicking millions out of their current insurance to fend for themselves, and proposing http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2008/09/29/ten-things-you-should-know-about-john-mccains-health-care-plan/">a paltry tax credit (that goes straight to the insurance companies) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122315505846605217.html#printMode">while cutting working programs like Medicare and Medicaid to pay for it, it's clear conservatives have no interest in fixing the health care crisis. 20 million more uninsured to them is just a number, and they're more concerned about putting money in the pockets of insurance executives.

That's what it really comes down to for me, solving problems. If you really believe deregulation and a tax credit that goes straight from Uncle Sam to the insurance company is going to give people the coverage they need, stop the medical bankruptcies, or insure those who can't get insurance due to pre-existing conditions, then good luck. The rest of us, when we look at the two visions for health reform on the table, see only one that's really dedicated to solving problems in this country.

Health Care for America Now is equally proud to have Barack Obama on board. (We've got Joe Biden, too!) We're looking forward to passing real reform with his help in January.


Update:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/6/124346/441/758/621648">DemFromCT at Daily Kos has more:

Lost in the economic crisis, the lousy horserace numbers for McCain, and the personal attacks of the McCain camp is the ongoing health care crisis in the United States. With our current system, there remain 47 million without care and millions more who are underinsured. Cost issues exist alongside inequalities of care access. And now, with unemployment rising, the issue is becoming more acute (see What's The Effect Of Recession On The Health Care Safety Net?.)

As I have written before, this is not an easy or simple solution to solve. But one thing is clear: John McCain's idea of a solution, aimed at costs but not quality or access, is a terrible idea.

Paul Krugman:

Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare, and would kill it if they could — in fact, they tried to gut it during the Clinton years (that’s what the 1995 shutdown of the government was all about). But so far they haven’t been able to pull that off.

So John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of nonelderly Americans instead.

Not good. Obama's idea is different. Today, he signed on to the Health Care for America Now principles, which do not endorse specific legislation, but are compatible with single payer and other approaches. From a press release:

…

Let's hope we get a chance to discuss the details with the American people tomorrow night. This is something I think they'd be interested in.

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/speakout/debate">We've been pushing to make health care a priority in the debates for a week now, with over 4,000 letters sent to CBS News. Let's hope the media gets the message.


http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2008/10/06/senator-obama-im-proud-to-join-hcan/">Link

[wildflower]

1. Awesome. I'm so glad to hear this.

Thanks for posting it.