Germantown Mennonite Church - What Have You Done?

Put Holdout Senators on Your Speed Dial

Ming Shem Lu — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:22:56 GMT

Dan sends out an email to the GMC community saying, “Strategically NOW is the time when we can really have an impact by contacting [those in Congress]. Encourage others to do likewise!”

Dan is a Philadelphia small-business owner who sees his company’s health insurance premiums rising by 18% next year. He told me he’s put the Senators’ phone numbers on speed dial.

Michael Moore said progressives should get into the habit of making at least 4 phone calls a day—1 to the President, 1 to your Representative and 2 to your Senators. Dan has gone beyond that, and why not? He calls those holdout Senators even if he doesn’t live in their states. As he said, "[healthcare reform] is a national issue and their vote will have a direct impact on you and your family."

I'd like to add: You may also want to tell them you will back your opinion with money—that if the Senator were to vote in a way that negatively impacts you and your family, you will support candidates that you think will better serve the nation’s interests and yours.

Dan also said the Senate bill is pretty good, or good enough that he can say he supports it overall. That makes the phone calls a lot easier. No need for detailed discussions of pros and cons. Just call and tell the aide you support the bill—if that is all the time you have.

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Here is Dan's email:

Senator Harry Reid put forward a pretty good bill that would insure an additional 30+ million people and create a government-run public health insurance option. It seems like the next 2 to 3 weeks will decide where this is going to go and there are a few Senators who have expressed skepticism about the bill.

The Senators from Pennsylvania are supportive of the bill so I've been calling and writing to some of the senators from other states who are on the fence about supporting this. (I must be on Joe Lieberman's watch list as I've been bugging him so much.)

If you would like to do the same I'm including the names & phone numbers for six senators who are key to the passage of the bill:

Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) (202) 224-4041
Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) (202) 224-6551
Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) (202) 224-5824
Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) (202) 224-4843
Susan Collins (R-Maine) (202) 224-2523
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) (202) 224-5344

Or call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121

Just give them a quick call and ask them to support the healthcare reform bill put forward by Harry Reid. If you like you can tell them that you support the public option and that you would like them to do likewise.

Even though we're not from their state you can tell them that it is a national issue and their vote will have a direct impact on you and your family. They shouldn't even be able to pick up the phone without some john or jane-q-public telling them to support the bill!

Emails of support are even better and personal letters have the most impact on Senators. You can contact them by email or get their office addresses from their websites. Just google their names, their websites will come up pretty high in the search results. [Or just click on their names above!]

Strategically NOW is the time when we can really have an impact by contact these people. Encourage others to do likewise!

Stroke Survivor Goes to Washington

Ming Shem Lu — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:59:14 GMT

My friend Shelly Newman, a rabbinic student and retired teacher, went to Washington in September as part of the American Heart Association delegation and talked to various Senators about healthcare reform.

She met with Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the HELP Committee, and the two Senators from her home state Michigan, and sat through some of the Senate Finance Committee’s discussions.

Here is Shelly's statement:

"Seven years ago, following basal cell carcinoma on my face, I returned to the hospital for some reconstruction. While there, I contracted a very rare disease called vasculitis, where the body’s immune system attacks the arteries in the brain.

I stroked out, was paralyzed, had left peripheral blindness, lost my ability to read and write, and had several strokes and seizures. I spent the next two months in the hospital, starting to rebuild my life. With a huge regimen of steroids and antibiotics, the headaches ceased, and I started five therapies a day, five days a week. I eventually was released home and did outpatient therapies five days a week for the next 18 months.

I have a wonderful husband and daughter, who helped me on this nightmare of a journey back to health. When teaching, I was able to obtain MESSA (Michigan Education Special Services Association) health insurance for myself and my family. It is the finest of health insurance coverage offered to Michigan teachers in districts that are savvy enough to see the value of quality healthcare for their people.

To this day, we know I am alive due to the kind of care I had, and it is one of the reasons I have come as far as I have, against all odds. With my tenacity, faith, family and friends support, plus good medical care, I have moved forward.

I’ve been fortunate. But being uninsured or underinsured is tragic. We must move forward for healthcare for all Americans."

NOTE from the American Heart Association: “The information provided in this document is a personal account, provided by the individual, of their experience in the health insurance market.”

Click here for the Healthcare Reform page on AHA's website.

Self-Employed Mother Writes to the President

Ming Shem Lu — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:16:11 GMT

A self-employed couple with a daughter pays $650/month for health insurance with $5000 deductible. The mother writes to the President urging him to support public option.

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October 16, 2009

Dear President Obama:

I voted for you, and I thank you for your work on behalf of low- and middle-income Americans, and in particular your support of those of us in urban centers. I work with people who are currently and formerly homeless, and most of these individuals are incredibly hopeful about your presidency, and what you will do for them.

I am writing to urge you to support a public option in health care reform. Without it, this legislation does not go nearly far enough, and does not benefit many families who are living paycheck to paycheck, with little to spare.

I voted for you because your agenda was ambitious—you wanted to end poverty, and ensure the most vulnerable were taken care of. I did not vote for compromise, for scaling down of ambition.

In fact, I would be in favor of nationalized health care, because health insurance along will not solve this nation’s healthcare crisis as long as someone is making a profit off of sick people.

Let me give you one reason I think a public option is necessary. A public option would help those who do not qualify for low-income federal or state programs, but who cannot truly afford to purchase insurance themselves.

For several years, I was self-employed and purchased healthcare coverage for myself and my family. For three healthy people with no pre-existing conditions, the cost was $650 per month, and that was with a $5,000 deductible. This was the least expensive program we could find.

We never met the deductible, and had to pay out of pocket for all doctor visits, immunizations, and procedures. Without a big insurance company arguing with doctors to reduce the cost of bills, you are on your own, and doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies charge the highest rate they can.

The most I was ever able to negotiate was a 10% discount on the cost of my daughter’s 2-year immunizations, which were over $350 just for the shots, not including the visit. One office visit alone was billed at $300 because it was a “new patient” visit, and I was unable to get the cost reduced. An insurance company would probably only end up paying $100 or so for that same visit because of their agreement with the office.

So, mandating privately purchased insurance is not enough if it means forcing individuals to pay $7800/year (a high percentage of most household earnings), and up to an additional $5,000 until a deductible is reached.

Please support the public option, even if it means higher taxes.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

JXC

Small Business Owner Writes to the President

Ming Shem Lu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:52:45 GMT

Doug Thut-Witmer shares with us the letter he wrote to the President in September 2009:

Dear President Obama,

I'm writing today to express my support for you, but to also challenge you to provide more aggressive leadership in the area of health care reform. I voted for you because I believed you would lead us in radically taking the American health care system in a new direction.

I am a self-employed artist, small business owner, and father of 3 small children in Philadelphia. I must count myself as one of the fortunate people in our country. Though our family is faced with real financial challenges, at this point we are able to get by. However, I have lived my life perpetually under-insured. My business is not at a place where I can provide insurance to all my employees. Most of my staff cannot afford any health coverage.

Universal healthcare with a public option would make a dramatic difference in my life and the lives of the people I care about and depend upon. Please redouble your efforts to make this a reality for our country.

Sincerely,

Douglas Witmer
Philadelphia, PA

Lamar's Letter to the Editor

Ming Shem Lu — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:42:25 GMT

Lamar Freed wrote a Letter to the Editor supporting single-payer healthcare. It was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday, Oct 4, 2009:

We Already Pay for Universal Care

No matter how you parse the insurance wars, the bottom line is that the people of the country pay for everyone's health care.

They do it by paying more for products and services to cover the cost to companies for insuring their employees. They do it through higher healthcare costs that are needed to cover the free care that hospitals provide to the uninsured. They pay because of the loss of employability of those whose health fails prematurely because of lack of care. We pay through taxes that subsidize hospitals and clinics for the uninsured.

We can clean all of this up with the simplicity of a single-payer national healthcare plan that will, ironically, do more to bolster capitalism and private enterprise than anyone has been predicting.

Imagine what our citizens would do if they weren't constrained by worries about health insurance. The number of small businesses would blossom. Individual entrepreneurs would go out into the business world to pursue ideas long held as too risky. Businesses would spend far less time fussing about employee benefits and correspondingly more time engaged in what they do best.

J. Lamar Freed
Elkins Park

Why Katie Thinks "Specter Visit" a Success

Ming Shem Lu — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:13:45 GMT

It’s about taking ownership of the political process, as Katie Ernst eloquently attests to in the essay below.

Katie, a young, law-school graduate who herself has had some harrowing experiences with health insurance, was among the group from GMC who visited the Philadelphia office of Senator Arlen Specter last Thursday.

Just to add my two cents: I call our visit a success because, as we spent some time together that morning, I got a glimpse of the true HOPE that was so talked about during the 2008 election. It’s not found in Obama but among the young voters, in their 20s and 30s, who helped elect him. An energy has been unleashed, and we HOPE its beat will go on. No more will they—and we—stand by while powerful forces hijack our nation's politics, whether these be special-interest lobbyists, spineless or shamelessly obstructionist politicians, the right-wing fringe and their establishment enablers, or media giants the gatekeepers of who gets heard.

Those of us involved in healthcare reform know this: It’s not just about healthcare reform. It’s about taking ownership of the political process.

A note about making an appointment to visit your Senator’s or Representative’s office: Jenny Anne Hortz-Martz writes that this is the single most effective way of getting through to elected officials. In our case, I went online to Senator Specter’s website, then clicked on “Constituent Services,” chose “Scheduling” from the pull-down menu, and completed the form. I did that on Monday, Oct 19, and didn’t get a call back until Tuesday, Nov 3, two weeks later. So be patient—you will get scheduled!

Katie mentions in her essay that Specter supports singer-payer healthcare—in fact, he even went so far as to pledge to sponsor an amendment (to the Senate bill) that would remove any roadblocks states might face while enacting a single-payer system. Read more here. If you visit or call his office in the near future, you may want to ask his staffers about that.

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Meeting with Arlen Specter: Moving the Political Establishment One Politician at a Time
By Katherine Ernst

Progressives are not feeling quite as hopeful as they were a year ago. The Bush Administration is now no more than a bad taste in our mouths (well, that is, unless you are among the 1-in-6 Americans who are unemployed or underemployed), and increasingly the fact that Obama is not Bush is no longer enough to placate us.

Americans have been expecting to experience the change that was promised to us in many eloquent campaign speeches, but have seen precious little of it. What happened to the urgency of now? On the campaign trail we were promised healthcare-for-all by August. Now Democrats are saying that we might not even get healthcare-for-some by the end of 2009.

What is a progressive to do? Anna Quindlen has suggested that “if the American people want the president to be more like the Barack Obama they elected, maybe they should start acting more like the voters who elected him, who forcibly and undeniably moved the political establishment to where it didn’t want to go.” Personally, I have a problem with this notion. Americans worked hard to elect Barack Obama so that he could replace the political establishment that wasn’t moving, not become the political establishment that isn’t moving.

Be that as it may, matters are what they are, and notwithstanding the fact that a majority of Americans continue to support a robust public option, Democrats have come to embody the worst qualities of their party’s symbol. They have become stubborn asses that Americans have no choice but to drag inch-by-inch to a healthcare reform bill which will embody our will and live up to their promises.

So considering these political realities, what actions can progressives take to move their representatives in Congress? One of the things that constituents can do that makes an impact and takes very little time is to go and speak to them in person. Since most people do not take the time to contact their Senators and Representatives, those who do are disproportionately heard.

Four of us (Greg Kinnison, Doug Alderfer, Ming Lu, and myself) did just that. We visited Senator Arlen Specter’s office on Nov 5, 2009 and spoke with one of his staffers. We related to him our concerns about the current healthcare bill. Our primary focus was to emphasize that we support a robust public option. Beyond that, we discussed our feelings regarding a single-payer system (strongly support it, although we are realistic that it is currently not politically viable), tort reform (conservative buzz word for avoiding real health system reform), and allowing drug companies to extend drug patents (a gift to drug companies that would hurt the poor), among other topics.

We also talked politics—both the recent democratic defeats as well as Arlen Specter’s own 2010 primary. First, we emphasized that Democrats should not read the latest elections as a referendum on their policies, including healthcare reform. Those elections were local elections that at most can be extrapolated to show Americans’ displeasure at political business as usual. Second, we discussed how Democrats are growing weary of empty promises. People of all political stripes in Pennsylvania like Arlen Specter. He is clearly a kind and good man. Democratic voters, however, will be voting in the 2010 primary not on likability, but rather on the work that Arlen Specter is doing for progressives and for Pennsylvanian’s interests.

So at the end of the day, did our trip to Senator Specter’s office make a difference? The honest answer is probably not, only because Arlen Specter has already publicly come out in favor of a robust public option, and even (gasp!) single payer. Senators clearly do take letters, calls, and meetings with constituents into account when making calculated political decisions. The amount to which they do so, however, will vary both from Senator to Senator and from issue to issue.

Regardless of our ultimate impact, it was a relief to finally to feel like our voices were being heard. Moreover, it was a great reminder that Senators and Representatives are the public’s servants—they serve you and me. They are not celebrities or gods. They are humans whom we have chosen to represent us. How better to ensure that our representatives are representing our will than by letting them know how we feel?

In short, whether our trip to Senator Specter’s office affects him remains to be seen, but I can say for certain that it affected me, and so at the end of the day, I call our visit a success.

Handwritten Letters and Questions

Lois Ann Handrich — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:58:26 GMT

I wrote my second set of hand written letters to President Obama and Senators Specter and Casey. I thanked them for their support of healthcare reform but indicated that I did not feel the current bills were addressing the fundamental issue of our cost of healthcare.

I appreciate that I do have healthcare insurance. However, my company just told us that the cost for our Blue Cross, Blue Shield have risen 30.9% since 2005. For 2010 the company is increasing the percentage the employee has to pay from 20% to 25%. In addition each employee on a family plan has to pay a deductible of $1,000 before we then begin paying a co-pay.

I don't see this getting any better. I'm wondering if others see this differently. I'm not sure that even if we do get a public option that it will really address the costs of healthcare for many of us.

Lois Ann

Janet's Letter to Senator Arlen Specter

Ming Shem Lu — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:27:39 GMT

On Thursday, Nov 5, a number of us visited the Philadelphia office of Senator Arlen Specter to talk about healthcare reform. Janet couldn't make it. She sent a letter (see below) with us to be hand-delivered to Specter's aide.

While at home, Janet called Representative Chaka Fattah's office and thanked him for his upcoming vote supporting the healthcare bill. She also sent emails to her friends and family around the country urging them to contact their representatives.

"Dear Senator Specter,

I'm writing rather than visiting you because I broke a toe 2 days ago. I want to give it some more rest.

My position was eliminated as of last June. Part of my separation package was for healthcare to continue for my husband and myself at the same rate through the end of this year. So I am very lucky that we still have healthcare.

My husband retired and lost our healthcare Sep 2008. So I started us under my employer. He started a part-time job with a small business. Luckily he has been there long enough now to prove that he is a reliable employee. So they are allowing him to work full-time now so that we can get healthcare with a bit of money left over. We are among the lucky ones that the loss of a job is not going to bankrupt us.

Do you know that in other industrialized countries, it is considered unthinkable that anyone would be bankrupted because they became ill? This is a moral issue. Those other countries also regulate corporations to behave better towards the environment and workers so that the healthcare costs are lower by keeping the residents healthier.

The loss of my and my husband's healthcare due to retirement and position elimination has been the biggest problem. And we have it good compared to most others.

Thank you for supporting universal healthcare with a public option.

Healthcare should not be tied to employment. Rates for the same level of coverage in the same large geographical area should be the same for everyone. Everyone should have to have insurance. No refusals of claims due to recission or pre-existing conditions. The amount of profit (why is anyone profiting rather than breaking just above even?) and executive salaries should be regulated. Education to be a doctor should not leave the new doctor in debt. Family practioners should be paid better so that there is an incentive to go into that field. Surgeons should not be paid on a fee for service. A good surgeon does not always suggest surgery.

Anyway, please keep your resolve to support universal healthcare with a public option.

Thank you,

Janet Boys"

Keep those letters coming!

Jenny Anne Horst-Martz — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:02:42 GMT

Yesterday I wrote (by hand, of course) to Obama, Specter, and Fattah, urging them not to back down. I said that we need healthcare for all, now, not by means of a trigger in the event of some future possibility, and that it will only be meaningful if everyone is part of the system. I urged them to stand up to the insurance industry. To Fattah, I wrote of my annoyance with the wastefulness of the current system, which makes me get a prescription for a routine screening mammogram, wasting my doctor's time (and mine) and probably deters people from getting preventive care.

Wendell Potter told me that his wife was a legislative aide, and that my summary of the most effective ways of contacting Congress was exactly right. So please keep contacting them, in as many of the high-effective ways that you can!

Jenny Anne

Sit-in & Get Arrested: Be Brave at Any Age!

Ming Shem Lu — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:51:18 GMT

On Friday, Wendy Schlotterbeck sent us this email:

"I have been following the emails from GMC about healthcare reform with great interest.

I thought some of you might be interested to know that my son, Markus, a student at Swarthmore, is very active in an activist group pressing for healthcare reform. Today at noon, in Philadelphia, 13 students staged a peace action protest in front of Independence Blue Cross. They were trying to bring attention to the facts of Independence Blue Cross spending health insurance premium money to defeat health reform and to insist that they cover treatments for all who need it.

The protest was a success. I have heard that there was a lot of media coverage and the 13 students were arrested and hope to be released tonight or tomorrow. I hope it makes it onto network TV and radio to get the word out.

Here is the students' website: http://www.studenthealthcareaction.org/

Another link is:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3221732&userid=148102

Peace and Power to the people!

Wendy Schlotterbeck"

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Thanks, Wendy, for sending us the email about Markus and the Student Healthcare Action Network. What's so inspiring for me is that these activists help shatter the myth that young people are not interested in healthcare reform.

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I do know some young people who show little interest--they fit that stereotype of the invinsible and uninsured--and I scratch my head and wonder why. Even if they think they will never get sick (so caring for healthcare is somehow not the macho thing to do), can't they understand that escalating healthcare costs affect, for instance, their work choices (or the lack of) and are dragging down the US economy, which they are part of? And we're aren't even talking about justice, civil rights, or morality--boring subjects for sure!

So college students such as Markus--and their willingness to literally put themselves on the line--give us hope.

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Recently, I came across two interesting articles in "the Huffington Post" that speak to this subject of youth involvement in healthcare reform.

Heather Box writes that a new SurveyUSA poll shows that the age group 18 to 34 "both expressed the strongest desire for reform and the strongest support for a public option." Young people are forming groups, such as Generation H, which she cites, and the above-mentioned Student Healthcare Action Network, to do direct action.

Jose Antonio Vargas in his article provides a different perspective, trying to explain why young people are NOT as visible in the current healthcare debate as they were during the campaign to elect Obama.

Vargas writes, "Team Obama is now in governing mode. And the grassroots, tech-powered movement anchored by young voters...has taken a backseat to the back-room, inside-the-Beltway realities of Washington." And quoting Democratic strategist Joe Trippi: "It's almost like Obama the candidate campaigned in a new way and then Obama the president is governing the old way." Heather Smith, head of Rock the Vote, which registered more than 2 million young voters last year, said although the White House has been good at reaching out to youth organizations, "that doesn't mean they've been doing a lot to elevate the voices of young people--not yet, at least."

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I clicked on the second link Wendy provided and saw some great photos of demonstrations outside health insurance offices around the country.

And I noticed that those involved were young and not-so-young.

YES WE CAN...be brave at any age.

Remain Active in "O" Age

Ming Shem Lu — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:55:41 GMT

I recently came across a couple of good articles—one inspires me to remain politically active, the other provides practical advice on how.

“Yes He Can (But He Sure Hasn’t Yet)” screams the headline of the Nov 2, 2009 issue of “Newsweek.” Inside, Anna Quindlen says that voters shouldn’t be surprised that as president, Obama has seemed much more cautious and deliberative than when he was a candidate—that has as much to do with his personality as with how the American political system works.

This paragraph strikes me most: “So if the American people want the president to be more like the Barack Obama they elected, maybe they should start acting more like the voters who elected him, who forcibly and undeniably moved the political establishment to where it didn’t want to go.”

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Whether you agree with the specifics of his views, or whether he rubs you the wrong way (he sometimes does me), Michael Moore is a much-needed voice in the political spectrum. Recently, on “Huffington Post,” he lays out “My Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now.”

Moore often bemoans the inertia of liberals and progressives, while right-wingers get organized and wake up at 6 am to go demonstrate.

Under “Five Things We Can Do to Make Congress and the President Listen to Us,” Number One is “Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls:

One to the President, one to your Congressperson, and one to each of your two Senators…Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent—or even a candidate from another party—if they don’t do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, [send an email]. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!”

Write to the President

Ming Shem Lu — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:09:27 GMT

Last week at GMC's "Healthcare Reform Neighborhood Forum," Wendell Potter was most impressed by the hand-out we gave the audience.

The hand-out, "Best Ways to Contact a Member of Congress," was prepared by Jenny Anne Hortz-Martz and is now on the GMC website. Click here to see it.

The Monday after the forum, I was inspired by Jenny Anne and wrote a LONGHAND letter to the President. I also called both Pennsylvania Senators to schedule appointments at their Philadelphia offices.

My letter:

"Dear President Obama,

As a citizen who is part of the middle class, I am very concerned that if healthcare reform were to follow the model laid out in the Baucus Plan, our insurance premiums will become unaffordable. Middle class families like ours need a public option!

We just received a letter from our company informing us that our premiums will increase by 6.25% in 2010. For now, the company is absorbing the increased costs, but who knows for how long?

President Obama, please make sure that you and Congress pass a healthcare reform bill that truly benefits citizens like us--that will ensure coverage, provide choice, and bring down costs.

We do not mind doing our share to improve the healthcare system in this country. Too often, however, middle class families end up suffering the consequences while big special interests reap the fruits of legislations.

You must stand firm supporting a robust public option!"

If you've also written to the President or a Member of Congress about healthcare reform, please share!