The hospital industry appears set to agree to massive cuts in federal subsidies as part of a deal with President Obama. This comes on the heals of a major concession by PhRMA, which cut a deal with the White House just two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced a revised version of their health reform bill, with a much lower price tag than the previous version. (Click here to continue reading this post )
Back here in Wisconsin, Congressman Ron Kind held a number of town halls on health care this week and seems to be moving towards stronger support for a public health insurance plan.
Citizen Action regularly produces original research reports and co-releases reports produced by our national partners. See below for our most recent report. Click here to see our report archives.
June 4, 2009: A new Citizen Action of Wisconsin report documents how much Wisconsin families and businesses could save under national health care reform proposals now being debated in Congress and promoted by President Obama. The report finds that Wisconsin family health insurance policies could drop as much as 33%, and Wisconsin employers could save as much as $1.8 billion per year. The report also finds that these savings would be far less if Congress does not include the choice of a public health insurance plan, which has been described as the most explosive issue in the national health care reform debate. This report shows that Wisconsin businesses and families have a huge stake in the outcome of the national heath care reform debate now underway in Washington.
Citizen Action Awarded for Health Care Reform Work
Wisconsin Health Care Reform Advocates Honored in Nation's Capitol
June 17, 2009 As the battle over health care reform heats up on Capitol Hill, the national group Progressive States Network (PSN) is giving special recognition to Citizen Action of Wisconsin, along with Senator Jon Erpenbach and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, for their role in building the models for reform now employed by the Obama Administration and Congress. In a press conference hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Matt Brusky and Robert Kraig from Citizen Action of Wisconsin will join a delegation of state legislators. They will deliver a letter to the Obama Administration and Congress urging comprehensive health care reform within the year, including the choice of a public health insurance plan, strong affordability protections, and shared responsibility for health care costs. The proposals in the letter being delivered at the Capitol today, which was signed by over 600 legislators from 46 states, were modeled after policies has championed for years in Wisconsin. Also expected to be on hand from the Wisconsin Congressional delegation are Senator Russ Feingold, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and Representative Steve Kagen. (click "read more" below to continue)
Citizen Action Promotes 'Next New Deal' as 'Green New Deal' Citizen Action of Wisconsin is part of a new coalition pushing to use President Obama’s economic recovery to invest in Wisconsin’s green economy. The coalition, including 26 other organizations, the mayors of Milwaukee and Madison, and a number of influential local and state elected officials, released a blueprint identiying $2 billion in potential green-jobs investments in Wisconsin resulting in 30,000 new jobs. Projects range from high-speed rail, retrofitting of homes, schools, and businesses fo energy conservation, and the repair of our crumbling street and water infrastructure. This visionary blueprint for building a higher wage 21st-century Wisconsin economy has garnered state wide media attention.
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