In effect 2010 - Tax credits for small businesses that provide group coverage. * Click here to see if your small business is eligible. - $250 rebate to seniors to in the "donut hole" of Medicare Part D. More info for seniors here. - An end to lifetime and caps on the total dollar amount of coverage. Annual caps phase out. - An end to pre-existing condition exclusions for children 18 or younger. - Children can stay on parent's insurance policy up to age 26 without restrictions - Rescissions ban: no more dropping people from coverage when they get sick. - With new policies, an end to co-pays and deductibles for preventive care like annual physicals, colonoscopies, or mammograms.
In effect 2011 - Cost controls: Insurance companies must spend 80-85% of premium dollars on actual healthcare. - For seniors: An end to co-pays for preventive care like regular check ups, annual screenings, etc. - For seniors: 50% discount on brand name drugs for those stuck in Part D "donut hole."
In effect 2014 - All states will create "exchanges" where consumers can easily compare regulated private insurance options. - Members of Congress must purchase insurance from same choices on their state exchange that are available to consumers. - An end to health insurance premium rates based on your health status or health history. - Guaranteed Issue: meaning no one can be denied health insurance. - Subsidies to help most working people afford insurance. (For those making up to $44,000 a year as an individual or $88,000 a year for a family of four.)
3/25/09 Representave Obey takes testimony from Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman. 3/25/09 President Obama Says Balancing Budget Without Addressing Health Care Is 'Impossible'
1/29/09 Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, calls for "Health Care Now." 1/30/09 Kim Strassell, in the Wall Street Journal, warns of "Democrat Stealth Care" 1/29/09 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls for more foresight in state health care spending. 1/26/08 Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, "Expects major step on health reform in 2009," reports The Hill. 1/19/09 Ezra Klein, "Which Way to Universal Healthcare? Two leading reformers debate the role of private insurers." 12/12/08 Senator Herb Kohl declares his support for the Health Care for America Now principles. 10/24/08 Congresswoman Gwen Moore declares her support for the Health Care for America Now principles. 10/21/08 Senator Russ Feingold declares his support for Health Care for America Now. 9/03/08 Congressman Ron Kind of Wisconsin's 3rd District signs on to HCAN principles. 8/25/08 Congressman Steve Kagen of Wisconsin's 8th District signs-on to HCAN principles. 8/13/08 Congresswoman Baldwin is the first to sign on to the Health Care for America Now! statement of principles.
7/22/08 The opponents of real reform will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to weaken any legislation. 7/08/08 Health Care for America Now! launches, announcing a Public Health Insurance Plan as a core principle.
As the lead organization for Health Care for America Now! in Wisconsin, Citizen Action has joined with more than twenty statewide progressive organizations to help build a Congressional majority for health care reform. Will you help and ask your representatives to sign-on for quality affordable care for all?
Health Care for America Now! A national campaign The Wisconsin campaign launch on July 8, 2008, coincided with the announcement of similar efforts in 47 states, bringing together millions of Americans to demand quality, affordable health care for all. National and local groups representing labor, community organizations, doctors, nurses, women, small businesses, faith-based organizations, people of color, netroots activists, and progressive leaders representing over one hundred organizations launched our national campaign. Health Care for America Now! is organizing to assure that the first order of business after passage of the economic recover act is to pass legislation THIS YEAR that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all.
The Wisconsin coalition: Citizen Action of Wisconsin leads state coalition in new campaign.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin has joined with more than thirty statewide progressive organizations to lead the Wisconsin component of a $40 million national campaign to pass comprehensive federal health care legislation in 2009. In 2008, the Health Care for America Now! campaign asked Wisconsin Congressional representatives and the candidates for President “Which side are you on?” with regard to health care reform. To date, six member of the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation have declared their support for the campaign's principles, and although Congressman Obey hasn't offcially signed on, his 40-year record of progressive leadership on health care speaks for itself.
The Wisconsin Health Care for America Now coalition brings together a diversity of labor unions, the faith community, health care providers, small business owners, disability rights advocates, grassroots progressives, immigrants rights organizations, women's health advocates, public employees, and retiree advocacy groups. In Wisconsin the steering committee includes AFSCME, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, SEIU State Council, Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), and the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.
Additional members of the Wisconsin coalition include: 9to5 Wisconsin, AFT-Wisconsin, Center for Rural Affairs, Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, Coalition for Wisconsin Health, Community Advocates, Disability Rights Wisconsin, Grassroots Citizens of Wisconsin, Grassroots North Shore, NAMI Wisconsin, National Alliance of Social Workers, Wisconsin; One Wisconsin Now, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, Survial Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations, UFCW Local 1473, Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans, Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Wisconsin Council of Churches, Wisconsin Council of Independent Living Centers, Wisconsin Farmers Union, Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, Wisconsin Laborers District Council, and the Wisconsin Nurses Association.
Our solution The private health insurance industry and others who oppose reform offer no solutions to the health care crisis. Health Care for America Now! offers a bold new vision for health care reform: Americans can keep the private insurance they have, join a new private insurance plan, or choose a public health insurance plan. The campaign also calls for a government role in setting and enforcing rules on the insurance industry which consistently charges exorbitant rates to consumers with known health issues, raises deductibles after the customer's health status changes, denies coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and drops coverage when people get sick.
Has your experience with health insurance been a bureaucratic hassle of denied coverage and exclusions? Have you heard of stories from family or friends about situations like these that damaged lives or livelihoods? Contact us and tell us your story .
Which Side Are You On?
The Wisconsin coalition is organized on the proposition that in 2009, we will either have a guarantee of quality, affordable health care we all can count on or we will continue to be at the mercy of the private health insurance industry that is charging us more, giving us less and putting company profits before our health.
Here in Wisconsin and in communities all across the country, we’re asking one question, “Which side are you on?” Are you on the side of quality, affordable health care, guaranteed to all? Or are you on the side of being left alone to fend for yourself in a complicated, bureaucratic insurance market?
Our principles Health Care for America Now! does not endorse a specific plan or legislative bill, but rather promotes a set of ten principles that we believe must shape any federal legislation if we are to guaranteed quality affordable care for all.
It is the responsibility of our elected representatives in Washington to guarantee quality affordable health care for everyone in America and therefore, they must play a central role in regulating, financing, and providing health coverage by establishing:
A truly inclusive and accessible health care system in which no one is left out.
A choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping the insurance you have if you like it, or a public insurance plan without a private insurer middleman that guarantees affordable coverage.
A standard for health benefits that covers what people need to keep healthy and to be treated when they are ill. Health care benefits should cover all necessary care including preventative services and treatment needed by those with serious and chronic diseases and conditions.
Health care coverage with out-of-pocket costs including premiums, co-pays and deductibles that are based on a family’s ability to pay for health care and without limits on payments for covered services
Equity in health care access, treatment, research and resources to people and communities of color, resulting in the elimination of racial disparities in health outcomes and real improvement in health and life expectancy for all.
Health coverage through the largest possible pools in order to achieve affordable, quality coverage for the entire population and to share risk fairly.
A watchdog role on all plans, to assure that risk is fairly spread among all health care payers and that insurers do not turn people away, raise rates or drop coverage based on a person’s health history or wrongly delay or deny care.
A choice of doctors, health providers and public and private plans, without gaps in coverage or access and a delivery system that meets the needs of at-risk populations.
Affordable and predictable health costs to businesses and employers. To the extent that employers contribute to the cost of health coverage, those payments should be related to employee wages rather than on a per-employee basis.
Effective cost controls that promote quality, lower administrative costs and long term financial sustainability, including: standard claims forms, secure electronic medical records, using the public’s purchasing power to instill greater reliance on evidence-based protocols and lower drug and device prices, better management and treatment of chronic diseases and a public role in deciding where money is invested in health care.
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