Health Care

If you're one of the 57 million workers in the U.S. without paid sick days, chances are the answer is "yes". Thirty-nine percent of us have a difficult choice to make when we're sick: go to work and risk infecting our co-workers (and risk making our illness worse), or stay home and put our finances and our jobs in jeopardy.

Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro are leading the charge to pass the Healthy Families Act first introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy last spring. The Healthy Families Act would provide 7 paid sick days to all workers at companies with at least 15 employees, and would prevent employers from retaliating against workers who get sick. The bill has 113 sponsors in the House and 21 sponsors in the Senate, and has been endorsed by the Obama administration.

The dead rose to walk the streets of Boston once more yesterday, hungry for revenge against those who put them in the grave -- health insurance companies.

The zombies converged on Blue Cross Blue Shield offices, chanting "What do we want?  Braaains.  When do we want them?  Braaaains."

Whether they were denied coverage for "pre-existing conditions", had their insurance rescinded upon contracting a serious illnesses, were denied life-saving treatments, or had their medical claims delayed by miles of insurance paperwork and bureaucracy, these undead insurance customers came back to stop insurance company crimes, and they don’t care whose brains they have to eat to make health care reform happen.

The undead were also seen walking the streets of Providence, RI yesterday, driving home the point that "living without health care can be scary."

Check out more photos from Boston & Providence here.

As you probably know, health care reform is making its way through Congress. This week, the House of Representatives introduced their health care reform bill. The bill is strong in many ways, but two single-payer amendments that were promised a vote this fall were not in it. The House leadership still has the power to change that.

One of the amendments, introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, would allow states to implement state-wide single-payer systems. The other, by Rep. Anthony Weiner, would call for a vote on national single-payer legislation for the first time in history.

We need your voice to get these amendments back on the table. Call:

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi: DC (202) 225-4965 or SF (415) 556-4862
• Rep. George Miller: DC (202) 225-2095 or Concord (925) 602-1880
• Rep. Henry Waxman: DC (202) 225-3976 or LA (323) 651-1040

The message is simple: Keep the Kucinich Amendment to allow states to pass single-payer, and allow Rep. Anthony Weiner introduce his single-payer amendment!

First our political leaders said health care reform would cover everyone.  Now we hear that Congress is considering barring legal immigrants from health reforms that would enable low and moderate income families to secure affordable coverage.

As the House of Representatives moves to finalize its health reform legislation this week, immigrants continue to be left out.  As it stands now, most recent legal immigrants are forced to wait 5 years to use Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP, even though they pay the same taxes as citizens to support these programs.

Your voice is needed to urge the House of Representatives to act right now to give immigrants a fair opportunity for affordable health insurance. 

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Cross-posted from the Vermont Workers' Center blog.

FAIRLEE - This past weekend, the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO convention delegates representing 9,500-members unanimously voted to:

endorse H.100 and S.88 ... (and to) play a leading role together with our allies in the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign ... in mobilizing broad public and political support for single-payer healthcare.

Building a powerful movement "to change what is politically possible" with real healthcare reform is the Vermont AFL-CIO's #1 priority.

Convention delegates also put a parade of politicians, including four Democratic gubernatorial aspirants, on notice that they expected political leaders to work to pass single payer legislation in Vermont this year. Legislative leaders of the Working Vermonters Caucus also pledged to make passing H.100 and S.88 a priority.

The insurance companies are spending millions to confuse and scare the public in order to keep their grip on our health and our money.  The insurance industry trade lobby, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released a report that claims the Senate Finance Committee's version of health care reform legislation would raise average family premiums to $21,300.  They want us to fear any change so they can continue paying millions of dollars to their CEOs while they routinely deny care and raise premiums.

Meanwhile, each year more than 45,000 people die because they can't get the care they need. That's more than 120 deaths every day.