Sunday News for Monday ACTION on HCare

Hope you had a great 4th!

Two words about Palin and Michael Jackson. Palin. Jackson. There. I'm done.

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Now, go find your phone. Fire up the computer. This is a work day and we have a lot of calls to make and e-mails to send on healthcare!

Look for your state below in blue.

Headline: Insurance companies are spending $1.4 million dollars A DAY lobbying against healthcare reform. Click on the word 'headline' to read the piece. Good God, folks. If this doesn't explain part of the problem, nothing will.

Healthcare Fact of The Day: In almost 3/4 of medical bankruptcy cases, families HAD health insurance. If you are a person with health insurance and think you are immune, think again.

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Connecticut: I love these short 40 second vids produced by Lee Stranahan (LeeStranahan.com). They are brilliant and produced by a Connecticut guy that's just ON IT! You Connecticut folks are a fun bunch.

So... WHY NOT call Joe toll free: 1-866-338-1015... ask for Senator Joe Lieberman. Tell him you want the same coverage he has, no triggers, no co-ops, no bull! And send the link to this post to your Connecticut friends and family!

Also, you there up in the beautiful state of Connecticut, call The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-MAIL THEM!

Message to the White House: On healthcare: No co-ops, no (time-kick-in) triggers. We need a Medicare-like plan. And no, Mr. President, I will NOT back off on moderate or Blue Dog dems that are not solidly supporting a good public option. They need to be held accountable.

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New York: Chuck Schumer. The man looks like wheat blowing in the wind today on good healthcare.

1. E-mail NY Senator Chuck Schumer (link to his e-mail)
2. Call Schumer's DC office. Use this toll-free number: 1-866-338-1015

Message: Do not under any circumstances support a co-op for the public option. We need a broad, medicare-like option with no triggers, affordable and available on day one to everyone that chooses to enter.

Also, New Yorkers, call The White House at 202-456-1111 and E-MAIL THEM!

Message to the White House: On healthcare: No co-ops, no (time, kick-in) triggers. We need a Medicare-like plan. And no, Mr. President, I will NOT back off on moderate or Blue Dog dems that are not solidly supporting a good public option. They need to be held accountable.

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If you live in ANY of the following states, listen up!

The Senate Finance Committee is preparing a co-op healthcare plan. This means somehow, some way, someone somewhere will form a non-profit co-op (or not) that would be the vehicle (or not) we all hop on (state x state, or county x county or???? so no benefit in economy of size when negotiating for drug or care benefits, for instance) to insure ourselves. Bad idea, bad plan.

In four words: Co-ops are a MESS!

Use this toll free number to contact your Senator, regardless of state: 1-866-338-1015, ask for your senator by name.

Click on the name next to the state to take you to each e-mail and state contact info page.

Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln
Delaware: Thomas Carper
Florida: Bill Nelson
Maine: Olympia Snowe (when you get there, click on the contact button)
Massachusetts: John Kerry
Michigan: Debbie Stabenow
Montana: Max Baucus
New Jersey: Robert Menendez
New Mexico: Jeff Bingaman
North Dakota: Kent Conrad
Oregon: Ron Wyden
Washington: Maria Cantwell
West Virginia: John Rockefeller

Call AND e-mail your senator in the above states.
Message: NO on the Conrad Co-Op Compromise, adding...

• I do NOT want any trigger--7 year or otherwise--for the public option, take it off the table.
• Don't tax our employer health benefits to pay for this.
• We need a strong, affordable Medicare-like public option open to everyone ON DAY ONE.

Remember, you are in the driver's seat. This is YOUR senator.

For those of you that do not have a senator on the above list, these are ALL committee members and, as such, on committee business, they represent YOU, TOO. Pick a name or two or 13, call them and write them.

We have an opportunity this year to do what FDR wanted to do decades ago: Provide a means for everyone to see a doctor and get needed medical care. If we let this chance go, it may not return for decades and many of your friends and family may, like me (a cancer survivor with no insurance), not live to see that day.

• A public option would allow for people to keep their insurance, if they like it, and bail if they don't.
  
• A public option will help curtail medical bankruptcy.
• A public option is the sane way to shut down an insurance industry which is designed not to protect you, but to make money--A lot of money.