Today, progressive groups including SEIU, Health Care For America Now (HCAN) and MoveOn are aiming to inundate Congress with one million phone calls, email messages, blog posts, faxes, social networking updates, and in-person visits to their offices in a single day.
This could be our last chance for legislative reform for a long time to come--and we need all the help we can get to push the message out to Congress that Americans CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER for health insurance reform.
Yes, I just used capital letters to attempt to express how strongly I feel about this issue. If you know someone--a member of your family, a friend, a coworker or perhaps even yourself--who's struggled with finding affordable, quality health insurance, then this is your issue too.
Insurance companies own the patient care industry right now, and it's got to stop. The five biggest insurers in the U.S.--WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Aetna, and Humana--made money hand over fist in 2009, increasing their profits by 56 percent over 2008. How did they do it, you may be asking, especially during this downturn economy?! Answer: by cutting off coverage for 2.7 million Americans who had been in their private health plans. By cutting off patients who weren't profitable (read: experienced health problems and actually needed to use their coverage) and raising rates and cost-sharing on their remaining patients.
Even making record profits, insurers aren't backing down or vowing to start doing right by their customers by putting patients over profits. Instead, outrageous rate hikes proposed by insurers--like Anthem Blue Cross' proposed 39% hike in premiums in California--have become more widespread. Insurers have requested to state regulators to raise rates by 56% in Michigan, 24% in Connecticut, 23% in Maine and 20% in Oregon.
Extreme premium increases like these, which experts predict will continue, underscore why Congress must finish health reform now. It's clear this problem isn't going to go away on its own--insurers aren't just going to wake up one morning and vow to reform their policies and practices. So, it's up to us to show Congress that enacting meaningful legislation is the only way to get the reform we so badly need.
While Congress waits to act, people are literally dying for lack of affordable health insurance. So please, take a minute to sign up to join the Virtual March for health reform happening on today, February 24th.
If you're in Washington, D.C., RSVP to join us for the final mile of Melanie's March tomorrow at Union Station at 12pm, where we'll proceed to a major event on Capitol Hill with key Senate leaders including Sen. Harry Reid.
