There was only one speaker at Sen. Harry Reid's press conference today who was NOT a member of the U.S. Senate. Her name? Loretta Johnson, a home health care worker who lost her own coverage when her husband became ill, and Loretta was forced to quit her job.

Loretta is an SEIU member who worked for 18 years as a deputy courthouse clerk in Lebanon, Virginia. When her husband fell ill, Loretta quit her job to take care of him, and subsequently lost their health insurance, income, retirement, security, sick days and more. Today, as a personal care assistant, Loretta works to build the Personal Care Assistant Association in Virginia. While she brings home a paycheck, she still doesn't have health insurance or benefits of any kind.

Below are Loretta's remarks at today's Senate health care bill unveiling:

My husband had open heart surgery and was diabetic. And in 2000, he was so sick I had to quit my job to take care of him. So, I lost my health insurance. After he passed away, I became a home health care worker. I'm at the bedside every day giving people the same type of care I gave my husband. But, I don't have health insurance.

And that is why I am so proud to be standing here today representing SEIU and its 2.1 million workers.

Because, after more than 100 years of debate, Senator Reid said, "Enough". Enough scare tactics. Enough politics as usual.

The Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act puts us one step closer to health care that works for every American.

Because of his leadership, insurance companies will no longer control our healthcare system - making sure people like me actually have a choice.

Now, in my opinion, there's probably some room for improvement. But I know, Senator Reid and the Senators standing here today are as committed as we are to making sure people can afford the care they need.

And believe me, I'll be up here to make sure every one of these Senators does just that.

Stand with Loretta in holding the Senate accountable on health insurance reform. Get started by adopting one of our health care "swing states" (CT, NE, LA, AR), to make sure that after months of hard work, Congress finally gets to vote on health insurance reform.

Watch full video from today's press conference with Loretta here.

You can also see Loretta Johnson at SeniorstoSeniors.org.

There was only one speaker at Sen. Harry Reid's press conference today who was NOT a member of the U.S. Senate. Her name? Loretta Johnson, a home health care worker who lost her own coverage when her husband became ill, and Loretta was forced to quit her job.

Loretta is an SEIU member who worked for 18 years as a deputy courthouse clerk in Lebanon, Virginia. When her husband fell ill, Loretta quit her job to take care of him, and subsequently lost their health insurance, income, retirement, security, sick days and more. Today, as a personal care assistant, Loretta works to build the Personal Care Assistant Association in Virginia. While she brings home a paycheck, she still doesn't have health insurance or benefits of any kind.

Below are Loretta's remarks at today's Senate health care bill unveiling:

My husband had open heart surgery and was diabetic. And in 2000, he was so sick I had to quit my job to take care of him. So, I lost my health insurance. After he passed away, I became a home health care worker. I'm at the bedside every day giving people the same type of care I gave my husband. But, I don't have health insurance.

And that is why I am so proud to be standing here today representing SEIU and its 2.1 million workers.

Because, after more than 100 years of debate, Senator Reid said, "Enough". Enough scare tactics. Enough politics as usual.

The Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act puts us one step closer to health care that works for every American.

Because of his leadership, insurance companies will no longer control our healthcare system - making sure people like me actually have a choice.

Now, in my opinion, there's probably some room for improvement. But I know, Senator Reid and the Senators standing here today are as committed as we are to making sure people can afford the care they need.

And believe me, I'll be up here to make sure every one of these Senators does just that.

Stand with Loretta in holding the Senate accountable on health insurance reform. Get started by adopting one of our health care "swing states" (CT, NE, LA, AR), to make sure that after months of hard work, Congress finally gets to vote on health insurance reform.

Watch Loretta speak here:

You can also see Loretta Johnson at SeniorstoSeniors.org

Have you ever helped "whip" a vote? Well, get ready.

Before a vote takes place, most Members of Congress are asked ahead of time which way they'll vote. It's called tallying the "whip count." It helps us figure out who needs to hear from us, and who's already made up their mind. There are 435 members of U.S. House of Representatives. That's a lot - and we can't do all this counting alone.

Our goal this week is to call every single office and ask how they'll vote on "The Affordable Health Care for America Act," H.R. 3962. Can you help whip a vote? Click here to whip a health care vote.

We're told the vote could happen this Saturday, and that it might be incredibly close. Help make sure Congress votes for this bill, which would:

• Vastly improve access to quality, affordable health care coverage
• Provide a strong public option that will compete side-by-side with insurance companies
• Eliminate insurance company "rescission" and denial of coverage due to "pre-existing conditions"
• End insurance company discrimination against women

You can bet that insurance companies like UnitedHealth, Humana and CIGNA have a legion of lobbyists talking to Congressional offices right now. We've got to make sure they remember who they were elected to represent - the American people. Help hold politicians accountable by whipping the vote for health care reform. Tell them to vote for H.R. 3962, "The Affordable Health Care for America Act."

>> Whip your Representative's vote right now.

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Several key groups just endorsed the House health care bill, H.R. 3962, including American Medical Association (AMA), AARP, and the American Cancer Society. Keep up the momentum - whip your Rep's vote right now: http://action.seiu.org/whip

 

Last week, we learned that the swift action by the President and Congress to pass an economic recovery package earlier this year helped stave off a global economic recession, put our economy back on the path of growth, and helped save hundreds of thousands of jobs.

SEIU was a major proponent of the economic recovery package and we believe we need to continue to make progress on a number of other economic initiatives to build long-term sustainable economic growth--these include passing meaningful financial reform, investing in green jobs, using public pension funds to build a 21st century infrastructure, and creating a new retirement system to protect our future.

Passing Meaningful Financial Reform
Anna Burger writes on New Deal 2.0 about the need to fundamentally change the way we value wealth and work in our country and act now on meaningful reforms to protect our families from future economic crises.

To build long-term economic progress we must:

• Create a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency to serve as a watchdog against predatory and reckless banking products;
• Crackdown on out of control executive pay that rewards short term risks over long term results;
• End too big to fail once and for all by separating commercial banking from investment banking and raising capital requirements back to levels that promote safe and sound banks;
• Empower shareholders to act on executive pay and break the excessive power of executive-controlled boards;
• Force banks to expand lending to small businesses and state and local governments to create jobs and save critical services;
• Demand banks stop foreclosures and help families keep their homes;
• Reregulate the shadow financial markets--including derivatives, hedge funds and private equity; and
• Investigate, and if necessary prosecute, the big banks and Wall Street for crashing our economy.

In case you missed it--more than 5,000 Americans from 20 states--converged on the American Bankers Association convention in Chicago to demand banks stop fighting reforms that would help protect our families from future crises. It was the beginning of a national movement to hold banks and Wall Street accountable for their reckless behavior.

Investing in Green Jobs
During the first meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Board, Anna Burger shared her perspective on how business, labor and government can work together towards creating a low-carbon, green economy and a movement into sustainable good, green jobs--citing the work SEIU and other Change to Win unions are already doing on the community and national level to lead the way on green initiatives.

Thousands of people have taken a ticket for gender equity in health care. (We're currently at 2,689 people in line.)

Want to play an even bigger role in fighting insurance company discrimination against women?

We rigged our toll-free phone line to direct calls to male members of Congress. That's right - the men in Congress need to hear from us about how women are routinely discriminated against by insurance companies. Let's educate them on what women are facing every day: higher premiums, less coverage, and battles with insurers over "pre-existing conditions" like pregnancy and c-sections.

Call 1-866-311-3405 and tell them it's time to deliver on health insurance reform.

Let's educate male members of Congress on how women are unfairly discriminated against by health insurers. Call toll-free at 1-866-311-3405. Use this form to report back on your conversation.

If you happen to live in a district that is represented by women in both the House and Senate, we'll patch you through to the Capitol Switchboard, where we recommend you contact the Minority Leader in the House or Senate. Call 1-866-311-3405 and report-back.

We've waited long enough.

Right now, everyone is paying for the cost of our broken health care system. People with "pre-existing conditions" are being denied coverage by insurers. Women are being charged 30-51% more than men for the same health insurance policies. Newborn babies are being denied coverage because they're "too fat" or "too small." And a jaw-dropping 44,000 people a year are dying because they lack health insurance. How much longer will Americans need to wait before Congress acts?

Today, we're sending our message loud and clear - that it's time to deliver on health care. Call 1-800-603-SEIU and use this form to report back on your call.

SEIU members are joining with voters across the country in calling Congress today, October 20th. Our union has a vibrant presence in Washington, and we've been hard at work lobbying for this legislation, but we're powerless without the participation of our membership. We've set a goal of making 3,000 calls from members online, but we need your help to get there. Make three calls (two Senators, one Representative), and tell your members of Congress you expect reform that:

• Ends insurance company abuse;
• Makes health care affordable for everyone;
• Includes a strong public health insurance option;
• Requires employers to pay their fair share;
• Does not contain taxes or more costs to working families who are already paying more than their fair share into the system.

I hope you'll call each of your members of Congress today at 1-800-603-SEIU and share this email with other SEIU members. We can't let insurance companies dictate what happens in Congress, because when they win, we lose.

In preparation for Sen. Mikulski's hearings today, we decided to pay a little visit to various male members of Congress yesterday. Armed with information about women's health care, we distributed the flyer to male, Republican Representatives in the Cannon office building.

Check out our video:

Stay tuned to find out more about the hearings held by Sen. Mikulski later today! Click here for ways you can show your support for gender equality in health care.

On September 30th, the Child Nutrition Act expired.

The Congressional Committee on Education and Labor, which oversees the Act, had the opportunity to improve the lives of our children and those that feed them.

But rather than pass a bill that would create a program that works far better, they simply decided to simply take a pass for the next few months.

The result is a year-long, temporary extension that keeps the program exactly as it is today: a program that leaves children hungry, places a burden on our school districts, and leaves school food workers without the resources to cook nutritious and healthy school meals.

We need to tell the Committee members that this isn't acceptable. In the midst of the Great Recession, there's no better time to fix these problems than right now.

In the next few months, the members of the Committee will once again take up this legislation. But we can't hold off until then. We need to tell them right now that a real Act - with real improvements - must be authorized.

We've laid out common-sense ideas like expanding enrollment, giving sick days to school food service workers at a time when the swine flu is spreading, supporting fresh and local foods, and better transparency in how taxpayer funds are spent. These are real solutions that can benefit our children each and every day.

Now, we need you to tell the Committee members why a real Child Nutrition Act is important to you. In the next few days, we'll hand-deliver your messages to the members of this Committee.

Write to the Congressional Committee on Education and Labor right now: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/cnaexpiration

Sometimes, doesn't it just seem like Republicans are out of touch with the American people? Yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch proposed an amendment focusing on ensuring that abortions are not paid for with taxpayer money. While it was voted down 13-10, the Senate Finance Committee spent precious time debating an amendment that was frankly irrelevant.

Before wasting the committee's time, Sen. Hatch would have been wise to listen to the results of a new poll conducted by the Mellman Group. In discussing the poll, group President Mark Mellman noted that Americans overwhelmingly "do not want a battle over abortion to bog down health care reform." There is a time and place to debate issues as contentious as abortion, and the SFC amendment hearings are clearly not it.

That same poll also found that 73% of those polled support some sort of meaningful reform. So it would seem that by hemming and hawing in a desperate attempt to stall meaningful health care reform, the Republicans are yet again working against the will of the American people.

Finally, the poll found that 86% of those polled favor requiring insurance companies to provide maternity care as part of basic coverage. Take that, Sen. Kyl!

We've known all along that Republicans just don't get it, but now there are even more poll numbers on our sides. Perhaps, given cold figures that can be translated into election results, the Republicans will finally understand that the people they represent really do want health care reform. And they want it now.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about research from the National Women's Law Center that uncovered the existence of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition in eight states and DC. We were horrified, as well many other bloggers and reporters. Apparently, so were at least four female Senators.

At a press conference today on the Hill, Senators Mikulski, Klobuchar, Shaheen and Hagan were joined by Marcia Greenberger, co-director of the National Women's Law Center, to discuss how health insurance reform will improve women's access to quality health care. The four senators mentioned a plethora of disparities faced by women under the current system, including the fact that women pay more than men for the same coverage, the classifications of Caesarean section as a pre-existing condition and the lack of maternity coverage in many policies.

Sen. Mikulski kicked off the press conference with an enthusiastic call for "equal insurance for equal premiums!" That call permeated through the remarks of all four Senators, each of whom focused on stories and hard facts that illustrated how insurance companies are systematically discriminating against women. After listing the litany of ways in which insurers turn a profit at womens' expense, Sen. Shaheen exclaimed: "The insurance companies should be ashamed."

This press conference was just one of the many ways in which these senators, and others, are working to fix health care for all Americans, especially women. Sen. Klobuchar emphasized that "We have to start putting women front and center in this debate." The legislation currently moving through Congress does just that, by eliminating the notion of pre-existing conditions, such as pregnancy and domestic violence, and outlawing the practice of gender rating.

But, there is still more to be done. Sign the petition telling your member of Congress that we want health insurance reform that ends all gender based discrimination, and we want it NOW!

Stay tuned for video from this great event coming tomorrow.

Earlier this month, we covered the fact that in eight states it is actually legal for insurance companies to deny coverage to victims of domestic violence because they have a "pre-existing condition." But, the outrage doesn't stop there: research has clearly shown that insurance companies are systematically discriminating against women.

There are only 10 states (Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine) where it is illegal for insurance companies to take gender into account when decided how much to charge someone for their insurance policy. Thus, as a result of "gender rating," insurance companies actually charge women more than men for the same plans. Across the country, 25 year old women are charged up to 45 percent more than 25 year old men for the same coverage.

Insurers justify charging women higher premiums than men by claiming that women require health care services more frequently than men do. How much more? Well, judging by rate variations, insurance companies haven't figured that out yet. In Missouri, for example, rates for 40 year old women range from 15% to 45% more than rates for men of the same age and for equivalent coverage. It would seem then that the insurance industry is simply using the specter of women's increased need for medical care as justification to increase their premiums arbitrarily, with little concern for the actual cost disparities that may exist.

And this is just the tip of the ice berg! Over the coming week, we'll cover other ways in which women are consistently marginalized in the insurance market place. If you're not outraged yet, we promise you will be by the end of this week.

But, there is something you can do: tell your member of Congress that we need to pass health insurance reform that makes gender-based discrimination illegal.

This past week, while much of D.C. has been focused on the healthcare mark-up (us included), we've also been tracking a few other stories that we wanted to bring to your attention. First--the encouraging news that Massachusetts will return to full representation and the Democrats in Congress to a cloture-proof majority. Also, don't miss two stories on SEIU's calls for financial reform and a questionable award choice from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Keep reading for all of this week's stories...

60 Senators. SEIU and our allies welcome the newly appointed Senator Paul Kirk to represent Massachusetts in the interim before the January special election. In a statement released today, Andy Stern applauded the choice of Senator Kirk and the leadership of Governor Patrick: "The Governor and the Legislature showed real leadership to move swiftly and ensure that one of Senator Kennedy's last requests is fulfilled and the Bay State has a full say in helping move America forward. Paul Kirk will be a strong voice for the hard working families and communities of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts needed more than a placeholder in the U.S. Senate and the Governor has given his citizens a leader who will get to work fighting for the change working families need on healthcare reform, rebuilding our economy, and providing new financial protections for consumers." More here.

Banks Leave Taxpayers on the Hook for $17.8 Trillion. On Wednesday during a call with reporters, SEIU Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger and Assistant to the President Stephen Lerner released a new report that details the impact that the economic crisis has had on working families. According to the report, once all crisis-related programs are factored in, taxpayers could be on the hook for up to $17.8 trillion to rescue the big banks. You can view the report here. The rest of the rest of the blog post on the report here.

New Round of Protests Target Banks. SEIU and a growing chorus of voices once again spoke out against banks for trying to block financial reforms after receiving billions of taxpayer dollars. As Secretary Treasurer Anna Burger put it, "They're back to their old tricks and the same practices that caused this crisis in the first place...They're getting bailed out and normal people are losing."

Dozens of SEIU members and activists rallied outside a secret meeting of the Financial Services Roundtable, a group of 90 companies in the finance and insurance industry who received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts and then used that money to lobby against needed corporate reforms. "We need to demand that banks use their resources and power to fix the economy and not make it worse," said Stephen Lerner, Special Assistant to SEIU President Andy Stern.

A series of protests around the county will lead up to the largest demonstration in Chicago between Oct. 25 and Oct. 27 at a meeting of the American Bankers Association. Read the full story from The Hill here. Click here to learn about upcoming actions to hold corporate barons and banks accountable.

The U.S. Chamber's Puzzling Definition of "Corporate Citizenship." Each fall, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce honors member organizations with its "Corporate Citizenship Award" as a way of recognizing contributions to communities. Unfortunately for the U.S. Chamber, the award is blind to a multitude of misdeeds committed by honorees. Indeed, for two years running, the U.S. Chamber has selected companies rife with problems. This year, the US Chamber chose to give this award to Aramark, a firm notorious for refusing to recognize its employees' voices. Read more about Aramark's bad record on employee relations and more on their relationship with the US Chamber here.

At the rate the Senate Finance Committee is moving through amendments, they will be finished with the markup in about 40 days. During those 40 days, 353,840 more will lose their insurance and 3,384 more people will die because they lack coverage, all because of Republican committee members' stall tactics.

Yesterday's hearings started with the first of numerous Republican assaults on the timely markup of the legislation at hand. Sen. Bunning proposed an amendment that would require legislative language to be made available online 72 hours before the final vote on the bill, in an effort to delay the vote by 2-3 weeks. Bunning argued that this would allow more transparency into the legislative process... the only problem is that, as Sen. Conrad pointed out by reading the legislative language of another bill, "There are five percent of Americans who would understand this." Sen. Crapo unwittingly proved Conrad's point by misunderstanding the very passage Sen. Conrad had just recited. Finally, after debating this for two bleepin' hours, the committee voted the amendment down.

With that matter squared away, committee members moved on to the question of free speech. If you are now wondering what the first amendment has to do with health care reform, you're not alone. Sen. Kyl proposed an amendment that would clarify that a health plan may, pursuant to constitutional rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, express its views about legislation or legislative proposals to its clients. The amendment stemmed from recent actions by Humana, who sent misleading letters to their Medicare Advantage beneficiaries suggesting that their benefits may be cut under health care reform. The amendment was also voted down in a party-line vote.

As the committee continued to debate into the night, the Republican tactic of delay, delay and then delay some more has become increasingly apparent. While they can't win in the Democrat-dominated committee, they can certainly drag out the fight by endlessly debating anything and everything in their "Hail Mary" play to defeat health care reform.

Affordability was the word of the day during the Senate Finance Committee's first markup session yesterday. In order to prepare for today's voting, committee members made their opening statements and reviewed the Chairman's Mark presented by Sen. Baucus.

In hopes of calming Democrats' (and some Republicans') concerns over affordability, Baucus' Mark includes a number of edits to the bill that would ultimately provide coverage to 36 million more people. The modifications include: an increase in health care tax credits, a reduction in out-of-pocket costs, a lower threshold for families to receive tax credits instead of employer-sponsored insurance, an increase in the threshold for insurance companies to be subject to excise taxes for their more expensive plans and lower penalties on individuals that do not purchase coverage.

"My modification to the chairman's mark focuses on making health care more affordable for middle class families, while ensuring the legislation reduces the deficit and effectively slows the growth of skyrocketing health care costs," Baucus said.

With the Mark as their jumping off point, the Democrats on the committee used their opening statements to reassert the need for even more affordability provisions and other changes that would make the final legislation better for the American people. Sen. Schumer said it best when he noted that the bill "must be improved in the committee, on the floor and as we move to conference."

Today the committee moves into actual voting and things are bound to get more heated with both sides vying to make significant amendments to the bill. As the fight continues, we'll be right here to provide you with the latest updates from Capitol Hill.

Throughout the August recess, thousands of nurses, doctors and healthcare workers across America signed medical scrubs in support of healthcare reform. Over 10,000 scrubs emblazoned with the message "Every Patient Matters" carry personal stories like this one from Jennifer Solovay, an ICU nurse from Northridge, California:

"I know of patients playing 'doctor' meaning, they would literally cut their blood pressure pills in half to stretch the medications simply because they cannot afford it. It's the choice of putting food on the table or buying expensive medicine."

On Wednesday, September 23, nurses, doctors, and SEIU healthcare workers will join Dennis Rivera, Dr. Toni Lewis and activists in a rally on Capitol Hill to deliver the hand-signed scrubs to members of Congress.

You can RSVP to this event, in Washington DC, by clicking here.

Last week, Sen. Max Baucus and the Senate Fiance Committee finally produced their long-awaited version of the health care reform bill. The introduction of this bill brings us closer than we've ever been to passing comprehensive health care reform. But, there is still a lot of work ahead.

Democrats and Republicans on the committee have introduced over 500 amendments to the bill. This week, they will vote on which ones to keep and which to toss out, so it's still too early to tell what the final bill will look like. Even though some of the amendments are more symbolic than serious (such as Sen. Orrin Hatch's proposal of additional relief from the 35% tax on high-end insurance plans for any state starting with the letter "U"), there are a lot of positive and negative changes being proposed. To help everyone better understand the types of amendments presented, the Center for American Progress put together a great list of helpful and harmful amendments that are being reviewed.

At SEIU, one of our main focuses is making sure that the final bill is affordable for working Americans and their families. Yesterday, Sen. Baucus introduced a number of amendments that focused on easing concerns about affordability, including and expansion of subsidies to help purchase insurance and a reduction of penalties for not buying insurance. Other Democratic Senators are also focusing on this issue, like Sen. Wyden, who proposed an amendment that would increase low-income subsidies to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

But, some Republican Senators are also hard at work on shepherding through their own amendments that would cut affordability and strip the bill of many other positive reforms. As we continue to monitor what's going on, we'll keep you posted with updates from Capitol Hill, as well as any actions you can take to make sure we pass real reform. Stay tuned!

You emailed and called, and it looks like one lawmaker took notice. Rep. Diane Watson was so horrified to learn about the possibility of coverage denial to domestic violence victims that she both noted it in her written statement and included it as a large part of her questions to the insurance executives who testified before the Domestic Policy Subcommittee today.

In her opening statement, the Congresswoman writes:

I was especially horrified to learn that in 8 states and the District of Columbia, insurance companies include domestic violence as a pre-existing condition. With 20 to 35 percent of emergency room visits made by women a result of domestic violence I can see how this morally appalling practice makes sense for insurance companies trying to spend as little as possible. What I cannot understand is how we can consent to such practices continuing. The United States can and should do better.

She also chose to use some of her alloted question time to demand answers from insurance executives about this abhorant practice. She asked:

Question for All Panelists:
In eight states and the District of Columbia it is currently permissible for insurance companies to include domestic violence as a preexisting condition to deny coverage.
Q: How was the determination made to include domestic violence as a preexisting condition?
Q: How do you justify denying coverage to victims of such crimes when they need them the most, and then indefinitely thereafter?
Q: Without being legally obligated to do so would you commit today to permanently stopping this discriminatory practice?

While the Congresswoman was unfortunately not present to ask her questions in person, they are included as part of the record for the proceedings and all of the insurance executives who testified should be forced to answer them. Stay tuned to hear what they have to say!

In a room filled almost to capacity with K street lobbyists and company lawyers, executives from the nation's top six insurance providers testified before the Domestic Policy subcommittee during day two of the subcommittee's hearings. While yesterday committee members heard from victims of insurance companies and industry whistleblowers who shared their disheartening stories of industry abuse, today brought a much different tone.

The witness list included executives from United Healthcare Group, WellPoint, Aetna, Humana, CIGNA and Health Care Service Corporation. They repeatedly expressed their support for health care reform, but when questioned about specific industry practices or guidelines, they tirelessly dodged the issue. Whether the committee members asked about rescission policies or executive salaries, the witnesses seemed reluctant to provide anything beyond vague generalities extolling the virtues of their industry.

However, it seemed that many of the committee members took yesterday's testimony to heart. Following up on Dr. Linda Peeno's statement from yesterday that her salary was directly related to how many claims she denied, Representative Cummings asked all the witnesses if there was any reward at their company for doing likewise. Frustrated by the complete denial of such practices by all executives, Rep. Cummings said "Well, I guess there must be those other insurance companies out there doing this."

Rep. Conyers also dropped in on the hearings, even though he is not a member of the subcommittee. He took a slightly different line of questioning, asking the witnesses if they were aware of a wide variety of insurance-related facts, such as the existence of the organization Healthcare for America NOW. None of the witnesses said they had ever heard of it.

Overall, the hearings posed several tense moments between the Democratic representatives and witnesses. At one point, Rep. Conyers asked Patricia Farrell, the Aetna representative, how much she made per year. She refused to disclose the amount to the committee, offering instead to submit it in written form after the hearing. All of the other witnesses, except the Humana and Health Care Services Corporation executives, refused as well.

While it is unclear exactly how much light today's hearing shed on the internal practices and operations of the insurance companies, the committee members did request large amounts of additional information from the witnesses, including tapes of internal meetings discussing raising profits and compensation listings for their top executives. Rep. Kucinich closed the hearing by noting that this is just the beginning of an ongoing process to learn exactly how the insurance companies operate and how they can be reformed to better served the American people.

Yesterday, we reported about the first day of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee hearings on how insurance companies are getting in between patients and their care providers. Two of the witnesses who testified before the subcommittee shared their personal stories of delayed care and abuse in the hands of their insurance companies. In a particularly moving portion of the testimony Mark Gendernalik spoke directly to the members of Congress on the panel, saying "I need you people to let me be a daddy." You can watch Mark tell his own story, in his own words, here.

We just got back from day one of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy hearings on how insurance company bureaucracy is getting in the way of quality care for all Americans. The witnesses testifying presented powerful stories: some heartbreaking, some infuriating. Check out these videos of committee witnesses Wendell Potter and Karen Pollitz talking about the insurance companies' practice of denying coverage to victims of domestic violence.

Industry whistle-blower Wendell Potter says denial of coverage is just another part of how insurance companies bolster their profits Previously the head of communications at Cigna, Potter left his job working for the health insurance company in order to speak out against insurance industry abuses.

Karen Pollitz, from Georgetown Universities Health Policy Institute, notes that insurance companies have been denying domestic violence victims coverage for a long time:

We'll be sure to post more about the hearing very soon. In the meantime, take a few minutes and call Rep. Kucinich's office at 202-225-5871. Ask him to question the insurance executives testifying before his subcommittee tomorrow about the denial of coverage to domestic violence victims.