Last week, during debate in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Jon Kyl publicly declared "I don't need maternity care" and thus insurers should not be required to include it in the plans they offer because that would drive up costs. You can see the video here:

While Sen. Debbie Stabenow quickly countered with "I think you mom probably did," the exchange does bring up an important issue about maternal care.

Currently, many insurance companies side with Sen. Kyl and do not provide maternity care coverage, or cover the bare minimum of pregnancy-related costs. An Anthem Blue Cross spokesman put it sucinctly saying: "Having a child is a matter of choice. Dealing with an adult onset illness, such as diabetes, heart disease, breast or prostate cancer, is not a matter of choice."

That argument would probably hold more water if insurance companies didn't make regular practice of denying care to individuals with diabetes, heart disease, breast or prostate cancer, but that's a different issue. What's more appalling is that insurance companies have co-opted family planning choices from women by making pregnancy unaffordable.

Currently, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 14 states have a requirement for maternity coverage. Even if women do have coverage, there have been numerous stories of them facing mounting medical bills! The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the average out-of-pocket cost for a woman on a small-employer high-deductible plan with an uncomplicated vaginal birth is $7,000. And that's on top of what they are already paying in premiums!

This is why we need to pass real health care reform: so that women, not insurance companies, can make their own choices about pregnancy and maternal care. Take a second to sign our petition and tell Congress to pass real insurance reform that will put an end to the insurance industry's stranglehold on our medical choices.

About 600 health care workers, including many from SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, descended on the Chamber of Commerce in Harrisburg, PA last week. They were joined by SEIU Healthcare executive vice president Mary Kay Henry, who reiterated the message that health care workers from across the country want health care reform.

The protestors marched from the state capitol building to the chamber's office armed with signs and megaphone chanting slogans like "Chamber, chamber stop your greed. Health care, health care that's our need." To better illustrate their point, the protestors even engaged in a little street theater. They brought along two giant puppets and acted out a short skit illustrating the ongoing battle between Chamber of Commerce greed, represented by a giant shark, and health insurance reform, represented by a patient. The puppets, which were a hit, helped to communicate the message of health care reform in a new and creative way.

Check out ABC27's coverage of the event:

As well as a more "behind the scenes" video from PennLive:

Congressman Stupak and insurance industry whistle-blower Wendell Potter co-hosted a telephone press conference today to further discuss insurance industry abuses. While various Congressional subcommittees have held hearings on the topic, it's clear that we are only beginning to scratch the tip of the iceberg.

Stupak and Potter discussed two insurance industry processes by which they protect their profit margins: rescission and purging. Rescission, the more discussed of the two, is the process by while insurance companies terminate coverage for their customers in the personal insurance market if they become sick. Stupak noted that victims of rescission often pay their premiums for years, "lulled into a false sense of security" and adding to the insurance company's profits. Then, when they become ill, "these companies don't honor their agreements."

The call also touched on purging, rescission's lesser-known twin brother. Because of HIPAA, passed in 1996, it is illegal for insurers to rescind coverage from group policy holders. But don't worry: the clever insurance industry has found a way to get around that. Through purging, insurance companies raise the rates for small businesses to the point that they can no longer afford to pay and are forced to cease buying coverage, thus saving the insurance company money.

After discussing these twisted, profit-padding practices, Wendell pointed out that this is how insurance companies try to keep their "medical loss ratio" as low as possible. As a result, "we have in this country a Wall Street driven healthcare system."

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.

"Patients are not mere anecdotes," said Dr. Linda Peeno, former review physician for Humana, during her testimony before Rep. Kucinich's Domestic Policy Subcommittee. But many insurance companies claim just that - that people who've managed to get their story before Congress and the media are exceptions, not the rule. Unfortunately, today's testimony made it clear that the exceptions are plenty, and the rules need changing.

First, the panel heard from Mark Gendernalik and Erinn Ackley, both of whom recounted their family members' struggles with health care. Mark talked about his young daughter Sidney, who suffers from a rare neurological disease. Repeatedly, his insurance company would fail to return calls or delay providing answers about Sidney's care. "Clearly," Mark said, "their plan was to exhaust us."

Erinn described her father's emotionally draining two-year fight with cancer, and later, with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. Her father, Bill Ackley, desperately needed a bone marrow transplant in order to curb his Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Even though a bone marrow match was found and the doctors were ready to proceed, the insurance company kept denying his claim, leading to a 126 day delay between when the transplant was initially requested and when it actually took place. Bill died less then five months after the transplant.

After Mark and Erinn's heartbreaking testimonies, the conversation moved to the provider side of the issue. Dr. Mel Sterm, a pediatrician from Maryland, discussed how almost all of his staff deals with chasing down insurance companies and forcing them to pay for patient care, instead of actually helping people get better. He told the story of a baby with a tumor that was denied life-saving surgery by an insurance company, until Dr. Stern stepped in and told the company that he would go to the press with this problem. Suddenly, the insurance company relented.

Finally, Dr. Peeno and Wendell Potter, the former head of corporate communications at CIGNA, discussed the covert practices of insurance companies aimed at undermining patient rights and ballooning their own profits. Dr. Peeno explained that her "job evaluation depended on how many claims I denied and the amount of cost savings I brought in."

Moving from the suffering of patients to the bloated profits of insurance companies, the panel clearly proved that vast reforms are needed now, before the situation gets any more out of control. Wendell pointed out that a Public option is absolutely vital because currently, the insurance companies are the ones running the show.

Tomorrow, Rep. Kucinich and the other Representatives on the committee will hear from insurance company executives. We'll bring you the latest news from what will surely be a charged hearing, following the many insurance company abuses revealed today.

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.

How do you make the insurance companies sit up and take notice? They've shown that they clearly have no qualms ignoring outcries over their practice of raising premiums to levels few can afford, or denying coverage for a wide variety of "pre-existing conditions." But, members of SEIU Healthcare 775NW may have found the one way to make them pay attention--by bringing 500 members to deliver our message of health care reform to CIGNA's front door.

The message of the day was clear: CIGNA must stop it's abusive insurance practices and withdraw it's opposition to the public option. Stories shared by several of CIGNA's victims underlined this point. Jo Godfrey, a lung cancer survivor and CIGNA policyholder, told the gathered SEIU members about how her doctor refused to diagnose her lung cancer at CIGNA's behest. At the end of her story, Jo said she thinks a strong public option is the best solution to our current, broken system: "I really believe that having an option to get a plan that's not controlled by the insurance companies, that doesn't make a profit, is the fair thing to do, and it will save lives."

Before the rally began, SEIU Healthcare 775NW members were invited to the SeaTac Doubletree to watch the premier of Sick for Profit, a new movie by Brave New Films, which featured Jo's story, and that of several other CIGNA customers. The movie presents a stark contrast between the lavish lifestyles of CIGNA executives and the hundreds of patients that they deny coverage. Take a moment to watch the video below:

Following up on his address to Congress on Wednesday, President Obama spoke to a group of nurses gathered in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Thursday morning. The President was joined by 54 Nurse Alliance of SEIU Healthcare RNs, as well as members of the American Nurses Association.

The participating SEIU members came to DC on very short notice from locals all over the country, including United Healthcare Workers East (New York and Maryland), SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, SEIU Healthcare Michigan, 1199 New England (Rhode Island and Connecticut). The RNs said they felt honored to represent SEIU at an event focused on such an important issue and thrilled to be involved in such an intimate gathering with the President.

This is a new one.

Imagine you're an insurance company making billions of dollars by charging people tons of money for health care. Now, imagine there's a reform bill in Congress that could end your stranglehold on the market, forcing you to lower your prices and improve your services.

How would you respond? By buying your own think tank to generate anti-health reform studies, of course.

No, this isn't another HAARM plot, this is really happening. Click here to watch the video: seiu.org/lewin

It gets worse. Republicans in Congress are actually playing along. Not only are they citing these studies from the Lewin Group with a straight face, they're using words like "independent," and "non-partisan" to describe it. What they're forgetting to say is that their research firm is "owned by a private insurance company," and "completely biased when it comes to health care."

This is bad - even for Washington. Will you call out the GOP? Use Twitter to tell them to stick to the facts on health care: seiu.org/lewin

This is the most important week yet in the movement to fix health care; we can't waste a single minute with distorted truths and biased stats. Help us put the conversation back on track.

Amy Ingersoll is a hard-working North Dakotan. Every day, she helps save lives as a 911 dispatcher in Bismarck.

When her son Devon was diagnosed with asthma, though, Amy and her family didn't have health insurance. Devon's medicines cost more than $600 a month. If she had gotten insurance through her work, she would've spent $900 a month; an independent plan would have cost her between $300 and $500 a month, but because they considered Devon's asthma a "pre-existing condition", the plan wouldn't have covered *any* of the costs.

Amy's only alternative was to pay for Devon's medicines out of her own pocket. During that time, Amy spent over a third of her income just to cover Devon's illness.

Sadly, Amy's story isn't unique. Too many Americans across the country are at the mercy of unreliable employer-based plans, and too many fall through the cracks.

"Now's not the time for black-and-white arguments," Amy says. "People worry that our current system will be swallowed up by a new one that leaves us without choices, i.e., "socialized
medicine." But this isn't an either/or proposition, and we shouldn't fall into that trap. We are creative enough to enhance our own system and fill in the gaps to make it work for everybody. We need to find our own American solution to our healthcare crisis."

The time is now for open minds and better alternatives in our health care system. Reforming health care doesn't mean replacing our current system; it means we make it work for everyone once more.

Nearly 100 doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals gathered Friday in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in support of quality, affordable health care for all.

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago, our nation's leaders came together in this same spot to affirm certain inalienable rights: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These days, though, far too many Americans are denied their pursuit of happiness, grappling with a health care system that obstructs the vision outlined in the Declaration of Independence.

Watch Dr. L. Toni Lewis, resident physicians from the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare and other health care professionals explain why they're rallying for health care reform in Philadelphia this weekend.

Laid-off workers can get much of their healthcare insurance paid for through a new law, reports the Metro Washington Council's Community Services Agency (CSA). "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for premium reductions and additional election opportunities for health benefits under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 -- commonly called COBRA -- for folks who have lost their health insurance coverage due to lay-off," reports CSA Executive Director Kathleen McKirchy. "Those eligible pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit," adds McKirchy.

This new law will help many people getting laid off who want to keep their health insurance, who would otherwise face paying a substantial monthly amount to keep it. Family health coverage can cost on average about $1,000 a month, according to Families USA, a national nonprofit, and the average monthly COBRA premium for individual coverage is $388.

I don't often get emotional when I watch C-SPAN, but I just saw something I've been waiting to see for two years. The U.S. House of Representatives, after receiving hundreds of your phone calls, passed the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009.

This is huge - but it's only the first step.

It's the first step in undoing the disastrous policies that have defined eight years of the Bush presidency. Back in 2007, despite broad support from both Democrats and Republicans, President Bush vetoed the Children's Health Insurance Plan - denying coverage for the 4 million kids whose families can't afford health care. This time, when the bill makes its way to the White House, President Obama will be holding the pen.

It's also the first step toward economic recovery. The cost of health care is skyrocketing - outpaced only by the number of families slipping into bankruptcy. The end result is more than 47 million Americans who can't afford basic health care - including more than 8 million children. We can't rebuild our economy without making quality, affordable health care a part of the foundation.

Above all, it's the first step toward fixing our broken health care system. To really get the economy back on track, we must guarantee health care for ALL Americans. Reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program is a great place to start; but we won't stop until every American has quality, reliable health care that they can afford.

Passing the House is also, literally, only the first step toward putting this bill into law. Next it heads to the Senate where, if it passes, it will be sent to the President for a signature.

We've only come this far because of your support. In less than 24 hours, hundreds of activists contacted their Representatives in support of this bill. Thanks to your calls, we've sent a strong message in support of children's health to our Congress - and we've let them know they'll be hearing from us again as we continue our movement to fix health care.

Keep checking back to SEIU.org as this bill moves to the Senate. We need to show them the same intensity we showed with our calls to the House.

Economists were already braced for bad news in this morning's December 2008 employment report from the Department of Labor, but the numbers released were even worse than expected:

• The economy lost 524,000 jobs in December.
• The number of jobs lost in October and November was revised upward by 150,000 jobs--November's job losses, previously reported as a 533,000 loss, were revised to show a cut of 584,000. October's losses were revised to 423,000 from a decline of 320,000.
• From September through December nearly 2 million jobs were lost (1.934 million)
• The unemployment rate is 7.2 percent, the highest level since January 1993.
• An alternative measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but are discouraged from looking for work, and people who are working part-time but want to work full-time, is at 13.5 percent.  (so, more than one in eight people are either unemployed or underemployed).
  

There were job losses in every single month in 2008, with December's job loss numbers bringing the yearly total to a whopping 2.6 million. That's the biggest annual loss since the World War II era, when the nation experienced a 2.75 million drop in 1945.

The largest number of job losses in December was in services-providing businesses, which shed 273,000 jobs. The dismal December 2008 job losses picture spans across every sector, with 149,000 jobs lost in manufacturing, 101,000 in construction, and 113,000 in professional and business services. The retail sector shed 67,000 jobs. The few areas of growth were in education and health care, which added 45,000 jobs in December, and government, which added 7,000 jobs.

More than 1.1 million Americans are out of work, and expectations now are that the unemployment rate will reach 9 percent or more. Compounding an already-bleak situation for these millions of unemployed Americans is that fewer than half currently receive unemployment benefits, either because they work part time or because outdated regulations don't define them as having been working recently.

In response the severity of the unemployment situation facing so many Americans, President-elect Barack Obama has is advocating for a major expansion of government-assisted health care insurance and unemployment benefits. The WSJ reported on Wednesday that Obama plans to offer states $7 billion as incentive to permanently change their unemployment-insurance laws to cover part-time workers. In his speech yesterday at George Mason University, Mr. Obama said that his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan would "immediately jump-start job creation and long-term growth."

SEIU's two million members couldn't agree more with the urgency reinforced Obama in his address that Congress must act now to address this crisis and relieve the pain for working families before a bad situation becomes dramatically worse. "If Congress needed just three weeks to pass a Wall Street bailout, then we should be able to count on our leaders to pass Main Street relief with as much urgency," said SEIU President Andy Stern.

A new state-by-state effort to ensure passage of the economic recovery package was launched by SEIU this week. More details about the Change That Works campaign efforts here.