The Supreme Court Decision: Rally to Respond

Pssst… Be prepared: The Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act is expected to come this Thursday! Whether the result is good or bad, the issue of health care reform in the United States isn’t going away soon, and we have to make our voices heard. The coalition Health Care for All New York is organizing a “Rally to Respond” at Foley Square. Be there to celebrate a good ruling or condemn a bad one!

RALLY TO RESPOND

Will the Supreme Court Affirm Health Care as a Right?

5:30 p.m. on the day the Court ruling is released

RSVP on Facebook or to Naomi.Rothwell2@gmail.com

NEW LOCATION!
Foley Square in lower Manhattan
Across from the Federal Courthouse at the African American Burial Ground Monument

(Take 4, 5, 6, J, M, N, or R trains to City Hall-Brooklyn Bridge stations)

Invited speakers will include local members of Congress, legal experts, local state legislators, doctors and nurses, local advocates, New Yorkers already helped by the Affordable Care Act, and members of the many New Yorkers expecting help down the road through the Affordable Care Act.

More info available at www.hcfany.org Cosponsoring groups are on the Facebook invite and below.

Participating organizations include: American Cancer Society, Children’s Defense Fund/New York, Community Service Society of New York, Institute for Puerto Rican and Hispanic Elderly, Make The Road New York, Medicare Rights Center, Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage,New York Immigration Coalition, Public Policy and Education Fund of New York/Citizen Action of New York, Raising Women’s Voices, Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, Greater NYC for Change, National Physicians Alliance/NY Network, Public Health Association of NYC, Committee of Interns & Residents/SEIU Healthcare, Democracy for NYC, Doctors for America New York, Downtown East for Obama

New York Groups Prepare for Supreme Court Decision on Constitutionality of Health Care Reform

(New York, NY) – New York grassroots groups will gather on Monday, June 18th for a messaging training event in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), likely to be out the week of June 25th. Whatever the decision, a coalition is preparing to call on Governor Cuomo to move forward on health care reform in New York State.

Monday’s event, organized by Greater NYC for Change, Democracy for NYC, Tribeca for Change, and Downtown East for Obama, with several hundred members each, is called “Shaking the Magic 8 Ball on Health Care Reform,” led by Tim Foley, the Political Director of the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare and the policy director for Greater NYC for Change.

“The event will help people explain the Affordable Care Act to voters, even if you haven’t read all 900 pages,” said Tim Foley.

The Affordable Care Act provides comprehensive reforms necessary to improve the ailing health care system. There are currently 2.8 million New Yorkers with no health insurance, and countless others with inadequate coverage. Yet, since passage of the health reform law in March 2010, millions of New Yorkers have already utilized many of the provisions of the new law to find relief from the ever-escalating cost of health care.

“As advocates, we need to be proactively reminding our fellow New Yorkers about why we fought so hard for so long for health care reform, what could happen in the months ahead, and why it’s more important than ever to share the story of the many ways that reform has already benefited people across the country,” Tim Foley explains.

“Think about a world in which children can no longer be insured through their parents until the age of 26, in which women lack affordable access to necessary preventive care like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, and insurance plans can drop patients from coverage when they most need it—when they become critically ill. Advocates must prepare how to respond to the need for quality, affordable health care for all in the face of an uncertain future—no matter what happens in the Supreme Court,” says Naomi Rothwell, Greater NYC for Change, one of the organizers of the event.

WHO: Grassroots groups including Greater NYC for Change, Democracy for New York
City, Tribeca for Change and Downtown East for Obama

WHAT: “SHAKING THE MAGIC 8 BALL ON HEALTH CARE REFORM — MESSAGING WORKSHOP”

WHEN: Monday, June 18, 7 PM – 9 PM (doors open 6:30 PM)

WHERE: The Murphy Institute, CUNY / 25 West 43rd Street, 19th Floor

Open to all.

First PA Voter Registration Trip: A Volunteer’s Experience

By Dale Corvino

Dale and other volunteers in Philadelphia

On March 24th, I joined busloads of volunteers from OfA teams – Downtown East, Chelsea/West Village, Harlem, the Bronx – and various other activists groups on the two-hour drive to Philadelphia. We convened at a terminal and there were greeted by OfA staff and local volunteers. We were split up into teams, and assigned volunteer drivers to transport us to various neighborhoods. Our team was shuttled to a shopping plaza in Strawberry Mansion, a neighborhood of North Philadelphia.

On the ground, we met Shirley, an energetic local captain. Shirley provided us with an overview, clipboards and registration forms. We spread out, in teams of two, to all the high-traffic points of the shopping plaza – in front of the supermarket, the dollar store, the ladies’ clothing store, the bus stop. Drizzle reduced the amount of foot traffic in the plaza, but it did pick up once the skies cleared in the afternoon.

We asked passersbys 3 questions: if they were registered to vote, if they were aware of the upcoming primary, and if they were aware of the change in voter ID laws. People’s reactions ranged from supportive and thankful to indifferent. Few were interested in voting in the primary, but knowledge of the change in voter ID laws was very high. Every volunteer signed up at least one new registrant, and at the end of the day we had a total of forty-two. At the end of the day, we were shuttled back to the bus meeting point.

More info about getting ID to meet the new statute can be found at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) See the section about the Oath/ Affirmation Voter ID form: http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/voterid/VoterAffirmationNoProofofID.pdf, which at least provides for a no-cost proof of identification for voting purposes. The main Philadelphia PennDOT location is at 1530 South Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Suggestions for a day of voter registration:

Wear comfortable shoes
Check the forecast (umbrella? rain jacket? sunglasses? layers?)
Bring snacks, drinks, phone charger and two pens
Buddy up
Exchange cell phone numbers
Learn from your Philadelphia counterparts!

Sources on the Supreme Court’s Health Insurance Reform Arguments

by Ethan Rips

Lots of us are, for very good reason, anxious about the arguments just concluded at the Supreme Court about the individual mandate and the Affordable Care Act as a whole.

It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to steer people away from the usual horse race coverage of the main stream media and hack sites like Politico, and toward substantive sources that, while no more capable of predicting what this court will do than anyone else, can provide a wealth of information & unusual ways of considering the issues. Sound good? Here goes:

SCOTUSblog, a blog (OK, the name gives it away) devoted exclusively to doings at the Supreme Court. Sharp observers there.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/03/argument-recap-will-medicaid-be-sacrificed/

Dahlia Lithwick at Slate. An insightful observer, great journalist & all-around mensch (can I use that term for a woman or is there a feminine form of that? Fun with Yiddish):
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2012/03/supreme_court_and_obamacare_why_the_conservatives_are_skeptical_of_the_affordable_care_act_.html

Balkinization. A blog by a law professor, populated by more of the same. This is where you go to get down into the weeds of constitutional issues. Cool stuff for obsessive-compulsive types (I couldn’t possibly be referring to myself here, could I?):
http://balkin.blogspot.com/

The Volokh Conspiracy. A blog devoted to the libertarian (boo, hiss) side of legal issues. Know thy enemy. Actually, every once in a while I find myself in agreement with something said by a libertarian with respect to individual liberties. That is definitely not the case when it comes to health care–or health insurance–reform. Nonetheless, when you’re not feeling traumatized, it’s interesting sometimes to see how they think. I wonder if the administration’s lawyers thought of that before they put together their arguments. I certainly hope so.
http://volokh.com/2012/03/28/sg-verrilli-relies-on-the-the-constitutions-preamble/

HTH,

Ethan

Why I Stand by the Affordable Care Act

by Kelly Cuvar

I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer thirteen years ago. I have never been in remission. What I didn’t know then, as I started my adult life, was that I would have a pre-existing condition for the rest of my life. The fact that I had cancer would be a hurdle made manifest in every aspect of my life; where I live, where I can get adequate care, and how to maintain continuous insurance coverage.

Surviving cancer would not just be managing the disease physically, which is hard enough. The American healthcare system in general and my insurance providers in particular have been a greater affliction for me than cancer. Every single financial and life decision I make revolves around maintaining my ability to get healthcare. All of my life decisions have been mediated through my disease.

I am being absolutely honest–having to worry about insurance is worse than having cancer. I am better able to deal with my illness and survival than I am when trying to obtain and maintain insurance coverage in the private market. It is more stressful than any of the treatments I have gotten over the last thirteen years, or any of the consequences of those treatments. What cancer hasn’t been able to do, our broken healthcare system has done: forced me to deal with anxiety on levels I have never known before.

After working so hard on the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I realize we didn’t get what we wanted, but we got a few things that we need. For a society that considers healthcare a commodity, we are getting closer to being able to celebrate the goal of a healthy society. (The way I see it, the goal of a capitalized healthcare system is to make money; the goal of socialized medicine is a healthy society.) No lifetime or annual caps on an insurance policy, and the most important thing in the bill to me, pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past. It will change my life.

Re-living the healthcare fight has ignited many feelings in me and my fellow activists. We are proud of our work, and we stand by it. We look forward to a healthy society, and we will always work towards that.

This speech was originally given on the steps of the Federal Court House in Foley Square, New York City, on March 26, 2012, the eve of the Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act. The Court will likely decide their ruling in June of this year.

The Affordable Care Act at Age Two

This week marks the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As legions of Koch-addled crazies take their case to the Republican Supreme Court, we thought it might be useful to take a step back and remind ourselves what has already been implemented and what is scheduled to take place over the next few years. Then a brief note on the ongoing wrestling match in Albany over the establishment of New York State’s health insurance exchange.

What’s Already in Place?

The “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage is finally being closed. Prior to passage of the ACA, many senior had to pay out-of-pocket for annual drug costs over $2,840, up to $6,448, at which point coverage would kick in again. Discounts on prescription drugs last year saved 5.1 million seniors over $3.2 billion.
It is now illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
It is now illegal for insurance companies to put lifetime caps on insurance coverage. 105 million Americans had insurance plans with lifetime caps before the ACA was passed. Catastrophic illness, which before the ACA was often not covered by insurance due to lifetime caps, was the cause of 60% of all bankruptcies in the US before passage of the ACA. Elimination of the caps removes a major cause of such bankruptcies.
Parents of children up to age 26 whose insurance includes dependent coverage can now put their children on their insurance plans. 2.5 million more young adults had health insurance as of June 2011 than were covered before the law passed.
Insurance companies now have to cover preventive care for free, and Medicare is providing free preventive care as well. Last year such services were provided to almost 87 million Americans. Preventive care, which includes regular doctor visits, vaccines and screenings for chronic illnesses , helps keep relatively minor illnesses from turning into serious and more expensive ones.

What’s Coming Up?

By 2022, 33 million more Americans will have health insurance. This will mean they can afford to get sick and will not have to rely on emergency rooms when they do get sick, a practice whose high costs get passed along to all of us. The more people are insured, the cheaper it will be for all of us in the long run.
The setup of health insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, in 2014 will provide tax credits and cost sharing, making insurance less expensive. This will reduce the financial burden of health insurance for people of modest means.
The ban on denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, which is restricted to children right now, will be extended to everyone in 2014. Insurers will also be forbidden to charge higher rates to women and people who are ill.
Various cost containment mechanisms, such as improving the quality of health care delivery, will also go into effect soon.

Now all we have to do is convince the Supreme Court that enabling millions of Americans to afford health care, get preventive care and contain costs is a far more reliable guarantee of our individual liberties than some dessicated libertarian excuse for shielding the wealthy from responsibility for the condition of the society to which they owe their fortunes.

Meanwhile, in New York State…

Republicans in the New York state Senate continue to block efforts by Governor Cuomo to set up a health insurance exchange, falsely claiming it will cost too much, when in reality, the federal government will cover all the startup expenses–assuming New York acts on it by the July 1 deadline. Here’s a great editorial from today’s New York Daily News: http://tinyurl.com/835cntq