What You Need to Know NOW about Health Care Reform

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Why does this number matter? Click to find out.

An appeal from Consumers Union Action Fund that found its way to my email today makes a good point.

Right now, they’re counting the phone calls in your Representative’s office. Who is calling against health reform, who is for it.

They’re keeping a minute-by-minute tally – undecided members are getting swayed; those who already voted ‘yes’ are reconsidering.

These days it is easy to feel jaded about politics and about the influence of the people on the process.  We are far too often given reason to.   The fact is, however, that the voice of the people does still matter.  Politicians do respond to political pressure.  They always have and always will.  After all, no matter how much money political action committees, corporations or special interests channel into politics, politicians have to be re-elected.

Visits to an elected representatives office by voters are the most effective means of calling attention to an issue.  If constituents take the time to make and appointment and come to the office, it makes an impression.  Phone calls are the second most effective.  Letters the third, and email or petitions the least effective.

In other words, the less effort it took for you to send it the less impact it will have.   After all, if you couldn’t do any more than sign an email petition, how how much do you really care about the issue and how likely is it to affect your vote.  Still, any action is better than no action.

We are at a crucial moment in the struggle to reform health care.  As the Consumers Union appeal goes on to point out that the calls flooding into the offices of Congress are not all from constituents.  Opponents are highly organized, and calls are coming in from all over the country to representatives in every state.

They are spending fortunes in swing states to scare voters into calling representatives, too.  For example, a new television add running in the districts of Representatives and Senators still on the fence, and truth is a casualty in most of them.  Politifact.com found that a new ad featuring a cancer survivor who warns that reform would jeopardize the tests and treatments that saved her life was so full of falsehoods and inaccuracies that it set the truth meter on fire.

Healthy debate on a measure this important and a change this fundamental is very important.  It ought not be undertaken lightly.  There ought to be vocal opposition and there ought to be fierce support (like me) and both sides should have to work hard to convince the undecided.  But it is not okay to present falsehoods as facts and there is a degree at which the manipulation of statistics is no longer acceptable.  Debate should be debate, not an endless repetition of party line.

I’m only one guy, but I’ve taken to checking Politifact.com and FactCheck.org from time to time to find out who is manipulating the truth and if the infringement seems serious enough, I send a note calling them on it, regardless of whether or not it is President Obama or Senator Cantor.  Believe me, these sites are non-partison, and they check both sides of the aisle.

FactCheck.org took on claims made by both sides of the aisle at the Health Care Summit. Click on the image for analysis.

But back to the matter at hand.  On this particular issue, there is no question in my mind that the opponents of reform are the ones who have taken more liberties with the truth.  That, alone, makes me suspicious.  Why are they so afraid of?

The fact is that we need reform and we need it now.  If we wait and a new Congress comes in, we may not have another chance.  Moreover, it wil be that much longer before we can actually see benefits, since it takes time for legislation to go into effect.

What benefits will we see?   As things stand now, it will:

  • Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
  • Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
  • Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
  • Lower seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
  • Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
  • Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
  • Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
  • Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
  • Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal

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Why is this number relevant? Click here on the image.

So act now, especially if your representatives are wavering.  Here are some resources to make it very easy to do so: