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- Let the Games Begin: PA Senate Announces Details of Budget Proposal
- Good News on PA Revenue But Don’t Count Your Blessings Just Yet
Tell Patrick Murphy to stand up for the public health insurance plan
Submitted by Marc Stier on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 7:46am.
It was two steps forward and one step back on health care reform yesterday.
That's why we need you to make a critical phone call to Congressman Patrick Murphy this morning to ask him to reaffirm his support for a public health insurance option in the health care reform legislation being drafted in Congress? You can call toll free at 1-888-436-8427.
Yesterday, in a letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus President Obama reaffirmed his support for giving all Americans “the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans.” “This will give them,” he wrote, “a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”
But the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 51 House Democrats that includes Representative Murphy, said yesterday that the public health insurance plan should only come into effect if it is “triggered” by a failure of private insurers to “rein in costs and offer affordable coverage to everyone.”
Private insurance has already failed to meet this test. Two weeks ago, HCAN criticized Independence Blue Cross for seeking to raise premiums for non-group insurance up to 52%. And yesterday we released a report that shows why premiums are going up so fast, because the health insurance market in most regions in Pennsylvania and in most other states is overwhelmingly dominated by one company.
Many people here worked hard for Rep. Murphy. So, please call him today at 1-888-436-8427. Ask him to exclude the trigger from the Blue Dog health care reform principles. Tell him that we need a public health insurance plan now
• to make sure that everyone has health insurance they can count on even if they change jobs
• to compete with private insurance to hold down costs.
Tell him that as a fiscal conservative, he should support the competition a public health insurance plan will provide.
Tell him that this is the only way we can provide quality health care for all at a cost affordable both to families and taxpayers.
Call today at 888-436-8427.
With your support, in 2009 we will finally realize our dream of providing a guarantee of quality affordable health care to all.
Thanks
Marc Stier
PA State Director
Health Care For America NOw
If Pat Murphy has designs on higher office...
I called. This is ridiculous.
Hey, let's have a 'trigger,' that will trigger when Obama is out of office, and which can be gamed, and which can be constantly changed.
If Pat Murphy has designs on higher office, it would be a pretty stupid move to sell out people like this.
I called
and I encourage any Philly For Change members to call and identify themselves as PFC mems.
We've knocked on a lot of doors for Patrick.
While I understand that we have some honest disagreements, this would be a ridiculous sop to industry and a failure to the vulnerable Americans that all Democrats are supposed to support.
Response?
A friend close to Patrick reports his office is about to issue a statement, stating the Congressman's unequivocal opposition to the trigger option.
We just heard something similar
Thanks for the update Sam.
We need Rep. Murphy to oppose the trigger himself AND to work within the Blue Dog Coalition to have it drop support for the trigger.
We understand that further meetings are taking place in the Blue Dog Coalition to refine their position. So now is the time for us, and Rep. Murphy, to focus on this.
BTW, at this very moment, Health Care For America Now has teams in five locations in the state phonebanking our 18,000 name list of health care activists or, rather, that part of the list found in the four Blue Dog districts.
If you are not on our list getting updates and action alerts sign up at http://www.hcanpa.org
Patrick Murphy's statement on the public health insurance plan
We got this a few minutes ago. We are still hoping that he will help us reverse the decision of the Blue Dog Coalition. But we are very grateful for his support of the public insurance plan without qualification or delay.
And we are grateful to all of you who made phone calls.
Thanks so much
Marc
Congressman Murphy stands with President Obama in supporting the inclusion of a public option in health care reform legislation. While the Congressman is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, he does not always agree with them on every issue. In this case, he does not believe that we should wait several years to see if our currently broken system gets worse before introducing a public option. Including a public plan as one of many choices in a health insurance exchange is a good way to introduce transparency and competition into the insurance market, curb sky-rocketing costs, and hold private insurance companies accountable so that we can finally accomplish comprehensive, genuine reform this year.
zip codes
speaking from personal experience, make sure you provide a bucks county or northeast philly zip code when and if you call.
Although the congressman likes to drop by center city philadelphia when he's trawling for support, the DC office has told me quite explicitly they are not interested in the opinions of people from outside the district.
To be fair, it's not just Murphy that does this: pretty much everyone in DC likes to pretend their decisions only affect the people they represent (i learned this firsthand when i was calling rockefeller's office about that awful FISA bill). so you sometimes have to get creative to get past the gatekeepers. they WILL ask for your zip code and if you're not in their district they WON'T pass your message along.
adding
i made the call (brendan from croydon PA), and they told me murphy does NOT support a trigger, he thinks it's unnecessary and the time for reform is NOW.
so keep calling!
My thank you note from 19154
where I have family.
Can we get some more thank yous to Patrick Murphy?
He did a really good thing by breaking with the Blue Dogs so decisively and publicly. There are other members of the Blue Dogs who are coming around but not quite so openly. So Rep. Murphy’s office a call and thank him for his stance.
Other folks in DC will know about your calls. And it will make a difference.
Call today at 888-436-8427
Thanks,
Marc
I just called
awesomeness!
Is there any insurance plan
deleted
Wow commercial spam on YPP
that's a new one.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
The Price of Success
Internet measuring company quantcast estimates that in May, 2009, Young Philly Politics had over twice as many viewers as phillyblog, hampered by both technical problems(In no small part caused by spam)and personnel problems.
Spam goes where the viewers are, so, in a way, it's a compliment.
On the other hand, it's also a tremendous threat to the technical ability of this site to function. I hope Dan and Ray either know how to keep spam out, or know someone who knows how. It would be a real shame if this site was to be as hampered by spam as phillyblog has been in the past year.
politics for young men is a
politics for young men is a very good idea who ever had the idea to star this web.
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