Pacific Progressive

This Week in Congress: January 19-22

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Health care

Negotiations continued over the weekend between House and Senate Democratic leadership and the White House on finalizing compromise language for the health care bill. A draft version was sent to the Congressional Budget Office on late Saturday evening for cost-scoring analysis, and the bill will not be considered in either chamber until scoring is complete. It is possible the conferenced version of the bill will be ready for consideration on the House floor by the end of January.

More from CAP:

• Senate and House Health Reform Bills Change Abortion Status Quo by Jessica Arons
• Closing the Health Care Workforce Gap by Daniel J. Derksen and Ellen-Marie Whelan
• New Jobs Through Better Health Care by David M. Cutler and Neeraj Sood
• Racial Health Disparities by the Numbers

 

Budget

This week the Senate will begin considering a measure to increase the national debt limit. A short-term debt limit increase was passed in late December 2009, but further action is necessary as the current limit will be reached in late February.

Health Reform Data for All 50 States Available

Finding the numbers you need to support your arguments in favor of health care reform in now a little easier with a tool from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).  Statehealthfacts.org from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has state-level data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The data can allow policymakers, citizens, activists, and reformers understand the potential impact of health care reform on different parts of the United States.

The data includes:

•  A general economic profile including data on poverty rates, major industries, unemployment rates, and fiscal conditions.
• Health care costs including overall health spending, average family premium costs and Medicare expenditures.
• Profile of the uninsured
• Snapshot of how health coverage is distributed
• Access to health care services, primary care workforce shortages, unmet health care needs and Medicaid provider fees
• Synopsis of private coverage, individual and small group market regulation, and enrollment in high risk pools.  

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible information and research and analysis on health issues.  The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.

Ask CNN to Take Racist Lou Dobbs Off the Air

This is a request from Southern Poverty Law Center to help them get Lou Dobbs off the air.  Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC_ works to reduce and eliminate hate groups.  In Orange County, Congressman John Campbell is leading an effort to make Barack Obama produce his birth certificate.  Campbell is espousing the same hateful, bigoted views at Lou Dobbs.

Please help get Dobbs off the air.

Dear Friend,

Tell your friends Send a message to CNN

A lot has happened since I contacted you last week about Lou Dobbs and his latest racist conspiracy-mongering.

As you recall, we asked you to join our call to CNN to take Dobbs off the air because he refuses to stop peddling extremist propaganda in the guise of journalism.

We've had an overwhelming response, and many other organizations are also now demanding that CNN and Dobbs stop mainstreaming hate and extremism. Dobbs has dug in his heels, saying he will continue to raise questions about whether President Obama was really born in the U.S. and therefore eligible to be president. He's even suggested that Obama is an undocumented immigrant.

Health Care Reform Comparison Tool

Kaiser Family Foundation has a Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals  on the Health Reform section of the website.  The tool allows you to select the which of the Congressional and Presidential plans you want to compare and the topics you want to examine.  Printable comparison summaries are available.  The tool is updated frequently.

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible information, research, and analysis on health issues.  The Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.

Health Care - Middle Class Spends More and Gets Less

Keeping health care insurance in the United States is usually contingent on keeping your job.  Lose your job, lose your insurance.  A new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds that nearly three out of four middle-income families get their insurance thru their jobs.  More families are in danger of losing their health care coverage as the chance of being unemployed increases. 

The study also found that families are paying more and getting less.  The average family contribution for employer-offered health care is $3,354, which is 7% of pre-tax income for a family earning $50,000 per year.  In the eight years from 2000 to 2008, the cumulative increase in health insurance premiums grew three times as fast as wages increased. This system is unsustainable in the long term.

And, employees are fortunate if they can find an employer who still offers health care insurance.  In 2008, 63% of all firms offered coverage, 

Single Payer Now!

The push for single payer healthcare is on!  President Obama has told us we must demand this from him if we want it to be a reality.

On Saturday, a group met in Orange to build plans for bringing the message to people.  The Organizing for America group will be reaching out to churches, community centers, and senior centers to bring the message to them.  The group wants to double in size by the end of the summer by aggressively bringing in new members.

The grassroots team will be circulating a "Prescription for Healthcare Reform" which lets people know how to push on Congress and the President to get the reform WE want (not the insurance companies)this summer.  "Prescription for Reform" will include both items that can be done very quickly (like making a phone call or sending an email) to activities that take more time, such as visiting a field office of a member of Congress or speaking in front of a group.

The group can be reached at publisher[at]pacificprogressive.com

Sen. Arlen Specter Changes to Democratic Party

Sen. Arlen Specter is moving to the other side of the aisle by becoming a Democrat.  Sen. Specter was first elected during the Reagan administration, in 1980.  In the 28 years since his election, Specter has seen the Republican party shift away from the more-inclusive fiscally conservative party it once was to a party of increasingly narrow views.