In the classic Christmas tale by Dr. Suess, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the Grinch descends on the town of Whoville and steals all the town’s Christmas decorations and gifts.

In Binghamton, on December 16th, several hearty health care supporters gathered to ask a few remaining Senators, including Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman, not to be the Grinch that stole health care reform by filibustering the bill and stopping it from passing. Their fun had a serious purpose of course – to highlight that one Senator with ties to the health insurance industry in his state shouldn’t be allowed to stop over 30 million Americans and 1.7 million New Yorkers from gaining access to health insurance, and many others to gain additional protections against greedy insurance companies.

Representatives of Citizen Action of New York and Health Care for America Now in Binghamton also released a new report documenting that consumers nationwide would receive billions of dollars in refunds for too high insurance premiums if the Congress passes a provision that would require at least 90% of consumer premiums to be spent on health claims. Today, too much of our premium dollars are wasted on such things as high CEO salaries, advertising, and lobbying against reform.

Like in the Dr. Suess story – the Grinch won’t succeed in the end! As this post was written, the Senate is expected to pass its version of health care reform on Christmas Eve. And we’re not giving up on improving the final bill that will be sent to the President early next year!

Here’s some news coverage of the event.