Download our two new fact sheets and help spread the word by sharing them with your friends, neighbors and family.

How the New Health Care Law Helps You and Myths About Health Care Reform.

How the New Health Care Law Helps YOU

Myths About Health Care Reform

This situation has led to an unprecedented level of anger among the American people – ordinary citizens don’t want their government and their lives dominated by corporate wealth and greedy special interests. And now there is hope that we can do something about it.

We can take back control of our political system and make elected officials accountable to us. We can put American voters back in the driver’s seat with citizen-funded elections, where candidates for Congress only get funding if they share the values and concerns of the people back home. We can elect officials who will solve our problems and address our concerns, not those of wealthy donors and their paid lobbyists. It’s not enough to rail at Washington. We need to replace corporate-funded elections with Fair Elections.

And right now we have the chance. There are over 155 members of the House of Representatives who have co-sponsored a bill that would change the way campaigns are financed. This reflects a ground swell of support for the Congressional Fair Elections Act, a bill that would allow candidates for Congress to run with a combination of small donations and public financing.

With Fair Elections ordinary citizens could run for office, candidates would not spend their time courting rich donors and special interests, and politicians would work for us! The cost would be paid for by a tax on corporations with large federal contracts.

We need your help to bring this important bill to a vote this summer.

You can help end legalized bribery dressed up as campaign contributions from big business. Call or write your House of Representative member and tell him or her you want them to put elections back into the hands of citizens by voting for Fair Elections!

To get involved in the critical fight for Fair Elections contact me at joanm@democracymatters.org.

Our research and education affiliate, the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, just published two new fact sheets about what’s actually in the new health care law.

Help us spread the word about reform and how it’ll help all of us by sharing these fact sheets with your friends, neighbors and family.

The first, How the New Health Care Law Helps You! Click here to download a pdf.

• You can’t be dropped or denied health insurance if you get sick.
• Small businesses and non-profits will get financial help to provide insurance.
• Your kids will be covered.
• Seniors will pay lower costs for prescriptions and get preventive health care.
• Insurance for individuals and families will be more affordable, and there will be help to pay for it.

You can’t be denied insurance for a past illness. Children previously treated for diseases like cancer can’t be denied coverage starting this year and adults by 2014. Also this year, a new coverage program will be set up for adults who can’t find or afford insurance and have a pre-existing condition.

You can’t be dropped and your coverage can’t be capped. Gone are the days when you run out of coverage if you get cancer, HIV/AIDs or other serious illnesses: lifetime limits will be banned this year and annual limits will be restricted now and eliminated in 2014.

Small businesses and non-profits will get financial help to provide insurance for their employees. Starting now, small businesses can get tax credits of up to 35% of their insurance costs rising to 50% in 2014. And starting in 2014, small employers will be able to purchase cheaper insurance through an exchange.

Seniors and others won’t go broke due to high drug costs. Seniors and the disabled with high enough drug costs so that they fall into the “donut hole” will get a $250 rebate check this year. By 2020, the “donut hole” will be eliminated: only the 25% co-pay will remain. For others, co-pays and deductibles will eventually be eliminated.

Young adults up to 29 have new coverage options. Starting this year, due to the new federal law and a new state law, you can stay on your parent’s health insurance plan.

If you have coverage through your job, it’s likely to be cheaper. When the law fully kicks in, if your current insurance is too expensive, you’ll be able to buy insurance through an exchange and get financial help to do it.

If you don’t have employer coverage, you’ll be able to purchase lower cost coverage. Starting in 2014, if you earn up to roughly $88,000 a year (family of four), you’ll get financial aid to buy coverage: up to 1.6 million New Yorkers will be helped. You will be able to buy cheaper coverage through “exchanges” – shopping malls for insurance. Exchanges will also set standards to keep insurers honest.

Preventative services will be free. This protection, which starts this year, means you won’t be stopped from getting necessary services like vaccinations and mammograms because of cost.

The second, Myths About Health Care Reform. Click here to download a pdf.

Myth #1: Health reform is a government takeover: it’s socialism!

Truth: The new federal law builds on the current system of private insurance by extending private coverage to millions of additional people. The law stops the worst health insurer abuses — like denying people insurance because they were previously sick or dumping people when they do get sick. Even before the law was passed, states regulated private insurance companies to make sure they had enough money to pay claims and in other ways. The new regulations add to the existing laws that protect us from private health insurance company abuses. That’s no government takeover and doesn’t make it socialism.

And what’s wrong with a greater government role when needed? Medicare is a successful government program that’s provided health care coverage to seniors and the disabled for decades.

Myth #2: Health reform costs too much: it will increase the deficit.

Truth: Reform will actually reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years and far more in the following decade, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Many of the savings come from greater efficiencies — getting more health care out of our health spending.

Myth #3: Health reform will raise taxes on the middle class.

Truth: The new law only raises income taxes on those who earn more than $200,000 per year ($250,000 for joint returns): wealthy individuals.

Myth #4: You will have to give up your own doctor and your existing coverage.

Truth: The new law does nothing to limit the ability of Americans to choose their own doctors and will not require people to drop their existing coverage.

Myth #5: Reform will cut Medicare.

Truth: The new law actually strengthens Medicare by requiring free preventive care, closing the prescription drug “donut hole,” and making Medicare financially healthy for an additional 10 years. No Medicare benefits are cut, although there are cuts to providers and insurance companies. Private insurers that run Medicare Advantage plans will lose much of their unfair subsidies, which have increased their profits at the expense of taxpayers and the rest of Medicare beneficiaries.

Myth #6: It’s not fair to fine individuals for not obtaining health care coverage.

Truth: For the health care system to bring costs under control, everyone needs to pay their fair share through buying insurance. Otherwise, costs will spiral out of control for those who do purchase insurance. It’s just like auto insurance today: you have to obtain auto insurance if you drive, even if you’ve never had an accident. (Under the new law, if you can actually prove buying health insurance is truly a financial hardship, you won’t have to obtain coverage or pay a penalty.)

A big reason we pay so much for health care today is that when people without coverage have a medical emergency, those costs are passed on to all of us: insured people, taxpayers, hospitals and doctors. Requiring everyone to be insured will lower these costs for everyone.

Myth #7: Reform will lead to rationing.

Truth: Reform will not reduce benefits either for private coverage or for public programs like Medicare or Medicaid. In fact, reform will vastly limit current insurance company rationing by ending such practices as dumping people when they get sick, refusing to pay for needed care and discriminating against people with a history of illness (“pre-existing conditions”). The law also provides funding and incentives for more doctors and other providers to meet the needs of patients.

Myth #8: Single payer is the only real solution.

Truth: We agree that single payer would be the best solution, but we didn’t have enough political power to replace the insurance companies with a government plan for all. The new law will curb the worst abuses for everyone, extend health insurance to over 30 million additional Americans now without insurance, and improve the quality of coverage for millions more. Now that the law has passed, we should unite and fight to make sure that the new law works as effectively as possible and take full advantage of the provisions of the law that allow states to set up single payer systems or other public plans.

The lies about what health care reform means for each of us aren’t about to stop. The teabaggers and their corporate sponsors are fighting tooth an nail to scale back the new law. Let’s not let them. Download these fact sheets now and give them to you friends and family. If you’d like printed copies, contact your local Citizen Action organizer.

We are also scheduling presentations in many regions across the state about the health care law. Click here to see if there’s an event scheduled near you.

Special thanks to Northeast Action for their help with developing the content on the “myths” fact sheet.

I’m back in Albany now. There was so much to do at the US Social Forum in Detroit that I couldn’t find 30 minutes to sit and write about what was going on! It was an amazing experience–the people, the ideas, the energy. I left Saturday morning while other folks were preparing to protest an the placement of an incinerator by planting a garden across the street with 4-foot-tall sunflowers.

Here are some of the highlights of my trip:

Detroit and the People Mover

True, I am easily impressed and tend to fall in love with every city I go to.  But here is why I love Detroit.  It’s beautiful the way a dead tree is beautiful: smooth and graceful without its leafs.  Anyone can just admire the poetry of its structure and that is how all of these elegant buildings–now empty–stand.

The coolest part, hands-down, is the People Mover.  Really, that’s its official name!  It’s an above ground rail like something out of the Jetsons cartoon.  A two car train runs along a cement structure about one to two stories above us that circles the city, kind of like the monorail at the Bronx Zoo.  Not only is it an efficient way to get around town, but it’s a unique view of the city, traveling in between those beautiful buildings and looking into the windows thinking of what once was.  Yet unlike the monorail at the Bronx Zoo, you can ride for just 50 cents.

Detroit’s emptiness is haunting.  Driving into the city at 5pm Tuesday afternoon, my caravan was one of the few cars on the road.   I’ve been told that this is partially a result of urban planning.  The city was intended for car efficiency, with enough roads to avoid congestion during the height of its population.  Friends who went on an auto-factory tour saw a factory that was 7 times the size of a football field; and it’s completely empty.  How do you renovate a space like that?

While Detroit holds a record 30% unemployment rate, it also holds a record for the most food gardens.  Detroit also stands out for having the one of the highest concentrations of restaurants and is home to Restaurant Opportunities Center, a kick ass group that fights for rights of restaurant workers.  Check em out at http://www.rocunited.org/

Time Banking: A New Way to Organize, Subvert Capitalism Or Just Get Your Lawn Mowed!

Definitely one of the best workshops I attended was hosted by Time Banks USA.  It’s a system of work-exchange where everyone is equal.  People give or receive goods and services and earn or spend time bank hours.   Although Portland, Maine has over 600 members, a time bank ideally has a small geographic boundary like the Delaware Avenue Neighborhood in Albany or Ellicott District in Buffalo.  It’s a way to get people to build relationships with the people who live next to them and also to give folks who are out of work an opportunity to have currency (just not cash currency).

I met a woman who coordinates a time bank in the Sobrante Park neighborhood of Oakland, CA, which was initiated by the County Health Department as a means to bridge a divide, which often results in violence between the African American and the Latino communities in that neighborhood.  While this time bank provides many economic benefits, it also heals and shifts the balance of power.  In the workshop, the coordinator talked about a town hall meeting she held between the Spanish speaking community and the police.  The meeting was held in Spanish, and the police had to wear headphones for simultaneous translation.

What if we had time banking in every community and folks earned time banking hours for volunteering, taking actions, and registering folks to vote?  Think of how that could change organizing and grow the movement.

Do’s and Don’ts for those planning to attend the next US Social Forum

1. Do think ahead of time about which workshops you want to attend since looking through 1500 options the day-of will overwhelm you.
2. Don’t stress out too much if the workshop you chose is canceled, just randomly go into any workshop, and you’ll probably learn something.
3. Do stay at the old cheap hotel that’s almost 100 years old with its broken air conditioner, moth ball smell and all.
4. Don’t freak out when you see the fancy-shmancy hotel all the Jobs With Justice people are staying at.  Your old cheap hotel is pretty, has nice people working there, and you’ll end up meeting a lot of new folks as you all converge in the lobby, the only place with an internet connection.
5. If you stay at the hotel, do make friends with the staff since you may need them to wake you up when you pass out drunk outside your room at 3 in the morning and not laugh at you.
6. Do take a walking tour of whatever city will be hosting the next US Social Forum, or just plan your own tour but get out of the conference center and the touristy areas.
7. Do also meet up with a local resident like Detroit’s Unofficial Ambassador Evan to show you around the historic buildings and the local bars.
8. Do not let him convince you its tradition to do a shot at every bar – but if you do, don’t worry, if you follow the advice in numbers 3-5, it’ll all work out.
9. Do come with some goals in mind for what you would like to get out of the US Social Forum, but..
10. Don’t panic and stay flexible.  There’s so much to experience that even if you wing it, you will leave energized, inspired, and connected.

I’m spending the next few days in Detroit, MI at the United States Social Forum. The tagline is that another world is possible, another US is necessary. I’m here to absorb as much as I can to bring back to Citizen Action and also to augment my own journey in the movement. There are over 10,000 artists, union organizers, community organizers, service providers, activists and whoever else you can imagine. People are learning, teaching, talking and partying together. I’ll be writing a series of posts to share as much as I can with everyone who couldn’t make it to Detroit.

Already just from my drive here (10 hours via Canada!) with two amazing women who are artists, academics and organizers themselves, dinner with some other folks from the Capital District and breakfast this morning, several ideas and debates are percolating:

What function do art, other forms of expression and play have in the movement? Is it being valued and utilized enough in our work?

Do we need a master plan, like the corporatists have implemented over the last 50 years? Or does the Left just do what it does and assume things will ultimately come together even if it takes a lot more time (my NY’er control freak sensibility says PLAN! PLAN! PLAN!)

How do we as activists hold multiple truths at the same time? How do we live in the struggle and live in our own lives? Are those separate? Can they be?

So stay tuned as I go through the next four days and hopefully get some answers from some of the inspiring people gathering here. FYI, there are over 100 workshops during any given time slot. They range from jobs/work/economy to climate change,
youth organizing to health care reform, prison rights to culture and media.

Many organizations that Citizen Action works with regularly are also here: Jobs with Justice, The NY State Stimulus Alliance, United for Fair Economy (and our favorite trainer Jeannette) and a gazillion others. Oh and of course, Jim Anderson.

So I’m on my way to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit to register. It’s 90 degrees and crazy humid (big lake nearby) so it feels just like home. If you want to read more about the forum you can go to the website: www.ussf2010.org. Also I think Amy Goodman is here so you can listen to Democracy Now and hear more about it.

I’ll also be tweeting @sgoldman78.

But winning health care reform was only the first step.

Here in New York, over the past decade, health insurance premiums have skyrocketed – up 92%, while wages have increased by only 14%. According to a recent study by Health Care for America Now, America’s five largest insurance companies reported record profits of $12.2 billion in 2009, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 56%, from 2008.

These outrageous rate increases have forced too many New Yorkers to drop their health insurance or face bankrupting financial hardship.

Years of hard work culminated late Monday night, when we won a major victory in making health insurance more affordable. Both the State Senate and the Assembly passed a bill that requires health insurance companies to get approval of their proposed rate increases from the Insurance Department before those rate increases go into effect. On Wednesday, the Governor signed it into law.

As a result, New York will not see cases like the 39% premium increase put forth by Wellpoint’s subsidiary, Anthem, in California. Some insurance companies in Pennsylvania have raised premiums 50% – all while health care spending has only increased 5%-10%. These increased rates are clearly not about passing on increased spending incurred by Americans.

Now, the State Insurance Department will have the authority to reject or modify any rate hikes that are unreasonable, excessive or unfairly discriminatory. The public would also be allowed to submit comments to any proposed rate hikes.

Senator Neil Breslin, Chair of the Insurance Committee, demonstrated true leadership as he guided this legislation through the Senate. Along with Senator Breslin and our friends at Health Care for All New York, we worked to overcome the misguided and corrupt special interests that place insatiable profit over country and over decency. Every meeting with a legislator, phone call, fax, and email helped to make our message loud and clear. You helped make it happen.

Insurance companies will try these jaw-dropping, cold, and desperate tactics again, especially as the country begins to phase in the tenets of our hard won health care reform.

This new law is a victory for the people of New York over big money insurance lobbyists. This week, our progressive values for a better New York beat out those who care most about corporate profits.

When we fight, we can win. Let’s keep fighting.

The legislation, called “prior approval,” requires health insurance companies to get approval from the State Department of Insurance before raising rates on individual and group plans.

Between 2000 and 2007, health insurance premiums rose 81%, while real wages only increased by 11% in that same time period.

The bill is expected to be signed by Governor Paterson.

Another provision within the bill would force companies in New York to spend more of each premium dollar on medical payments instead of other costs like advertising or CEO bonuses.

The amount that insurance companies spend on actual medical payments is called the medical loss ratio (MLR). This bill increases the MLR to 82% for all markets, individual and small group, up from 75% for small groups and 80% for direct pay market currently.

We, along with our allies in Health Care for All New York, have worked tirelessly during this legislative session to get this regulation passed.

Here’s what Citizen Action’s Legislative Director, Jessica Wisneski, had to say:

Congress and the President did their job passing the new federal health care law earlier this year and now New York State government is doing their job to control excessive insurance rate increases. The rate hikes we’ve seen in recent years are breaking the budgets of our families and small businesses across New York. That’s why Citizen Action fought so hard for passage of prior approval. This new law will allow the state government to protect consumers who cannot stand up to health insurers on their own. Senate Insurance Committee Chair Neil Breslin should be praised for championing this issue for the people. We applaud him and other legislators who voted for the bill as well as Governor Paterson for reinstituting rules that were dismantled under Republican rule. The new rules on insurance companies will go a long way to curtail the sky-rocketing cost of health insurance in New York.

On Wednesday, June 2nd, we’re converging on the Capitol to tell our legislations to end prison-based gerrymandering now! Join coalition organizations, community members, and New Yorkers who want their democracy back in the Well of the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, June 2nd from 11 am to 4 pm.

Last night, here in Albany, we honored four incredible people who devote their lives to leading us all to push the edge of the possible – four people who don’t let a day go by without having done something to make the world a better place.

Over 100 Citizen Action members and supporters from the Capital District came together at The State Room to honor Norma Chapman, Judith Mazza, Vera “Mike” Michelson, and Joe Seeman as they received the Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Award.

In the past few weeks, I’ve posted each of their stories. I hope you were as inspired by reading them as I was.

It occurred to me, though, that I hadn’t posted anything about the man for whom the celebration is named, Jim Perry.

There were many folks in the room last night who knew Jim. They all have fond memories, and feel a profound sense of loss. But, they all also recognize that his contributions are seen everyday throughout our community.

He played a key role in the formation of the Empire State Pride Agenda, was the President of the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club in Albany, central to the fight for Albany’s Human Rights Ordinance, and was a founding member of Citizen Action of the Capital District.

Jim was a true coalition builder.

Most importantly, he brought people together to take collective action toward a common goal – he lead people to come together to push the edge of the possible.

I never knew Jim Perry, but his legacy lives on every day through the incredible leaders involved with Citizen Action.

Here are some photos from last night’s event:

Shanna Goldman, our Organizing Director, and Chris Scoville, our Capital District Organizer, opened the conference with a dynamic discussion on far reach of economic concerns. Leaders then chose among 3 workshops that were divided into 2 days. Jess Wisneski, our Legislative Director, and Cynthia Ward, Northeast Action Executive Director, moderated the health care workshop. Cleo Oliver, Citizen Action Campaign Coordinator, and Carin Schiewe, Northeast Action Field Director, moderated the civic engagement workshop. Karen Scharff, our Executive Director, managed the education workshop.

Citizen Action staff loved the level of engagement–especially since we all put so many hours into organizing the conference.

The engagement, though, reached into the Internet this year. We live-streamed portions of the conference and actively used Twitter and Facebook. Leaders especially loved the Twitter projection. Be sure to click on the link to see what the buzz was all about.

We ended the conference on a riveting and uplifting note. William McNary, President of USAction – our national affliate-, brought everyone to their feet and some even to tears. Luckily, in yet another example of technological versatility, Charlie Albanetti, our Communications Director, captured this provocative engagement on video.

Here is a collection of photos that highlight our very active weekend:

We’re also embedding the informational binder that each attendee received. The pages highlight our major projects and is chock full of useful summaries. Please take a look!

2010 Leadership Conference Binder Docs