Later this week, Congress will cast an up-or-down vote that will determine the fate of health reform. The stakes couldn't be higher, and we need everyone, pulling together, to get reform across the finish line. To help you make the case for reform—to your legislators, first and foremost, but also to the media, your colleagues, your neighbors, and your family members—we've assembled materials about what's in the bill, why it will help, and how you can make the case most effectively.  

The Current Proposal

• Hundreds of National Organizations Say "Yes" to Health Reform. In a national, two-page ad appearing March 17, hundreds of national organizations, representing seniors, unions, faith groups, communities of color, and many other constituencies urged Congress to Vote "Yes" on health reform—because the cost of doing nothing is much too high.
• President Obama’s proposal blends the House-passed and Senate-passed bills.
• Help Is on the Way: 12 Reasons to Embrace Health Reform (Families USA, February 2010)

Why We Can’t Let Reform Die
We need health reform more than ever. The costs of health care have outpaced workers’ wages, jeopardized the survival of businesses, and led more and more people to lose their health coverage. Check out our Cost of Doing Nothing state fact sheets to see the devastating effects of failing to pass health reform for your state. Or take a look at these other publications:

• The Dangers of Defeat: The Cost of Failure to Pass Health Reform 
• Health Coverage in the States: How Will Health Reform Help?
• Lives on the Line: The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health Reform

Messages that Work
It's up to you to communicate what your state stands to gain from health reform. Use these materials to make your case most effectively:

• Making the Case for Progressives: The Social Security Example (Families USA, March 2010)
• Bending the Curve: 12 Ways Health Reform Will Tackle Runaway Costs (Third Way, February 2010)
• Consensus Messaging Document and Messaging Tips (Herndon Alliance, February 2010)
• Talking Points for Moderates (Families USA, February 2010)   

Take Action
Now that you have all the facts, please consider taking action! Your help is crucial to making sure that health reform legislation passes once and for all. Here’s what you can do:

1. Call your elected officials at 1-888-876-6242. Tell them that Americans deserve better than the status quo. We need quality, affordable health care NOW.
2. Write a letter to the editor. Add your personal touch to these sample letters. Your local paper will have specific instructions on how to submit a letter, so be sure to check with your opinion page editors.
3. Write an op-ed. Linda Merrell of the Florida Child Healthcare Coalition transformed her state's Cost of Doing Nothing fact sheet (see above) into this op-ed published in the Daytona Beach News Journal.
4. Share your story. Nothing makes the case for health reform stronger than stories from people like you. Please consider sharing your health care story with us here: http://www.standupforhealthcare.org/page/s/shareyourstory.
5. Sign the petition. Groups from across the country are sending a shared message to Congress: Move forward and pass health reform. It's time to act.

About Using Reconciliation to Enact Reform 

• Senate Budget Committee Chairman Conrad's op-ed explaining that Reconciliation is NOT being considered to pass major health reform, only "fixers" (Washington Post, March 6, 2010)
• CHUTZPAH: The GOP Leadership's Criticism of Using Reconciliation to Pass Health Reform (Families USA, February 2010)
• Key GOP Officials' Votes on Reconciliation Bills, 1980-2007 (Families USA, February 2010)
• Obama, Reid, Pelosi "Committed to Reconciliation" (Politico, February 19, 2010)
• Forging Ahead—Embracing the “Reconciliation” Option for Reform by Henry Aaron (New England Journal of Medicine, February 10, 2010)
• Truth and Reconciliation: Are Democrats Making an Egregious Power Grab by Sidestepping the Filibuster? Hardly. by Thomas Mann, Molly Reynolds, and Norman Ornstein (The New Republic, April 20, 2009)

The Republican Alternatives
Republicans have said that they don’t intend to offer a full proposal for the summit. But they have been promoting several proposals in recent months. Here are some of the proposals most closely identified with the opponents of the House- and Senate-passed bills, with a quick look at the pros and cons of each:

A Closer Look at Republican Proposals

• Proposals that Increase Premiums and the Cost of Health Insurance
  • Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
  • Interstate Health Insurance and Association Health Plans
• Proposals that Don’t Help Make Insurance Available and Affordable
  • Pre-Existing Conditions
  • No Limits on Profits
  • No Review of Premium Increases
  • No Limits on Out-of-Pocket Costs
  • No Help with the Cost of Insurance
• Proposals that Don’t Help Medicare Beneficiaries
• Proposals that Don’t Improve Quality or Curb Costs

Click here for a pdf version of A Closer Look at Republican Proposals.

Other Resources

• Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Key Health Equity Provisions (March 2010)
• Medicare Advantage: The President's Plan Makes Necessary Changes (March 2010)
• Rate Review: Holding Health Plans Accountable (Families USA, March 2010)
• Medical Loss Ratios: Making Sure Premium Dollars Go to Health Care—Not Profits (Families USA, February 2010)
• Interstate Health Insurance Sales: Myth vs. Reality (National Association of Insurance Commissioners, www.naic.org)
• News Articles and Editorials
  • If Reform Fails (New York Times editorial, March 7, 2010)  
  • California Death Spiral by Paul Krugman (New York Times, February 19, 2010)
  • Small Ideas Won’t Fix It (New York Times editorial, February 13, 2010)

• Blogs
  • Fact vs. Fiction: The Summit Edition
  • Anthem Set to Hike Rates in California
  • Why We Need Reform
  • Reform Is an Economic Stimulus
  • What Reform Can Do for You
  • The Republican Proposal

About the Health Reform Summit
On February 25, President Obama and key Democratic and Republican members of Congress held a summit to discuss health reform. This televised meeting was a great source of information and changed the dynamics of the effort to enact meaningful health reform. See Families USA's pre-summit press statement, our post-summit press statement, and letters from nine organizations to President Obama and congressional leaders about yardsticks to measure success (plus a press release about this letter).