Community Catalyst: National Health Reform News

Defending National Health Care Reform

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Partners:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is now law. Congress' work on health care reform is complete for now, but our work is not finished. Persistent public outreach and education is needed to promote the provisions in the new law that will immediately help people and combat the opposition's messages against reform.

As we've discussed in recent editions of the Insider, some states are battling legislative proposals, legal challenges or constitutional amendments opposing reform. Whether you are facing these attacks in your state or not, one of the best things everyone can do is explain what reform really does and doesn't do. The more the public understands reform, the less they support the opposition's agenda. Reaching out to constituencies that will benefit from early improvements - including seniors, small businesses and children and adults with pre-existing conditions - is a good place to begin.

To help you in this work, Community Catalyst's National Health Reform Team will continue to provide you with resources. We will also continue to share updates from Washington, DC and lessons from the states through email updates and the Health Policy Hub (sign up here).

In order to inform our work and help us develop materials that you find most useful, please fill out our online survey. Your feedback and insights are critical to our planning, and we hope you will take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us.

Here are a number of resources focused on planning for implementation, the current legal challenges to the law, and public education and outreach.

Building on the Foundation: Consumer Advocacy's Role in Successful Health Care Reform - This report, funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, outlines the substantial efforts on the state and national levels required to implement health care reform, the key role of consumer advocates, and the vital need for funder participation.
Legal Challenges to Health Care Reform Are Unfounded - This one-pager outlines the reasons the referendums, laws or state constitutional amendments to block national health care reform are without legal merit.
Health Care Reform Will Secure Coverage and Improve Quality of Care - This summary outlines the many strong provisions in the law that will benefit consumers.
Quick Wins: Who Will Be Helped Right Away By the New Health Care Reform Law -This document identifies some of the immediate "wins" from health care reform and talks about who will be helped.
Power Point - This updated PowerPoint presentation clearly demonstrates how the health care reform law will help American families. The presentation can be tailored and used whenever you are conducting public education and outreach.
Talking Points - These updated talking points are designed to help you talk about national health care reform now that it is law and answer questions about legal issues.
Letters to the Editor Templates - Letters placed in local community papers continue to be one of the easiest and most effective ways to communicate the benefits of reform. Share these templates to identify supporters who can tailor and submit them around your state. See a great example of the use of letters to the editor from Texas in response to an anti-reform op-ed from Gov. Rick Perry.

We thank you for your continued hard work and advocacy, and we look forward to partnering with you in working for successful implementation of health care reform

Sincerely,

Community Catalyst National Health Reform Team

How Health Care Reform Helps You

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Talking Points: The real story about the new health care reform law

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Sample Letters to the Editor: Positive Messages About Health Care Reform

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Building on the Foundation: Consumer Advocacy's Role in Successful Health Care Reform

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Building on the Foundation - Updated April 2010, the complete report

Building on the Foundation - Updated April 2010, the Executive Summary

Legal Challenges to Health Care Reform are Unfounded

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Improving the Health of our Communities: Promote the Availability of Healthy Food in All Neighborhoods

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Community Benefits: Protect Consumers and Strengthen Dialogue between Hospitals and Communities

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Protect and Target Federal Funding for Safety Net Hospitals

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Using Data to Track and Reduce Health Disparities in Medicaid

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Promoting Cultural Awareness and Language Assistance in Health Care

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Action Alert: Health Reform Passed!

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Partners:

Yesterday the Senate and House passed the Health and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act - the final piece of this year-long health reform effort. The reconciliation bill includes provisions to strengthen the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Specifically, it lowers premiums and out-of-pocket costs for low- and middle-income families, closes the doughnut hole for seniors, and ensures that existing health insurance plans abide by the new insurance market reforms. Early next week President Obama will sign this final piece of the health care reform package.

Members of Congress voted to make health care reform a reality for America's families. You can find the roll call vote for the reconciliation bill online for both the Senate and the House. We ask that you please be sure your networks and partners know how their Members voted.

As they head home for the Spring Recess, we urge you to thank all Members of Congress for their work in support of health care reform. You have seen and heard the negative reaction, and we need to counter those messages. We cannot stress enough the importance of every positive call, email, visit, and event.

It is also important that we continue to educate the public about what health care reform really means and counter the opposition's misinformation campaign. As advocates, you are strong spokespeople to talk about the benefits of reform, calm people's fears about the changes, and share how this historic law will help real people.

ACTION STEPS:

Make calls: Please engage your networks, staff, colleagues, and friends and ask them to reach out to their Members and say, "Thank you for supporting health care reform."

Write Thank You Notes: Write a personal thank you note or have everyone in your organization sign a card. Send a note of thanks by mail, email or fax.

Plan events: Plan your own or participate in an existing event, whether it's a large rally or a small group visit to the district office to show your appreciation for Members who voted for health care reform.

Write letters to the editor: Members read all the papers in their districts - not only the large papers, but also community dailies and weeklies. Personalize our template letters to the editor and place them in local and state papers. Even if your Members didn't support reform, you can tailor these templates to thank the members of your community who did.

Be a resource to the media and the community: Use our template Expert Advisory and Media Availability to make the media and the public aware of your areas of expertise. Include your partners who can speak about specific issues like seniors, children or small businesses. Reach out to your community by holding forums or attending existing meetings to talk about the implications of health care reform.

Connect with people who will be helped right away: Our ‘Quick Wins' document outlines the immediate changes the law will bring and the kind of people who will be helped. Use this to help start collecting stories and building relationships with people who will personalize the impact of this landmark legislation.

Again, we thank you for all of your amazing work - you made this historic moment possible. Congratulations!

Thank you for your continued advocacy,

The Community Catalyst National Health Reform Team

Quick Wins: Who Will Be Helped Right Away by National Health Care Reform?

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Action Alert: House Passes National Health Care Reform

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Partners:

Today is a historic day. The United States House of Representatives voted in favor of national health care reform. This legislation is a big step toward guaranteed quality, stable, affordable health care. It will slow the growth of health care costs, and improve the quality of care for millions of Americans.

Members of Congress from across the country rose to the occasion on Sunday by voting for the bill. You can find the roll call vote for the Senate-passed language (H.R. 3590) and the accompanying fixes (H.R. 4872) online. We ask that you please be sure your networks and partners know how their Members voted.

We want to express our sincere thanks for the incredible work that you have all done for so many months. You have organized physician petitions, shared daily constituent stories, logged hundreds of small business calls, made countless visits to district offices, tweeted and blogged at all hours of the day, and held so many other activities. You made this historic accomplishment possible, and we at Community Catalyst thank you.

We urge you to both privately and publicly thank the Members who supported the bill, and hold accountable the Members who voted against it. This work is just as important – if not more so – than your work leading up to this historic vote.

ACTION STEPS:

Make calls: Please engage your networks, staff, colleagues, and friends and ask them to reach out to their Members and say, “Thank you for supporting health care reform”.

Issue a statement: Community Catalyst issued this statement about the vote. We developed templates for you to use as well, both for districts whose Member voted in favor of or against the legislation.

Plan events: If you can, pull together an event, whether it’s a large rally or a small group visit to the district office to show your appreciation for Members who stood up for all Americans and voted for health care reform.

Write letters to the editor: A great option for publicly acknowledging your Representative is to place supportive letters to the editor in newspapers. Members read all the papers in their districts – not only the large papers, but also community dailies and weeklies. Personalize our template letters to the editor and place them in local and state papers.

We cannot stress enough the importance of every positive call, email, visit, and event.

We should stop to acknowledge the successful effort and this historic moment, but must also focus on the final vote: the Senate vote to approve the package of fixes through a budget reconciliation vote. We will need to turn our attention to the Senate to encourage quick passage of the reconciliation package.

Again, we thank you for all of your amazing work to date, and for your continued efforts to secure the final vote for guaranteed quality, stable, affordable health care.

Sincerely,

The Community Catalyst National Health Reform Team

Action Alert: The 72-hour clock is ticking down

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Partners:

On Sunday afternoon, the House will take a roll call vote on the national health care reform bill. To help you, here is our summary outlining key points of the bill and the amendment released yesterday. Community Catalyst released this statement about the bill you can use as a template for media outreach.

As you know, it has been a long road to get here, and it is thanks to your great work that we have come this far. The next 48 hours can change the course of health care in this country for millions of families.

You and your networks are absolutely vital to passing this historic legislation. Our job is more urgent than ever.

Again, Congress needs to keep hearing from us! Anti-reform callers and special interests are flooding Members' phone lines. We hear that some of the voicemail boxes are full, so we must use all channels – phone, email, fax, and YouTube (see a powerful example here from Illinois) – to let our Members of Congress know that they need to vote for this bill. Please reach out to your networks and ask everyone to get a message to their Representative.

The urgent messages for Members of Congress continue to be:

Congress needs to pass comprehensive health care reform now; the consequences of doing nothing are too dire.
Time is running out to pass reform; the door is closing on this historic opportunity.
A personal story about why you need health care reform now.
We will support you before, during and after this historic vote.

Families USA has a toll-free number (866-922-4970) to reach the congressional switchboard that you should feel free to use and share with your networks.

The next 48 hours are critical, and our voices cannot be drowned out. Please do whatever you can to gain the momentum necessary to pass this legislation. Every act matters.

Thank you for your continued advocacy. We have never been closer.

Community Catalyst National Health Reform Team

National Health Care Reform Will Secure Coverage and Improve Quality of Care

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Affordability Provisions in the PPACA alone, and with the Amendment

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Sample "Thank You" Letters to the Editor

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Summary of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Reconciliation Amendment

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Fighting Legal Challenges to Health Care Reform

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500