Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer -- Memo to Congress - You're Forced to Choose
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:49:53 EST
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Memo to Congress: On Health Care Vote You Must Choose  Between Insurance 
Companies and Average  Americans 

Memo: 11/6/09 
To: Democratic Members of Congress 
Re: Your Vote on Health Insurance Reform 
When you cast your vote this weekend on the historic health care reform  
bill, you will be faced with a simple, clear choice: cast a vote for average  
Americans, or for health insurance companies.   
The stark clarity of the choice is obvious to most Americans, but it has  
not yet come into focus for some of your colleagues.  Yesterday I spoke with 
several  Democratic Members who professed to still be studying the “details”
 of the bill  and pondering their decision.  
The health care reform measurers have been debated and discussed in  
Congressional Committees, articles and columns, town meetings, and millions of  
discussions throughout America for six months.  Time for dithering is over.  
Now – in the words of the old union  anthem -- Members of Congress have to 
decide which side they are on.  
Only one small group of Americans  would benefit economically from the 
defeat of the House health insurance reform  bill: the private insurance 
industry.    They want to be free to  continue raising premiums four times faster 
than wages.  They don’t want the government to  prevent them from denying 
coverage to people who get really sick or have  pre-existing conditions. Their 
profits and CEO salaries and bonuses have been  heading skyward even in the 
midst of the recession.  
They love being exempt from the anti-trust laws and the freedom that  gives 
them to divide up insurance markets and raise prices without the fear of  
serious competition. They are thrilled that, according to an AMA study, 94% 
of  insurance markets are “non-competitive.”  Health insurance companies 
love things  just the way they are. 
Of course if, like CIGNA Insurance CEO Ed Hanway, you made $12.2 million  a 
year ($5,553 per hour), you might also like things the way they are. Like 
the  insurance industry, you too might have spent tens of millions of dollars 
trying  to frighten senior citizens, confuse your colleagues and promote 
right wing  myths like “death panels.”  
The House stands on the brink of passing historic legislation that  creates 
a public health insurance option that will end the stranglehold of the  
insurance industry on our health care system.  For the first time, the bill 
will make  health insurance available to almost everyone in America –  allowing 
our country to join the ranks of every other developed nation in making  
health care a right.  
The battle to make health care a right in America has gone  on for almost a 
century.  At every  turn, measures to do so have been blocked by special 
interests that were capable  of convincing enough Members of Congress that the 
favors they could do, the  campaign contributions they could make, the 
misinformation and fear they could  spew, meant more than the lives of the 
22,000 people who die each year because  they don’t have insurance. Or that those 
things meant more than the financial  ruin that is visited upon million of 
Americans for no fault of their own except  they had the misfortune of 
getting seriously ill. 
What is at stake in the vote this weekend is a question of values.  Do we 
value the wealth and power of a  set of large corporations more than the 
lives and welfare of our families, our  friends and our neighbors?  
Many of your colleagues in Congress will wish that one provision or the  
other of this legislation were different.  But in the end, each of you is now 
forced to make only one choice: will  you vote with the insurance industry 
or with everyday Americans.   
And there is no political excuse for any Democrat.  We’ve all seen the 
polling.  The elements of insurance reform –  especially the public option and 
provisions to prevent denial of coverage due to  pre-existing conditions – 
are popular everywhere. In every corner of  America, the insurance companies 
are  right down there at the bottom of the popularity heap with Wall Street 
Banks and  Jack the Ripper.   
And something else.  If  Democrats lose on health insurance reform, the 
Members who will pay the price  are those in the most marginal districts -- the 
same way they did after the  failure of health care reform in 1994. The 
political fortunes of Democrats in  swing districts depends on the popularity 
of the President and the Democratic  brand – and that hinges on the success 
of health insurance reform.  The fact is that just as a rising tide  raises 
all boats, so a receding political tide leaves those in the shallowest  
political water aground. 
Finally, here is a news flash:  not one of the “tea party” gang that came 
to the Capitol yesterday has  any intention whatsoever of ever voting for a 
Democrat – whether or not you vote  for health insurance reform. They are 
the hard core of the Republican right that  has managed to hijack their own 
party and convert it into a club that talks to  each other rather than the 
American people. 
There is no reason, no excuse,  for any Democrat to vote no on health care 
reform.  
And there is one more reason why every Member should vote “aye.”  This is 
one of the most historic votes  you will ever take.  Would you have  wanted 
to tell your grandchildren that you were one of the few Democrats that  
voted against Social Security, or Medicare, or the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?  This 
is the same kind of  vote. 
Don’t be on the wrong side of  history.  Leave a legacy that  will make you 
proud for generations to come. This weekend, vote yes for health  insurance 
reform. 
P.S.: For those of you that are not Members of Congress –  call your Member 
right now -- the moment you stop reading this article –  and tell them to 
vote yes on health care  reform.  Many Members have  instructed their staffs 
to count the number of calls they get on each side as we  approach the vote. 
 Weigh in with  your vote right now. 
Robert Creamer is a long-time political  organizer and strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  “Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can  Win,” 
available on _Amazon.com._ (http
://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213241439&sr=8
-1) 

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