How Labor, Grassroots Activists Say They Will Help Save Health Care Reform

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4651/how_labor_grassroots_activists_say_they_will_help_save_health_care_reform/

Friday
July 24
3:25 pm

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement Thursday that a vote on health care reform will be delayed until the fall, the conventional wisdom mounted in Washington that President Obama’s health plan is in
deep trouble. Yet the President — and his progressive and labor supporters — aren’t swooning with anxiety over the latest legislative maneuverings.
The President told a town hall meeting in Ohio, as Newsweek reported:

“That’s okay,” he said. “My attitude is I want to get it right, but I also want to get it done promptly, and so long as I see folks working diligently and consistently, then I am comfortable with moving a process forward that builds as much consensus as possible.” Still, he added, “We’ve got to get it done, and we’ve got to get it done soon.” He pressed Congress to get him a bill by “the end of the year.” “I want it done by the fall,” he insisted.

Union health care activists remain confident about passage, in part because of what health care journalist Ezra Klein has called “the left’s suprising organizing advantage.”

This includes the efforts of labor unions on their own and part of such coalitions as Health Care For American Now; these groups are ramping up pressure on Blue Dog House Democrats and centrist Senators, and their obstructionism towards reform.

As The Hill reported:


The powerful senior citizens’ lobby AARP is joining forces with labor unions and liberal organizations to criticize a push by centrist Blue Dog Democrats in the House to reduce insurance subsidies under healthcare reform.

The AARP, the union-backed Health Care for America Now (HCAN), several unions and other allied groups urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and three House committee chairmen to resist making changes to the subsidies in the bill.

Though the letter does not mention the Blue Dogs or any centrist lawmakers by name, the AARP, HCAN and the other groups offer strong support for the health insurance premium subsidies already in the House bill, which are available to people earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level…

A separate statement from HCAN takes on the Blue Dogs directly, saying they are “threatening affordable healthcare” by pressuring House Democratic leaders to dial back a proposed $544 billion surtax on wealthy people and reduce eligibility for the subsidies.

FULL story at link.