congressional progressive, apia, black, and hispanic caucuses unite behind public option in health reform

Representing 117 Members in the House and Senate, four Congressional Caucuses have endorsed a public plan option in any health care reform this year. This is significant victory for progressive health reform advocates; the public plan is enemy #1 for insurance companies and their conservative allies, whereas its exclusion would be a deal breaker for progressives.

The full letters, sent to the Democratic Congressional leadership and President Obama, are available here. The press statement follows:

Press Release

April 28, 2009

Caucuses Unite Behind Public Health Insurance Plan Option

(Washington DC) - In an unprecedented initiative, the leaders of four prominent groups in the 111th Congress - the Progressive Caucus (CPC), the Black Caucus (CBC), the Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and the Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) - have sent a joint letters to President Obama (see below) and the Democratic Leadership of the House and Senate stressing that 'our support for enacting legislation this year to guarantee affordable health care for all firmly hinges on the inclusion of a robust public health insurance plan like Medicare.'

Together, one hundred seventeen Members of the House and Senate belong to at least one of these four congressional caucuses. Hence, their unity in pushing for inclusion of a public health insurance plan like Medicare as part of comprehensive health care reform legislation is a formidable development in the unfolding policy debate inside and outside of Congress.

"As the debate on health care moves forward, we stand together with one voice for the communities that most need this reform," said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Chairwoman of the 24-Member CHC. "With one out of every three Hispanics in our country likely to be uninsured and with so many Latino small business owners, we have to provide all Americans with the choice of a public health insurance plan."

"The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide universal health care," said Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "In a nation with 46 million uninsured individuals, it is time we put in place high quality comprehensive care for all. As we develop healthcare reform legislation, a public health insurance plan like Medicare and Medicaid must be included in order to guarantee equal access to quality affordable healthcare for everyone."

"The importance of this issue is shown through the unity of the four caucuses," said Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, Co-Chair of the CPC. "We represent the most underrepresented communities, in which livelihoods are paralyzed due to health care being set as a privilege. We stand united to ensure health care is a right. A right that is fair and guaranteed for all."

"The American people are united in declaring that our health care system is broken, and that we need to fix it," said Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Co-Chair of the CPC. "With this letter, more than a 100 Members of Congress are sending a message that we share the public's outrage, and that we are committed to confronting this problem and developing a health care system that doesn't leave anyone out. That's why we need to make certain that any final healthcare reform legislation includes the option of a public health insurance plan to ensure that everyone has access to high quality, affordable care."

"For too long, insurance companies have dictated the quality, quantity, and accessibility of healthcare to the American people," said Congressman Mike Honda, Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). "A robust public health insurance plan will ensure true competition with those companies that reap egregious profits, and will present the opportunity to make deep, lasting changes in our healthcare system. A public plan will also provide a framework to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in some of the most underserved communities."

gov. patterson stands up for marriage equality

New York does not yet have marriage equality, but it continues to move in the right direction. Last May, Gov. David Patterson (D-NY) directed New York state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages conducted outside the state. And today, on the 147th anniversary of the Compensated Emancipation Act, Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C. that celebrates the 1862 end of slavery for 3,100 slaves in the District (9 months before the Emancipation Proclamation), Gov. Patterson took another step toward equality and civil rights in the Empire State, declaring his intention to introduce legislation creating marriage equality:

“This is a civil rights issues,” Mr. Paterson said, citing issues like hospital visitations, health insurance coverage and inheritance that are connected with marriage. [...]

Anyone that has ever experienced degradation or intolerance would understand the solemn duty and how important it actually is. Anyone that’s ever experienced antisemitism or racism, any New Yorker who is an immigrant, who has experienced discrimination, any woman who has faced harassment at work or suffered violence at home, any disabled person who has been mocked or marginalized, understands what we’re talking about here. We have all known the wrath of discrimination. We have all felt the pain and the insult of hatred. This is why we are all standing here today. We stand to tell the world that we want equality for everyone. We stand to tell the world that we want marriage equality in New York State.

"This is a civil rights issue."

tx lawmaker tells apias to make their names easier to 'deal with'

State Rep. Betty Brown thinks that Asian Americans should change their names to make it easier for pollworkers to "deal with" (the story's made it's way to the UK's Telegraph, as well):

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

In order to help APIAs out, a kind soul has developed this name generator so that you (and your "citizens") can figure out how to create a "Betty Brown"-approved name that even pollworkers can understand! Here it is: Betty Brown Name Generator.

Mine is "Zeke 'Chicken and Dumplings' Brown."

Hope that helps.

ha!

Too funny, really:



Run, the scary gay people are trying to... do something scary!

Does anyone actually think that this ad is going to be effective at all?

Also, all sorts of lies in there: what exactly are they trying to imply that doctors are going to have to do that will challenge their faith? Allow same-sex spouses to visit their loved ones in the hospital? The horror!

[note: sarcasm works really well on the internet]

vt first state to create marriage equality by legislation!

Breaking, from Vermont:

Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage -- and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.