Jenny U. from Missouri did what any parent would: When her son needed a kidney, she donated one of hers. But she didn’t realize insurance companies would use her kindness as an excuse to never cover her again, calling her donation a “pre-existing condition.”
My name is David Both and I am currently trying to get healthcare. My job at Cisco Systems went to India and I am currently trying to get coverage under my wife’s healthcare insurance. They tell me I have a “pre-existing condition” but have not specified what it is. They have asked for “proof of continuous coverage” from my ex-employer.
- Why should “continuous coverage” make a difference?
- Why should a “pre-existing condition” make a difference?
These are the abuses that we are fighting to change.
Now, insurance companies are spending millions on a campaign of lies to kill health reform that would help folks like Jenny and me. So, today, with crucial negotiations taking place in Congress, we’re raising our voices and making it clear: It’s time to deliver on reform.
We’ve set a big goal: 100,000 calls to Congress made or committed to in a single day. To hit it, we’ll need your help — will you take 3 minutes to call Congress now?
Call Congress Now
Call your representatives and tell them: It’s Time to Deliver on health reform. If you live in North Carolina’s 13th congressional district with me. Please call:
Sen. Richard Burr’s Rocky Mt office at (252) 977-9522
Sen. Kay Hagan’s Raleigh office at (919) 856-4630, or her Washington, DC office at 202-224-6342
Rep. Brad Miller’s Raleigh office at (919) 836-1313
(Not your representatives? Click here to look yours up.)
Health insurance reform is finally ready for consideration by the full Congress, and hundreds of insurance company lobbyists on Capitol Hill are working overtime to kill it. Calling is quick and easy, but effective — and your voice has tremendous power at this critical moment.
After you make your call, tell the staffer who picks up where you live and that you’re counting on Congress to deliver on health reform. Let them know that Americans like you support the President’s plan — and that if your representatives are working to pass it, they have your thanks.
If we hit 100,000 calls made or committed to, we’ll send an unmistakable signal that this time, families must come before insurance companies. We’ll be tracking progress toward our goal publicly — make sure to report your call back to us so we can count it:
http://my.barackobama.com/TTDCall
The Justice Who Fell From Grace With the Conservatives
How ironic that the conservative Supreme Court Justice Roberts, former darling of the Teapublicans, should be the deciding vote to declare Obamacare to be Constitutional.
And how quickly the ideological right can turn on its own in a self-righteous temper-tantrum when they don’t get their way. Even before the ruling was completely read and understood, the right wing talking heads had declared Roberts a traitor.
Yet Roberts truly did return a very conservative decision—much to the chagrin of the pseudo-conservatives. He said it himself when he wrote “it is not our job to save the people from the consequences of their political choices,” thus refusing to take a political stance and doing his job by making a strictly Constitutional decision. He also wrote: “The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance. … The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance,” even correcting the government’s oral argument for upholding the law from one under the Commerce clause of the Constitution to one under the ability of Congress to levy taxes.
Update: The government did provide a number of written briefs to the court based upon the Congressional ability to levy taxes.
The reason that this is a truly conservative decision, despite the Teapublican protests to the contrary, is that Justice Roberts ruled on strictly Constitutional grounds rather than political ones. And that has the right calling him a traitor.
I guess that they are too politicized to understand what a true conservative really is.
To be fair, I certainly do not agree with all of the decisions made by Justice Roberts or the Supreme court as a whole. And yet another irony is that, while I agree with this particular decision for various reasons, I think the liberal Justices were not incorrect in their reasoning as they would have used the Commerce clause of the Constitution to uphold the law. Justice Ginsburg wrote, “Unlike the market for almost any other product or service, the market for medical care is one in which all individuals inevitably participate. … Virtually every person residing in the United States, sooner or later, will visit a doctor or other health care professional.”
Regardless of which Constitutional clause is used as the foundation for the argument to uphold Obamacare, the United States of America is a better place today because more of our citizens have access to affordable health care—including the Teapublicans.