Domestic Weekly Update December 1, 2009
New and Urgent in This Week’s Update
Latest from Washington, DC, and Beyond
Organizational Reminders and Updates
Senate Health Care Debate Begins (November Action)The Senate is back from the Thanksgiving holiday, after voting 60 to 39 on November 21 to move ahead with debate on health care reform. On Monday, debate began but no significant votes were taken. The Senate debate is expected to last several weeks, potentially up to or beyond the December holiday recess. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released an analysis of the Senate’s Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act that provides some good news for advocates for reform. The analysis shows that the average health insurance premium for people receiving premium subsidies in the new health insurance exchange would be nearly 60 percent lower than current law. Since about 57 percent of those in the exchange will be eligible for subsidies, these means a huge decrease in premium costs for a majority of exchange enrollees. For those in the exchange who do not qualify for subsidies, premiums would increase 10–13 percent according to the CBO. For those who have employer-based insurance, premium could see slight increases (about 1 percent) or slight decreases (0–3 percent). In addition, a new report by Families USA highlights the cost of not passing meaningful health reform. In February, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), aka the economic recovery bill. Included in the bill were temporary subsidies for people on COBRA. COBRA allows employees who have lost their jobs to stay on their former employer’s health insurance plan for 18 months, however, the former employee is responsible for the full cost of the monthly premium. Because of the economic downturn and rising unemployment, ARRA provided subsidies for nine months, which cover 65 percent of the premium amount, for persons who lost their jobs between September 2008 and December 2009. For many people, their subsidies ended yesterday. Families USA estimates that for those who have lost their subsidies, their monthly COBRA premiums could easily triple. For example, for a person in Missouri, their average monthly COBRA premium is $365 with the subsidy; without it, the premium jumps to $1,044. This is yet another sign of the desperate need for health reform in America and the need for the benefits of reform to begin immediately. Let’s do all we can to see that it happens. Votes on amendments to the Senate health bill are expected to begin this week. Keep your networks prepared to act at any time during these next several weeks as key votes come up on possible amendments concerning Medicaid, community health centers, the public health insurance option, and single-payer option. RESULTS will keep you up-to-date on the debate and let you know by e-mail or phone when calls are needed and what to say. TAKE ACTION: After weeks of delay, it’s go time. The Senate debate has started and key amendments are sure to come up soon. Let your networks know that calls will be needed throughout December if we are going to get a strong health reform bill passed. See the November Action for details on building a community action network for health reform. Also, please see our updated Laser Talk that features the exchange between RESULTS staff person Jos Linn and RESULTS volunteer Ted Meyers on the November national conference call. You can use all or parts of this exchange in engaging others in health reform advocacy. Preview of December Health Care Action — Use Media and Social Networking to Influence the Senate Health DebateThe RESULTS Domestic December Action will be available later this week on our U.S. Poverty Actions and News page. As the health reform debate moves to the Senate, we want to keep the pressure on senators to strengthen the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. In addition to activating your community action networks during the debate per the November Action, we urge you to generate media in support of passing a strong bill out of the Senate. This includes traditional RESULTS work of generating op-eds and letters to the editor, as well as using new media like blog commenting and Facebook to generate support. Our action sheet will provide you with tips on how to use these new media tools and what messages to convey. Remember, we are urging senators to support amendments that strengthen and expand the Medicaid program as in House’s Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R.3962), including:
See our updated grid below for a comparison between the House-passed bill and the Senate Finance Committee bill with respect to RESULTS health reform priorities:
TAKE ACTION: Take the December Action when it becomes available by generating media in support of passing a strong Senate health reform bill. As mentioned above, activate your community action networks as key amendment votes come up during the Senate debate. This is a two pronged approach to influencing the Senate — by making direct appeals to senators via phone calls and public pressure through the media for a strong Senate health reform bill. Finally, thank you to all of you who have had conference call meetings with House and Senate aides this fall. Your hard work has indeed paid off, as we are on the brink of an historic expansion of health coverage for America’s most vulnerable persons. If you have upcoming calls scheduled, please see our November 23 Weekly Update for messaging to House and Senate aides. Fundraising UpdateFall Fundraising Campaign — $30,000 Challenge Grant Throwdown! Yep, that’s right. A very generous new donor to RESULTS Educational Fund has thrown out a $30,000 challenge grant to inspire our groups and donors to jump on board the fundraising bandwagon! This is a dollar-for-dollar match. The two requirements are that donations have to be made to RESULTS Educational Fund in November or December and it needs to be new money. “New money” means it must be over and above the amount that you gave last year, or brand new donors. If you’ve already made your gift for this year, but want to take advantage of this match, you can. If you’re a monthly sponsor and you want to make an additional one-time gift now, we can apply it to this matching challenge. If you haven’t made a gift in 2009, it will apply as long as it is above last year’s gift. As long as it’s more than what you gave last year and it’s done between now and the end of the December, it qualifies! For your friends, family, and colleagues — the same rules apply. So if you’ve never sent out a fundraising letter to your friends and family, this is a great time to offer them an amazing opportunity to make their money go farther and engage a whole new crop of donors into the exciting work of RESULTS and REF. Remember, this challenge only applies to new donations made in November and December 2009. Therefore, your Friends and Family letters should go out no later than December 4 so as to give people time to return them by December 31! PLEASE REMEMBER: If you make a donation for the challenge or ask your friends and family, please write or ask them to write “Matching Challenge Donation” in the memo line of the check or in the comments box on our online donation form. Resources To Help Your Fundraising Activities. Use our House Party Toolkit and Letter Writing Toolkit to plan your fundraising activities. Also, you can include Mini annual reports in your letters and at your events (see our full Annual Report for 2008 as well). We also have RESULTS/REF thank you cards available for follow-up to your activities. If you would like us to send you copies, please e-mail Cynthia Stancil at cstancil@results.org. Fundraising Support. In need of some support? Please contact Stacy Carkonen to commiserate, cajole, plan, scheme, yell, scream, or sing about your fundraising needs. scarkonen@results.org. Quick NewsThe National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) asks for calls in support of funding the National Housing Trust Fund. NLIHC says please call your representative and both of your senators today. Tell them you want at least $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund before Congress adjourns later in December. Urge them to support any bill moving through the House or Senate that contains money for the NHTF. Let them know that providing money for the NHTF will create needed jobs. Every $1 billion investment in the NHTF, at $100,000 per unit of housing, will create 15,100 construction jobs and 3,800 jobs in ongoing operations. Also, the NHTF will support local economies as low income families can afford to spend more money on goods and services when they are not spending half or more of their income on housing. Call toll free at (877) 210-5351. Food Stamp Usage Reaches Record High. The New York Times reports, “With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.” The program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), now serves 36 million people. The program is now expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day. About 1/3 of those eligible are not on the program. Bread for the World Institute (BFWI) releases annual hunger report, On November 23, BFWI released Hunger 2010: A Just and Sustainable Recovery. The report warns that unless the triple threats of hunger, unemployment, and climate change are addressed, any economic recovery will only lead to another bubble. In the United States, 49.1 million people struggle to put food on the table. One in four children live “on the brink of hunger.” The report stresses the need to put people back to work. The report is available on line at www.bread.org/hungereport. AnnouncementsUpdated RESULTS PowerPoint on Health Reform Now Available! Want to re-educate yourself on RESULTS health care work in 2009? Want to provide a great recourse for your community action networks on health reform? Use our updated Health Reform 2009 PowerPoint presentation for yourself and others as the health reform debate moves forward. You can download the presentation at: http://www.results.org/images/uploads/files/2009_health_care_for_all.ppt. Thanks to RESULTS Domestic intern Ann Beltran for updating the PowerPoint to reflect the latest developments. Help RESULTS Add 500 New Facebook Friends. Facebook is an excellent tool for nonprofits like RESULTS to organize, mobilize, and educate volunteers, partners and the general public. The RESULTS Facebook page keeps everyone connected and updated on the latest RESULTS news and events. The more friends we have, the more we can spread our message and grow our movement to end global poverty. We currently have almost 300 friends but we know we can add 500 more with your help. Suggest to your friends to add RESULTS to their friends list. Simply paste http://www.facebook.com/RESULTS.org?ref=ts#/RESULTS.org?ref=ts&suggestfriends into your browser and a window will appear that will allow you to connect your friend to RESULTS. Selected friends will get a suggestion from you to add RESULTS as a friend; it’s that easy! For questions about Facebook, please contact Eric Harris (eharris@results.org). Check out the RESULTS blog! Did you know that RESULTS has blog on our new website? Check it out here. If you find something you like, please be sure to post a comment. Online Activist Resources. See the newest edition of the RESULTS Advocate online. Also, check out our new and improved Activist Milestones, Outreach Action Sheets to engage others in your community in action around health reform, and updated Faith in Action Newsletter Action Inserts. Upcoming Events(Click to see a complete calendar) December 12: RESULTS Combined Global and Domestic Monthly Conference Call, 2:00 pm ET. December 15: 2010 Domestic Campaigns Conference Call. Plan to join us for a discussion of possible 2010 Domestic legislative campaigns. We want your input on what issues we should work on next year. Save the date! Tuesday, December 15, at 7:30 pm ET, (218) 486-1611, passcode 2883622#. Also, if you already have ideas that just can’t wait about possible 2010 domestic campaigns, please e-mail Meredith Dodson (dodson@results.org) with your ideas. December 24–January 3: RESULTS offices closed. June 20–22, 2010: RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference, Washington Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC. RESULTS Contact InformationMain Office: (p) (202) 783-7100, (f) (202) 783-2818, 750 First Street NE, Suite 1040, Washington DC 20002. Domestic Legislative and Grassroots Support Staff: Meredith Dodson, x116 (dodson@results.org); Alan Gold, x106 (gold@results.org); Jos Linn, (515) 288-3622 (jlinn@results.org). Grassroots Fundraising Support: Stacy Carkonen, (206) 715-4986 (scarkonen@results.org). The RESULTS Domestic Update is sent out every Tuesday over e-mail to RESULTS volunteers and allies all over the country. The purpose of these updates is to inform and activate RESULTS activists to take action on our domestic campaigns. |