Health Care Supporters Call on Iowa Reps to Finish Health Care Now and Finish It Right

Iowa Citizen Action Network, Iowa Main Street Alliance, Working Families Win and lliance for Retired Americans and other concerned citizens as part of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) gathered at the district offices of Representatives Braley and Boswell to remind the Congressman that demand for Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation as soon as possible is as strong as ever.

While Republican Scott Brown won over Democrat Martha Coakley in Massachusetts' special election on Tuesday, in Massachusetts, 98% of people have health care. But the need for good, affordable health care for everyone in Iowa and the nation is the same today as it was before Tuesday. People in Iowa still need to know they will be protected from medical bankruptcy, won't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, and can get good, affordable insurance either through their job or on their own.

Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts did nothing to change the fact that the health care status quo is intolerable for small businesses. We still need Congress to take action now to pass the strongest health reform bill possible and send it to the President as quickly as possible.

Reform advocates and organizers delivered a checkered flag to each Congressman representing the view of their constituents: Congress must keep going and finish health care reform right. This event is part of a national coordinated campaign of actions aimed at showing members of Congress that support for reform is still strong among their constituents.

At Rep. Boswell's office, State Senator Jack Hatch commented that in calls he made to the White House and Iowa's Congressional delegation, his message was, "you need to make it tough, make it strong and make it bold. If you don't, you are betraying Iowans and the American people."

We urged the Congressmen to move forward and finish reform right so we can do what we do best: create jobs, serve our communities and contribute to the economic recovery.

When health care reform is signed into law it will mean the difference between life and death for some -- between financial solvency and bankruptcy for others - and between security and the constant burden of worry for still others. That's not spin. And that's not something that should be used as a bargaining chip in a partisan political battle to determine "which side" wins. Those who seek to do so should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.