FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Iowa Health Care for America Now Reacts to Massachusetts Special Election Results
Need for Good, Affordable Health Care Is Same Today As It Was Yesterday
Des Moines, Iowa January 20, 2010 -- Iowa Citizen Action Network and Working Families Win as part of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) - the nation's largest health care campaign - released the following statement after Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in Tuesday's special election for the Senate seat in Massachusetts:
Betty Ahrens, Executive Director, Iowa Citizen Action Network:
The need for good, affordable health care for everyone in Iowa and the nation is the same today as it was yesterday. 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.
Health Care for America Now is committed to winning a guarantee of good, affordable health care we all can count on, and we will continue to push aggressively to get the best health care reform bill possible to the President's desk for his signature as quickly as possible. Tuesday's vote was not a referendum on health care reform. It was a referendum on a particular candidate in a climate in which people, hard pressed by the economy, are impatient for change. People are clearly angry and want more change, not less. Congress must keep going and finish health care reform right.
Our nation's health care crisis is not an incremental problem and cannot be fixed with incremental solutions. In survey after survey, voters continue to voice strong support for forcing health insurers to stop excluding people with pre-existing conditions, guaranteeing everyone has access to good, affordable coverage, and requiring health plans to spend premiums on medical care, not profits. All those popular core elements of reform are tied together, and we cannot do one without the others.
Massachusetts has shown that health reform works, with 98% of people covered and insurers not allowed to deny people based on pre-existing conditions. It's time for the rest of the country to have the same access to good, affordable care. We are on track to pass a strong comprehensive bill, and we will stay focused on that until the President signs the bill into law.
Contact:
Amy Logsdon
319-321-7056 (mobile)
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Betty Ahrens
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319.354.8116 ext 105
BettyAhrens@IowaCAN.org
Main Street Alliance small business health care and Health Care for American Now
Sue Dinsdale
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515.277.5077 ext 14
SDinsdale@IowaCAN.org
Health Care for America Now, federal issues and ICAN's election work
Amy Logsdon
Political Director
319.354.8116 ext 106
ALogsdon@IowaCAN.org
About ICAN
Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN) is a grassroots public interest organization and progressive political coalition committed to creating social change in Iowa and across the nation. ICAN has united Iowa's progressives for over 30 years and is leading efforts to change the public climate for progressive change. ICAN has nearly 40 organizational affiliates from a wide range of constituencies, including religious, community, labor, senior, family farm and environmental organizations, and over 6,000 individual members.