March 9, 2010
The steadily increasing number of fair trade sales is encouraging and makes a real difference in the lives of many people. But it is still a small percentage of all of the trade happening worldwide. In 2008, nearly $16 trillion worth of merchandise was traded on the world market, according to the World Trade Organization.
Because of this, it is crucial that while holding a mug of fairly traded coffee in one hand, we use our other hand to write a letter to Congress asking for fairer trade rules for everyone.
On Sunday, April 25, we are encouraging congregations across the United States to do just that. This will be the final Sunday of our year-long campaign calling for “Abundant Life: Economic Justice for All.” We hope many churches will choose to pray, reflect and act on that day for trade which prioritizes the common good.
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Posted by Theo Sitther
March 2, 2010
President Obama wrote to Congressional leaders today, outlining several items suggested by Republican lawmakers at last week’s health care summit that he is recommending be incorporated into the reform package:
No matter how we move forward, there are at least four policy priorities identified by Republican Members at the meeting that I am exploring. I said throughout this process that I’d continue to draw on the best ideas from both parties, and I’m open to these proposals in that spirit.
Read the entire letter.
The provisions include:
- Using undercover patients to expose fraud (suggested by Sen. Coburn)
- Allocating $50 million for pilot programs for resolving medical malpractice disputes
- Increasing physician reimbursement rates for Medicaid
- Offering high-deductible/Health Savings Plan options in the exchange
- Removing the special benefits given to Florida and Nebraska
President Obama is expected to give a speech on health care reform tomorrow (Wednesday, March 3) which will likely lay out a legislative process — which, by some indications, could start to move pretty quickly.
For additional resources on health care reform, visit the Abundant Life health care page.
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Posted by Tammy Alexander
February 26, 2010
Faith Letter/Ad: Ahead of Thursday’s bipartisan summit, faith groups placed an ad in The Hill Newspaper calling on the President and Congress to have the courage, vision, leadership, and faith to move meaningful health care reform forward. Nearly 150 national and state/regional organizations signed the letter in the ad, along with 26 national faith leaders.
Bipartisan Summit: While there was certainly a fair bit of political theatre at times, with legislators on both sides reading talking points and spouting divisive rhetoric, there was also a good bit of constructive debate at yesterday’s bipartisan summit – particularly, around issues such as waste, fraud and abuse; minimum standards for insurance policies in the exchange; medical malpractice; and the need for better coordination of care, particularly for those with chronic illnesses. One issue where there was difficulty reaching agreement, was on the issue of coverage:
John Boehner, I looked at your bill; I think, as I said, there’s some overlap on some issues. But when it comes to the coverage issue, the Congressional Budget Office says yours would potentially increase coverage for 3 million people and the efforts of the House and the Senate would cover 30 million… We can have an honest disagreement as to whether we should try to give some help to those 27 million people who don’t have coverage… And it may be that the other side just feels as if, you know what, it’s just not worth us doing that. But one of the things I hope we don’t do is to pretend that somehow, for free, we’re going to be able to get those 30 million people covered. We’re not. If we think it’s important as a society to not leave people out, then we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for it. If we don’t, then we should acknowledge that we’re not going to do that.
— President Barack Obama
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Leave a Comment » | Abundant Life, Capital Quotes, Health Care, Legislative Updates, Sign-on Letters | Tagged: Health Care, health care reform | Permalink
Posted by Tammy Alexander
February 23, 2010
On Monday, President Obama released his proposal for completing health care reform. The comprehensive plan appears to reflect deliberations in January between House and Senate negotiators working to craft a compromise bill. The proposal is extensive and could serve as a starting point for a budget reconciliation bill (which would need only 50 votes to pass in the Senate). Such a “fix” bill would be passed in conjunction with House passage of the Senate bill.
For an extensive analysis of the bill, read Tim Jost’s two blog posts in Health Affairs. As Jost points out, even though the President has put forth his proposal, this does not exclude Republican ideas from being incorporated into the health care package (indeed, many have been already). Changes can still be made through the reconciliation process or possibly through a separate bipartisan bill. However, as Jost states, this is the only realistic path forward:
The president’s approach of merely putting out reconciliation language is […] politically realistic. It should be clear to everyone that simply starting over with a clean slate is not politically feasible at this point. A year’s work has gone into the pending legislation, and this Congress has neither the time nor the good will to do it all over again.
Here is a very brief summary of the provisions in the President’s proposal:
- No public option
- State exchanges (Senate bill) rather than national (House bill)
- Expands eligibility for Medicaid to 133% of the federal poverty line (House bill was 150%) – 133% FPL is $14,404 for an individual and $29,327 for a family of four
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Posted by Tammy Alexander
February 12, 2010
But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure. (Romans 8: 25)
There are several items to report on this week:
Faith Sign-On Letter: Add your voice to those calling on Congress to keep working on health care reform. Faithful Reform in Health Care is taking individual and organizational signatures through next Friday, Feb. 19.
New Poll: A new Washington Post/ABC poll shows that 63% of Americans want Congress to keep working on health care reform. This includes 88% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 42% of Republicans.
Summit: Before the Super Bowl on Sunday, President Obama announced a bipartisan summit on health care to take place on February 25. Republican leaders are urging the president to start “by shelving the current health spending bill.” Read more.
California HMO raises premiums 39%: As another stark reminder of why health care reform is needed, Anthem Blue Cross announced they will raise rates by as much as 39% for individual policies.
Insurance Industry Reports Record Profits: At the same time premiums are being hiked and millions are losing insurance, the biggest health insurance companies increased their profits by 56% in 2009.
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Posted by Tammy Alexander
February 5, 2010
Finishing the Job
We’ve got to finish the job on health care. We’ve got to finish the job on financial regulatory reform. We’ve got to finish the job, even though it’s hard.
– President Obama speaking to Senate Democrats at their annual issues retreat on Wednesday
There seems to be some momentum growing for taking the path forward where the House would pass the Senate bill and both chambers would pass a package of “fixes” which the Senate would process through budget reconciliation (requiring only 51 votes for passage). Several senators made public comments in support of the reconciliation option this week.
The House is not likely to immediately vote to pass the Senate bill. Progressive members would first like to see the Senate at least start to work on, and maybe pass, a reconciliation bill before the House passes the Senate reform bill. Also, there are still concerns that some changes can’t be accomplished through reconciliation. Read more in this Health Affairs blog post from Tim Jost.
Spring deadline?
Because the language which allows for budget reconciliation was passed with the FY2010 budget bills, once Congress starts passing FY2011 budget bills, as early as April, the budget reconciliation language would expire. It’s uncertain whether there would be the votes to put reconciliation language in the FY2011 bills. As such, there is now talk of spring as a deadline for finishing health care reform (the one major caveat being that budget bills are often passed late, if at all, in an election year).
Could the Public Option make a comeback?
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Posted by Tammy Alexander
January 29, 2010
1/29 Virtual Vigil – Call your members of Congress today!
On Monday, 56 national and state faith organizations, including the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office, sent a letter to Congress, urging members to move forward with comprehensive health insurance reform.
As people of faith, we envision a society where every person is afforded health, wholeness and human dignity. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we just commemorated, famously wrote in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” Less well known is his admonition that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Read the entire letter.
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address, renewing his call for Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform:
By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.
Thus far, there have been no positive signs from either the House or the Senate that legislation will be moving soon. Leaders in both houses are pledging to act but giving few specifics (read more).
Join the push for real health care reform. Call your members of Congress today!
For additional resources on health care reform, visit the Abundant Life health care page.
Leave a Comment » | Abundant Life, Action Alerts, Capital Quotes, Health Care, Legislative Updates, News Stories, Sign-on Letters | Permalink
Posted by Tammy Alexander
January 22, 2010
ACTION ALERT: Pass the Senate Health Care Bill
Where to begin… On Tuesday, the special election to fill Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts resulted in a victory for Republican Scott Brown. This means that the Democrats will no longer have a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Which means that the path health care reform was taking – House-Senate negotiations on a “merged” bill and subsequent votes in the House and the Senate – has been, quite frankly, derailed. A few options remain:
(1) The House could pass the Senate bill as is and send that bill to the President. Pros: many major reforms would be enacted; 31 million uninsured would get health insurance. Cons: many of the provisions in the Senate bill are weaker, most notably the Medicaid expansion and subsidies to low-income individuals (there is a possibility these could be fixed in a budget “reconciliation” process).
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Posted by Tammy Alexander
January 20, 2010
On Friday, January 15th, Vice President
Biden announced in New Orleans the administration’s plans to support recovery. These plans, focused on alleviating housing burdens, bring two pieces of good news for the area:
- approximately 100 local governments which borrowed federal funds for recovery purposes (due to be repaid by 2011) are being granted the opportunity to apply for either full or partial forgiveness and;
- $29.7 million from last year’s stimulus funds will be given to rehabilitate existing homes and apartments which are currently inhabitable.
Both forgiveness of loans and the new funds will allow New Orleans to emphasize rehabilitating housing units that were damaged in the hurricanes. Nearly 31% of New Orleans homes are unoccupied because of such damage. Although this percentage has decreased slightly in recent years, it still reveals the depth of need for rehabilitation of existing apartments and houses.
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Leave a Comment » | Abundant Life, Gulf Coast, U.S. Economic Justice | Tagged: Abundant Life, Biden, housing, New Orleans, recovery, renters, Section 8 | Permalink
Posted by Christina Warner
