Hello Health Care for America Now Partners,

It was pretty great to have 1.5 million of our closest friends join us here in Washington, DC for the inauguration this week. We were all inspired at this historic event. President Obama recommitted himself to comprehensive health care reform in his speech to the record crowds. Now we can get started on making this campaign promise a reality.

In this week's newsletter:

HCAN weighs in the Economic Recovery

HCAN sent a letter to key members of Congress to express our support for key measures in the Economic Recovery Act that will be likely voted on in the House next week. The letter detailed the parts of the package that focus on health care, including:

Read the full letter here.

Like SCHIP, these actions in the Economic Recovery Act only highlight the need the need for comprehensive reform because as people become more economically vulnerable, they should not have to worry about also losing access to health care.

SCHIP moves to the Senate

As early as next week, the Senate will vote on a bill that will protect the health care coverage of 6 million children across America and give desperately needed health care coverage to 4 million more. This bill has already cleared the House and a Senate committee with the important provision to cover all legal immigrant children.

TAKE ACTION

Make sure your Senator knows to vote yes on SCHIP in its current form with no amendments. You can contact your Senators here - or share this link with your email list:

Click here to call your Senators!

 
Update from the General Membership Meeting

Yesterday, over 100 Health Care for America Now partners called in to hear a briefing on the HCAN congressional strategy, and some guiding examples from the field campaign to get advice on how to move forward. You can download the power point presentation from the meeting here.

On the call we heard from HCAN participants around the country. Here are their stories:

Kelly Conklin, Small Business Owner, New Jersey
After 30 years of running a small business that provides health care to the employees, Kelly and his wife are ready for health care reform that will provide them with some relief from high costs. They joined the NJ Main Street Alliance, and assisted in the launch of the  first report, "Taking the Pulse of Main Street." They got a lot of good state coverage in the media. They will continue to work with the Main Street Alliance to raise the voices of small business especially around the need for a public plan.

Lettie Oliver, AFSCME, Indiana
Together AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Jobs With Justice, and ACORN have used their power in coalition to build and ongoing relationship with the members of Congress, Ellsworth, Donnelly, and Hill. After many conversations, Donnelly's staff said they will send a letter of support. It has taken a lot of persistence, and relationship building to get to this point, and there is still a lot of work to do. However, it is important to keep these relationships with Members of Congress in order to make the case for our principles when it comes time for them to vote.

Rikki Henderson, Community Organizer, Forward Montana
HCAN is working to build a grassroots movement in Montana to hold their members of Congress accountable. During the election Forward Montana staff took public opinion polls on health care at polling places and recruited volunteers for the post election campaign. Now they are canvassing with volunteers, knocking on doors giving information and collecting feedback, and recruiting more volunteers to build the grassroots movement to keep the members in line.

Rev. Steve Copley, United Methodist Church, Arkansas  
In Arkansas there are great relationships between faith-based groups, labor, and community organizations. When they came to Rep. Marion Berry as a group early in the campaign and with a unified message asked him to sign on to the HCAN principles, he immediately said yes. Consequently, he became the first Member of Congress to sign on. This is a testament to power of strong coalitions, and they will continue to work on other members in this relatively conservative state.