Promoted by Steven D, with minor edits.
This one should make you just happy as someone about to face a firing squad.
If we don’t do our best to contact our Senators and congress critters, and any part of this criminal legislation passes, 85 million people will find that they no longer have the health care coverage that they thought their Health Insurance afforded them, and there will be, of course new higher prices for what little coverage you get.
This idiot criminal, a Senator from Wyoming, Enzi, has a bill before the Senate to do away with ALL STATE REGULATIONS that govern health insurance. And have added the provision that any state, or states Attorney General that makes any law or regulation contravening this new Federal Law, or fail to comply with this law, will be taken to court by the Insurance Co.
Oh it’s a beauty, this one is.
Families USA Please follow the link to read about this in depth.
S. 1955, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization Act (HIMMA), was introduced by Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) and is slated for a floor vote in the U.S. Senate the week of May 8. This legislation, if enacted, will strip away almost all state-enacted consumer protections for people buying insurance individually or through their employers.
Though the bill’s alleged purpose is to make insurance affordable for small businesses, its reach is far greater than that: States will no longer be able to mandate coverage of benefits, services, or categories of providers for individuals, small groups, or large groups. Premium rating protections, enacted by states to make small group insurance more affordable to older and sicker workers, will be set aside. Insurers will be allowed to sue states that do not comply. The bill sets a ceiling on, but no floor under, what states can do to protect insurance consumers.
Here is some more helpful information:
What You Can Do to Counter Enzi Supporters and Protect Our Health Care
The Enzi bill would jeopardize the health care of 85 million Americans by overriding existing state laws that guarantee coverage of such crucial services as cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancer screenings, mammograms, mental health, well-child care, and many others.
Here’s what you can do:Call your Senators: We had a wildly successful National Call-In Day on May 3rd, when more than 13,000 Americans called theirs Senators in opposition to the Enzi bill. So we’ve declared a Second National Call-In Day for Monday, May 8th.
Call Your Senators, Toll-Free:
1-800-828-0498 (it’s not to late to call them TODAY!)If calling isn’t your thing, you can also e-mail your Senators here. We expect a vote will probably happen on Wednesday.
Support your Attorney General. As part of the wide front of opposition forming against this bill, 41 state attorneys general signed a letter opposing it. In this impressive letter, the AGs noted:
“Consumers rightfully expect their state government to require a minimum of health benefit protections and to protect them from abuse by health care insurers. Elimination of strong health protections in exchange for weak federal oversight fails consumers.”
Now, supporters of the Enzi bill are striking back, attacking the state attorneys general for doing their job–protecting our health care.
The National Federation of Independent Business issued a press release attacking the state attorneys general for opposing the bill, sending an “error-filled letter” and “misleading” legislators. The accompanying letter sent to the AGs goes on to make the same discredited arguments about Enzi we’ve heard before. A thorough debunking of these arguments, courtesy of the National Partnership for Women and Families, can be found here.
Do you live in one of these states?Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
If so, your state AG signed this letter, and s/he needs your support! Take a minute to call your AG and thank him/her for opposing the Enzi bill. You can use the Web site of the National Association of Attorneys General to find your AG’s contact info.
There is a 12 page pdf that explains this travesty in detail. It is worth your time to read it.
If you are already well informed on this and have taken action, Thanks! If you are like me and find yourself drowning in one damn criminal action after another by these robber barons and hard to keep up with everything, then this is a reminder to call or email NOW.
Done. I am a small business owner who covers two individuals with health conditions that make insurance extremely costly. But without state law in Texas which mandates coverage for small groups, it would not be available to us at any cost.
Minnesota requires insurance companies in this state to be non-profit. This is definitely not a panacea (for instance, our AG is currently taking providers to account for things like enormous reserve funds and sky-high CEO salaries), but I do think it helps a little. I wonder if the bill would outlaw this restriction. Anyone know??
And Maryland just passed a law that required large employers in the state (10,000 or more employees) to provide certain levels of healthcare benefits to their employees — nicknamed the Wal*Mart bill, because (by some ODD coincidence) Wal*Mart is the only large employer who doesn’t already do so voluntarily.
Good lord, everytime you blink, there’s a new utter outrage going on… Someone needs to remind insurance companies that their reason for EXISTING is not to collect premiums and make profits, but to PAY CLAIMS. Any profit they make on top of that purpose is gravy, not a God-given right.
Is it just me or do they keep all the outrages coming just to keep us outraged? How can we possibly keep up with each and every new criminal act by these fascists? Every day I receive new emails/petitions. I think they do it on purpose so they can keep us off the big ones. I am probably not saying this right. I am so frustrated right now. It is as if they want to keep us frightened all the time. Disgusting.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Shirls!
It began with Part D. Now that insurance legislation is pending, people are getting ready to do something.
Seems to me that the attitude of some was, so what if people with disabilities and senior citizens don’t have health insurance–it’s their problem not mine.
I have been writing about Part D for MONTHS. And I would be really curious as to find out if anyone has really done anything.
Now, others are going through the same fears that I have been dealing with and panicking and expecting me to contact my congresscritters???
Put yourself in my place, and you will have the answer.
I have send my email as well. It just continues to amaze me how many different ways the health care insurance industry will try to get MORE MONEY and provide LESS SERVICES every time you turn around. I also emailed the Florida Commissioner for the Office of Insurance Regulations to thank him for writing against passage of this HEALTH INSURANCE drafted bill!
It is very important to note this bill is driving something larger than just health care. It is trying to establish a way to reduce a state’s ability to control business. It always about the MONEY!
It seems that more and more Rethugs are opposing state’s rights. Perhaps the Dems need to sing it loud and clear that they want to prtect state’s rights and that you can no longer trust the Rethugs to do so.
He owned a shoe store in Sheridan WY (maybe he still does, don’t know) called NZ shoes. Walmart changed the landscape of Sheridan retail though. Work in Sheridan when I moved there as a kid in 1977 wasn’t easy to come by and he took advantage of anybody who seemed desperate for a job. Desperate people are so much easier to abuse and he paid slave wages while selling all of the best brands of shoes to be had to the local wealthy minority who paid big bucks and considered it a status symbol to buy his shoes. He was insane about the length of time one could be on break or when one could legally take a break or have lunch. One of my stepmother’s worked for him very briefly coming out of a bad marriage trying to survive with three kids. She was exactly the kind of desperate that he loved to take advantage of but she didn’t stay long and she pegged him immediately and completely despised him and it was a fairly small town. Many years later I would take a weekend Leadership course with his daughter. She is sweet and a special education teacher and just adores her father to no end and I believe that he feels the same for her. It was when he was thinking about running for the Senate and I remember thinking to myself “Dear God, please don’t let that greedy evil bastard get in!” But it is Wyoming and he did. It is so tough too meeting someone who is the daughter of someone who is so contemptible and finding her so appealing. He had taken the same Leadership course a few months earlier and was so inspired by it that it fueled his decision to run for Senate….obviously though he didn’t a learn a fucking thing that weekend that he put to long term use. He just used it and now he’s going to abuse it!
Thanks Steven D for bringing this info front and center, and thanks for the edits. I appologize for being so late to the party today, but I was still up at 4 am before I finally got to sleep. If any of the links dont work, I am sorry, but I was having computer problems and was not able to get them working.
I am as outraged as the rest of you have expressed. It does seem like they just keep hitting us with one thing after another to the point that we can hardly keep up with it all. I will be so glad to see this cabal go, and please, dear God, make it SOON!
So apparently States Rights are only worth protecting insofar as they affect matters of personal sexuality and people with higher degrees of melanin production than others.
I think you’ve got it. It’s the game with ever changing rules, and they get to make all the rules.
I will give you the same answer as I received when addressing my concerns about Part D–wait until after the mid-terms.