Local volunteers hit phones for reform

campaign: Group joins national effort urging supporters of health care bill to contact Congress

BRAD SHANNON; The Olympian | • Published October 21, 2009

Comments (0)

photos Photos

OLYMPIA – Activist Jill Lynch recently set up a bank of phones for Olympia volunteers to call voters and drum up support for health care reform by the Democratic-controlled Congress.

The local effort was part of a national push led by a couple of Democratic-allied groups in which voters were asked to call their members of Congress and demand action.

“It’s time to deliver now. We’re in the final stretch and debating what would be the final bill,” said Lynch, an Olympia resident and mother of three. “I want to see the plan that President Obama outlined passed. And the best way to achieve the cost plan would be a viable public option.”

Twenty-five phone banks were up and running Tuesday in the state, said Joshua Welter, an organizer with the labor-backed advocacy group Washington Community Action Network. He said groups including Organizing for America, Health Care for America NOW! and Planned Parenthood Votes organized the calls and that by late afternoon, national efforts had spurred 100,000 calls to members of Congress from voters contacted by the activists.

Lynch’s effort drew about 20 volunteers to a real estate office on Olympia’s west side, where people called likely supporters. They had a goal of making at least 500 calls and were targeting voters in the 3rd and 9th Congressional districts.

One of those volunteers was Thomasine Greer of Lacey, a cancer survivor who said her premiums increased from about $70 to $700 after she left the federal work force and before Medicare kicked in. She said that experience made her a strong supporter of a public option for health care.

“We have received I’d say hundreds of phone calls today. I know a number of them are coming from Organizing for America,” said Alex Glass, communications director for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat who wants to see a public-run insurance option for consumers that is part of a Senate health committee bill.

The Senate Finance Committee version lacks the public option, and Welter said the Health Care for America Now campaign studied how the two options would financially affect Washington residents. The campaign claims that the bill initiated by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy would be cheaper for a typical family or business than the Senate Finance version.

The report stated that a family with the state median income of $67,004 a year would pay $1,498 less per year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

Lynch said she was motivated by her own experiences with health insurance. After her second child was born, she left a union job to be with the children, then struggled to find an affordable health plan each year.

Premiums and out-of-pocket costs have risen each year, and Lynch estimated that the “catastrophic,” high-deductible plan has cost her family $12,000 to $13,000 a year in premiums and out-of-pocket costs, even without a prescription-drug benefit.

“It has been years since I took the kids for ‘well checks’ because they are too expensive for us,” she wrote in a note sent to The Olympian. “There is never a time when I am not paying for outstanding medical bills. At present, I am making payments to four different doctors for unavoidable trips to doctors and specialists for the kids. At this point, we just do not go to the doctor until it is imperative.”

Republicans and business groups have cautioned that the reforms could be costly, and that reform bills do not do enough to bring down the cost of delivering health care. Many critics of reform were active in August during the congressional break, and they continue to call lawmakers.

On the Democratic side, Welter said that Washington callers are contacting offices of both Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell in the Senate, as well as lawmakers in the House. He said South Sound’s two Democratic congressmen, Rep. Adam Smith of Tacoma and Brian Baird of Vancouver, support the goals of reform but haven’t signed onto a bill.

In fact, Baird announced a couple of ideas Tuesday for reforming the tax and health care systems – ideas that appear to put him at odds with the direction in which House Democrats are going.

“The current health care proposals try to modify multiple programs, each of which was designed to remedy problems left or created by what came before, but each of which created its own new laws, bureaucracy and headaches,” Baird said in a news release. “This complexity adds to the confusion and to the costs, but it does not improve health care. …

“Instead of duct taping the problems, and locking us into a poorly structured system, we need to explore new ideas that will create real, lasting reform,” Baird added.

Under the 3rd District lawmaker’s plan, consumers could keep any private health insurance they have, and the Veterans Administration would continue to deliver health care as it does today. But Baird would replace other government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program with a single national program that offered coverage based on a person’s financial need. Coverage would include medical, dental, vision and mental health care but no insurance forms.

At the same time, Baird said he wants to replace federal income and payroll taxes with a national sales tax. The tax rate would be progressive, attaching a higher rate on higher-cost items. He also would offer something he called a “price-indexed exemption” for people buying a primary home.

Baird’s ideas land late in the process. The Senate already is merging the two major reform bills into one for a vote potentially later this fall, and the House has various amendments to House Resolution 3200 to sort out.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and negotiating to move forward,” said Glass, of Murray’s office. “We don’t have a timeline yet.”

Brad Shannon: 360-753-1688

bshannon@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/politicswatch