Action Archive

Pushing for Real Health Care Reform

OurFuture.org Staff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:36:51 -0500

As soon as the battle over the recovery act and the budget ended, the battle for real health care reform began. Throughout the summer of 2009 we engaged in several campaigns to push both Congress and President Obama to make sure a public health insurance option was part of any health insurance reform that passed Congress. Together with our allies we gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions demanding real reform, and had thousands of our supporters call their members of Congress. As a result of our efforts and the sustained push from progressives across the country Congress defied the conventional wisdom in Washington submitted health insurance reform bills that include a public option in both chambers of Congress!

We are in a much stronger position now than anyone would have originally predicted, thanks to the support of the progressive community and of course the American public at large, which remains firmly in support of a robust public option, no matter how often conservatives and the media like to suggest otherwise. Now all that is left is for us to see this hard wrought reform to the end--on President Obama's desk in the Oval Office.

Don't Let Lobbyists Delay Health Care Reform

OurFuture.org Staff — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:37:52 -0400

In April, Campaign for America's Future teamed up with MoveOn.org and Health Care for America NOW! with the goal to deliver 200,000 signatures to President Obama before his White House Health Care Summit to send a clear message: "Don't let the insurance lobbyists delay health care any longer. In this economic crisis, we can't afford NOT to pass quality, affordable health care for all this year."

With your help we blew away our original goal and accumulated over 300,000 signatures to support health care reform and keep the health insurance industry lobbyists from obstructing the reform we need! On top of that, Campaign for America's Future's Co-Director Roger Hickey went to the Health Care Summit and personally hand-delivered those signatures to participating Senators, Members of Congress and White House staff.

No Donut Hole

Roger Hickey — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 18:47:45 -0400

In 2006, we galvanized the grassroots to fill the "Donut Hole" – the gap in Medicare's Part D prescription drug coverage that costing seniors in dollars and lives. We delivered a petition with about 10,000 signatures to the White House and Congress, demanding they enact legislation to eliminate the Donut Hole, as well as empower Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. And we conducted the No Donut Hole video contest, with creative depictions of the Part D dangers generating more than 30,000 views. Check out the winning videos below. (More information about the donut hole and Part D).

Petition to President Bush and Donut Hole Supporters in Congress

This campaign expired in November 2006. Below is the petition for which we generated about 10,000 signatures.

No Donut Hole!

Dear President Bush and Donut Hole Supporters in Congress,

No American should have to sacrifice his or her life-saving prescription medications because they can't afford them. It is also unconscionable that Medicare is actually prohibited from negotiating for lower drug prices for Americans—merely to line the pockets of big pharmaceutical and insurance companies.

That's why I ask you to support the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act (HR-752/S-345). This bill would eliminate Part D's dangerous "donut hole" which, in turn, would protect each enrollee from thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket prescription expenses—expenses that are unaffordable to many. It would also require Medicare to use its bulk-buying power to negotiate for lower drug prices.

Consider this,

According to a June, 2006 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, seniors hit with a coverage gap like the Part D donut hole are 22% more likely to die than seniors who aren't forced to pay thousands in out-of-pocket expenses.

Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices would save enough money to eliminate the donut hole entirely with no extra cost to taxpayers.

Passing the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act would help millions of Americans who have worked hard their entire lives and deserve to retire with security and dignity. Please do the right thing and support this legislation today.

Sincerely,
Your name

No "Donut Hole" Video Contest Winner!

Below is our video contest winner and other crowd favorites. Thanks to all contestants for presenting such creative ways to get rid of "donut holes," and helping to promote this campaign.

Contest Winner

"So I Married a Donut Hole Murderer"
(by Lasita9)

Other Community Favorites

"No Donut Hole Medicare!"
(by murphytime)

"MAGIC! Making the Donut Hole Disappear
(by IrnBru001)

More donut hole videos »

No "Donut Hole" Video Contest Rules

To be eligible for the $500 prize, contestants must:
- publish their video(s) on YouTube per our How to Share a Video guidelines.
- publish their video(s) before the contest deadline: 5pm EST, Friday, September 29, (Extended Deadline).
- visibly display our campaign URL—www.nodonuthole.com—during at least some portion of their video(s)
- identify their video(s) in YouTube with the following tags: nodonuthole medicare donut
The contestant who submits the "community favorite" video will win $500.

The "community favorite" video will be determined by calculating a score for the video as follows: Score = Total # of Views * Overall Community Rating. For example, a video with 1,000 views and an overall community rating of 3.5 stars, will score 3,500.

Final scores will be calculated at the contest deadline—5pm EST, Friday, September 29—and the winner will be announced later that week.

The Campaign for America's Future reserves the right to disqualify any contestant whose video content it deems a) offensive, or b) undermines opposition to the Part D "donut hole".

Staff and family members of the Campaign for America's Future and Americans United are not eligible to win the contest prize.

How to Share a Video

Record Your Video: Use any video recording device (like a digital camera, cell phone camera, etc.) to record your suggested way to get rid of "donut holes". Check out our sample videos for ideas.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to visibly display our campaign web address – 'www.nodonuthole.com' – for at least some part of your video. For example, simply print or write out 'www.nodonuthole.com' and hold it in front of the camera.
Download Your Video: Connect your video recording device to an internet-connected computer- using the cables that came with your video recorder. Download the video to your computer.

Login to YouTube: Go to http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_upload. Log into YouTube, or follow the easy instructions to create a new account.

Upload Your Video (1 of 2): When prompted, enter a title, short description, category and tag for your video.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to add the tags "nodonuthole medicare donut", for your video where prompted to add tags,and check the "News & Blogs" category. This will let us find your video for the contest drawing.
Upload Your Video (2 of 2): Click "Browse" to locate the video that you downloaded to your computer in Step 2. Select your video with a single mouse click, and click "Open" to choose that video for uploading. Finally, click "Upload Video" at the bottom of the page, and your done!

Unleash the Medicare Truth Squad

Roger Hickey — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 17:40:52 -0400

Hundreds of Campaign for America’s Future supporters raised over $20,000 to enable our Senior Truth Squad to expose the outrages of the Bush Medicare law. We were able to purchase six ads in the front sections of EACH of 20 Iowa and Wisconsin newspapers. The combined readership of these papers was a whopping 1.8 million+, and – for three straight days! – those readers got the Truth Squads' message twice a day. We literally blanketed the crucial battleground states of Iowa and Wisconsin for three days running!

Meet the Senior Truth Squad

Get their Message Out to 2 Million Battleground State Voters!

These Wisconsin and Iowa seniors are mad about the Bush Medicare law. Like so many other seniors in America, they are learning more about the Bush deal that delivers billions to drug companies and HMOs while leaving seniors and taxpayers with the bill.

Click any image below to see what Florence, Ed, Mar and the rest of the Truth Squad has to say, and please contribute to help these real grassroots activists make their messages heard and inspire millions to action in these crucial days.

Jack Smith
40+ yrs Iowa resident

Mar Smith
40+ yrs Iowa resident

Janice Wright
40+ yrs Iowa resident

Edward Rethman
Lifetime Iowa resident

Joe Zagnoli
60+ yrs Iowa resident

Lilith Thomas
Lifetime Iowa resident

Dave Slautterback
45 yrs Wisconsin resident

Florence Lea
Lifetime Wisconsin resident

Tom Brown
8 yr Wisconsin resident

Katie Wenban
58 yr Wisconsin resident

Lee Brown
8 yr Wisconsin resident

Welcome Fawcett
Wisconsin grandmother

For more information about the Bush Medicare Deal in Wisconsin, Iowa, and other states, click here.

The Campaign for America's Future has teamed up with Iowa Citizen Action and Wisconsin Citizen Action to unleash the Senior Truth Squads. Learn more about their powerful grassroots movements at:

www.iowacan.org/: Iowa Citizen Action
www.wi-citizenaction.org: Wisconsin Citizen Action

Thanks Again From The Truth Squad!

Thank you again for contributing to get the Senior Truth Squad out in front of 1.9 million+ Iowans and Wisconsinites last week for three straight days! Below are the papers where the Truth Squad ads were run, and the readership #s for each paper. Thank you again!

Newspaper	Daily Readership
IOWA
Cedar Rapids Gazette	134,506
Davenport Quad City Times	104,652
Des Moines Register	330,156
Dubuque Telegraph Herald	60,290
Iowa City Press Citizen	36,552
Muscatine Journal	15,320
Ottumwa Courier	31,000
Waterloo Courier	105,582

WISCONSIN
Baraboo News Republic	8,180
Beaver Dam	20,156
Chippewa Falls	13,608
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram	55,000
Green Bay Press-Gazette	113,716
La Crosse Tribune	63,000
Madison Wisconsin State Journal	217,384
Milwaukee Journal	488,576
Portage Register	10,044
Racine Journal	57,396
Shawano	13,102
Superior/Ashland Newspapers	30,958