Fighting Words

We have no intention of letting the health insurance companies influence or derail real health care reform.

Richard's got a new post up over at Huffington entitled The Honeymoon's Over: Health Insurance Companies Waste No Time Saying No to Obama's Plan. Here's a blurb:

But the insurance industry only backs reform that protects - better still, boosts - its bottom line. That's always been true and became crystal clear once again as soon as President Obama proposed raising $176 billion for health care reform by putting an end to Medicare overpayments. The proposal's not complicated. Private health insurance companies have been ripping off the government, and President Obama wants to save money by making it stop. He wants health insurance companies to go through a new competitive bidding process. AHIP - seeing less zeros tacked onto its profits - now claims that having to compete would mean a "major disruption" to Medicare. It sounds ridiculous because it is.

At the same time, we're working with our coalition partners like MoveOn.org to make sure lobbyists don't have their say. You can sign the petition here. It reads, in part:

In his speech, President Obama made it very clear that he wants Congress to pass health care this year. But The Wall Street Journal reports lobbyists are lining up to torpedo Obama's health care plans.

If these lobbyists drown out the voice of the American people, we're through. And right now, our elected officials are hearing a lot more from them than from us.

On Thursday, Congress will gather for President Obama's health care summit to make plans for the year—they need to hear from real people who want health care reform in 2009!

Can you help us reach at least 250,000 petition signatures before the big summit this Thursday?

And finally, we are making sure to stay on top of the bogus conservative attacks that Obama's health care plan somehow amounts to socialized medicine. Media Matters debunks the rumors once again, and if you're still unconvinced, you can go to the White House website and read the Obama plan for yourself.