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Statement

MomsRising Joins Speaker Nancy Pelosi In Pushing for Health Reform

March 15, 2010
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement of Donna Norton, MomsRising National Campaign Director
"I am Donna Norton, National Campaign Director for MomsRising.
 
MomsRising is an online and on-the-ground grassroots organization for moms and anyone who has a mom. We have more than one million members nationwide, with members in every state.
 
We’re proud to be here today with another mom – a powerful one – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to stand up for moms and families everywhere and urge her colleagues – our representatives in Congress – to pass meaningful health care reform.
 
Across the country, families are seeing health insurance rate hikes of up to 39 percent. And that’s not because insurers are facing tough times. In fact, last year, the five largest insurance companies earned 56 percent more in profits. And they covered 2.7 million fewer people.
 
In fact, despite successes in states through Medicaid and CHIP, millions of children remain uninsured today. That’s because, as commercial insurance has become less available and more expensive, children – and their parents – have fallen through the cracks in our broken system.
 
Clearly, there’s something wrong with our current health care system. Unless we see changes soon – unless Congress passes health care reform that protects consumers and ensures that we get decent coverage and decent care at a decent price – the consequences will be dire.
 
Families USA has estimated that without change, 275,000 people will die prematurely in the next ten years because they don’t have health coverage. Those kinds of numbers can be hard to grasp, so I’d like to quickly put that in perspective.
 
We recently heard from a MomsRising member, and mother of three, from Florida wrote us to say that because she doesn’t have health insurance, she can’t afford a crucial test that would show whether her cancer is in remission. So, she has to face her children and her husband every single day, not knowing if she’s getting better or she’s dying. No family should have to deal with that kind of agony and heartbreak.
 
We know it’ll take a heroic effort to get reform passed, but we’re ready. You’ll notice many moms here today wearing the MomsRising SuperMom t-shirts. We’re ready to do all we can to ensure that our families are able to get the health care they need, when they need it.
 
Thanks so much to Speaker Pelosi for leading the charge on this critical issue. Your efforts are truly worthy of superhero. The moms and the families of America stand with you. It’s really and truly time for a change.
 
Thank you."
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.