Last night, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009, the House of Representatives passed HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and made history. After fighting for comprehensive health care for nearly a century, this is the first time a chamber of Congress has managed to overcome the insurance lobbyist's tenacious fight to continue putting insurance companies' interests before the needs of the people of Northern Indiana.
Our Democratic Representatives Joe Donnelly and Peter Visclosky both voted yes to affordable health care, while our Republican Representatives Mike Pence, Dan Burton, Stephen Buyer and Mark Souder all voted no. The two representatives who voted for this bill deserve our thanks for standing up for us, while the four that voted to continue protecting the insurance industries interests over ours, still have the opportunity to reconsider their allegiance to corporations over constituents by supporting reform in the final House vote.
Please let Representatives Pence, Burton, Buyer, and Souder know that they need to put us before the corporate lobbyists that have been making huge donations to their coffers. Our Representatives - and us - need to ignore the inaccurate insurance industry ads that have been plastered across our local airwaves, get the true facts from non-partisan sources, and fight to protect those that truly need comprehensive health care. Contact these four Representatives and ask them to change their votes and vote for coverage that favors us by expanding coverage for those that can't afford it, lowers costs for families and businesses that already have insurance, and eliminates the industry's ability to use pre-existing conditions as an excuse to deny coverage to us.
