Uniting Iowans for a Common Progressive Vision

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Health Care Supporters Call on Rep. Boswell To Finish Reform Now and Finish It Right

Iowa Residents and Businesses to Demonstrate Need For Good, Affordable Health Care Still Urgent

Des Moines, Iowa Friday, January 22, 2010 -- Congressman Leonard Boswell met today with representatives from Iowa Citizen Action Network, Iowa Main Street Alliance, Alliance for Retired Americans and other concerned citizens as part of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) - the nation's largest health care campaign. The message was to remind the Congressman that demand for Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation as soon as possible is as strong as ever.

In the wake of Republican Scott Brown's win over Democrat Martha Coakley in Massachusetts' special election on Tuesday, Sue Dinsdale from the Iowa Citizen Action Network said, "In Massachusetts, 98% of people have health care. But the need for good, affordable health care for everyone in Iowa and the nation is the same today as it was before Tuesday. People in Iowa still need to know they will be protected from medical bankruptcy, won't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, and can get good, affordable insurance either through their job or on their own."

Reform advocates and organizers delivered a checkered flag to Congressman Boswell representing the view of his constituents: that Congress must keep going and finish health care reform right. This event is part of a national coordinated campaign of actions aimed at showing members of Congress that support for reform is still strong among their constituents. Similar actions will take place with Representative Braley in Waterloo - and at congressional offices around the country today and Saturday. On Thursday, national leaders from the small business owners Main Street Alliance submitted a letter to the President and Congressional leadership reaffirming their support for enacting strong health reform legislation as soon as possible.

State Senator Jack Hatch commented that in calls he made to the White House and Iowa's Congressional delegation, his message was, "you need to make it tough, make it strong and make it bold. If you don't, you are betraying Iowans and the American people."

"Tuesday's special election in Massachusetts did nothing to change the fact that the health care status quo is intolerable for small businesses," said Matt Russell a small business owner and member of the Iowa Main Street Alliance. "We still need Congress to take action now to pass the strongest health reform bill possible and send it to the President as quickly as possible. We urge Congressman Boswell to move forward and finish reform right so we can do what we do best: create jobs, serve our communities and contribute to the economic recovery."

Dinsdale concluded, "When health care reform is signed into law it will mean the difference between life and death for some -- between financial solvency and bankruptcy for others - and between security and the constant burden of worry for still others. That's not spin. And that's not something that should be used as a bargaining chip in a partisan political battle to determine "which side" wins. Those who seek to do so should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves."

Contact:

Sue Dinsdale
515-480-3240 (mobile)

###