Barack Obama

Any day now, health insurance reform will come up for a vote in the Senate. More than ever, it's extremely important for everyone to know about what's really at stake for America.

The Senate health reform bill will:

• Extend coverage to 31 million Americans, the largest expansion of coverage since the creation of Medicare.


• Ensure that you can choose your own doctor.


• Finally stop insurance companies from denying coverage due to a pre-existing condition.


• Make sure you will never be charged exorbitant premiums on the basis of your age, health, or gender.


• Guarantee you will never lose your coverage just because you get sick or injured.


• Protect you from outrageous out-of-pocket expenditures by establishing lifetime and annual limits.


• Allow kids to stay on their parents' coverage until they're 26.


• Create health insurance exchanges, or "one-stop shops" for individuals purchasing insurance, where insurance companies are forced to compete for new customers.


• Lower premiums for families, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office -- especially for struggling folks who will receive subsidies.


• Help small businesses provide health care coverage to their employees with tax credits and by allowing them to purchase coverage through the exchanges.


• Improve and strengthen Medicare by eliminating waste and fraud (without cutting basic benefits), beginning to close the Medicare Part D donut hole, and extending the life of the Medicare trust fund.


• Create jobs by reining in costs -- fostering competition, reducing waste and inefficiency, and starting to reward doctors and hospitals for quality, not quantity, of care.


• Cut the deficit by over $130 billion in the next 10 years.

It's a long list. But that's only because this bill, while it does not include everything that everyone wants, represents the most significant health reform our nation has seen since the creation of Medicare.

And it's important that every American knows what's really at stake this holiday season.

So please share this note with your friends today by clicking "share" at the top of this page.

(You can also create your own by copy-pasting this text into a new note and tagging your friends in it directly.)

We wouldn't be this close to enacting these powerful reforms without all your hard work. Now, we're in the final stretch -- let's keep it up.

Thank you.

Friend,

Monday morning, an unlikely gathering of health care industry and union leaders emerged from the White House, announcing a historic agreement to lower medical costs and save the average family up to $2,500. This kind of broad coalition would have been unthinkable in the past, when the old politics of division and short-term self interest held sway. But this is a new day.

Yesterday afternoon, President Obama announced the three bedrock principles that any comprehensive health care reform must achieve: (1) reduce costs, (2) guarantee choice, and (3) ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care. And he set a hard goal for getting it done by the end of this year.

For those determined to oppose reform, the President's announcement means lobbyists are already scrambling across D.C. For the rest of us, it means there's no time to lose. As we speak, Congress is negotiating the details for health care reform, so the first step is showing where the American people stand.

Please click below to sign a declaration of support urging Congress to follow President Obama's three core principles for health care reform -- and to enact them before the end of this year:

Watch the President's remarks and sign the declaration.

(The more signatures we have, the more powerful our message will be, so please add your name and then forward this note on to family and friends.)

The health care crisis is not new, but it's getting worse. For decades, real health care reform has been blocked by special interest lobbying and political point-scoring. We simply cannot go any further down this dangerous road of delay and denial. But we don't have to.

Yesterday's agreement marks only the beginning of the broad coalition we need. The most important reason this round of health care reform will be different is you. Last fall millions of regular people came together and did the impossible. Now, we've got to roll up our sleeves, join hands with those new to our movement, and do it again.

Congress is already hammering out the details of the health care package, and it could still go any number of ways. Our representatives need to understand that when the President lays out these three bedrock principles, Americans of every stripe are standing with him. Yesterday's diverse gathering was a powerful start -- and now it's up to us.

It's time to stand up. Please sign the declaration of support today:

http://my.barackobama.com/organizingforhealthcare

Reducing costs, guaranteeing choice, and ensuring care for all are ambitious goals, but they are nothing less than what the American people deserve. And passing real health care reform this year is nothing less than what the American people need.

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

Before his Election Night speech, Barack sent out this message to supporters:

I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don't want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign -- every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it's time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing...

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack