The White House has been pulling out all the stops in an effort to see health insurance reform pass in the House this week. A vote is planned for some point between Thursday and early next week, with most betting on Saturday as the big day.
This afternoon, there was a widely publicized, but off the record briefing from the head of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Valerie Jarrett. Last week, the White House offered up David Axelrod for a briefing as well. The faith community was a key audience for both calls, thanks to our position at the forefront of reform efforts. The message on the calls was the same: reform can’t wait, both for moral reasons and financial reasons. In fact, reference was made on today’s call to a faith letter to the President, signed by the Reform Movement among others, references a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
After so many months of negotiations, votes, successes and setbacks, we have to fight against any sense of complacency or exhaustion. We must act now, and encourage our Representatives THIS WEEK to support passing the Senate health insurance reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). Send an email to your Representative or call the Capitol Switchboard at 1-888-210-3678.