Critical win for families.

Dear Friend,

Once in a while you get the chance to make a really big difference, and we just did! Yesterday we changed the course of history – for the United States, and for our families.

For almost 100 years, Americans have been trying to expand healthcare coverage, and last night a bill finally passed. While this healthcare bill isn’t perfect, it is a monumental step towards achieving affordable and secure healthcare for our families. And, moms and dads like you made a critical difference.

Many MomsRising members poured their hearts and souls into passing healthcare reform – meeting with members of Congress in their district offices, sharing their stories with lawmakers, making phone calls to legislative offices, sending emails and messages which were delivered to federal legislators in-person by MomsRising members in Washington, D.C., contacting leaders on Twitter and Facebook, and making well over 600,000 constituent contacts to Congress on this issue alone. We did all of this because, as caregivers in our families, we know how crucial healthcare is for everyone.

Now, let's take a quick moment to thank our members of Congress who voted "yes" on healthcare reform last night. For many, it was a politically difficult choice and we want to make sure that they know we're thankful for their courageous vote, and for others it's important to let them know that we appreciate, and are paying attention to, their support for our nation's families.

*Send a note now: When you click the link below, MomsRising will collect your thank you note, combine it with the thank you notes of other MomsRising members, and send them to every member of Congress who voted "yes."

http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/healthcare_thanks_3-22-10/?referring_akid=.117844.cWJmgJ&source=taf

Sending a thank you note lets our leaders know that we will stand with them as they continue to fight for family economic security and strong healthcare for all.

It's important to mark this moment as a critical win for families. For too long, families in the United States have been at the mercy of insurance companies that have denied them coverage just when they needed it most, and at the mercy of increasing premiums while healthcare coverage decreased. Millions of families have simply gone without the healthcare they needed because they didn’t have and couldn’t afford health insurance. Passage of this bill prevents denials of coverage for pre-existing conditions, and also expands health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, guaranteeing that 95% of Americans will be covered.

Know someone else who would also like to send a note of thanks? Feel free to forward this email on to friends and families so they can send a note too.

Here's that link again to send your thank you note just so you have it handy: http://action.momsrising.org/cms/letter/healthcare_thanks_3-22-10/?referring_akid=.117844.cWJmgJ&source=taf

Thanks!

P.S. What will the healthcare reform bill do? Check out what health reform will mean for your family here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/21/us/health-care-reform.html

One big part is that with full passage, Medicaid will be expanded to cover anyone with income at or below 133 percent of the poverty line -- $29,327 for a family of four. And all families earning up to 400 percent of the poverty line -- $88,200 for a family of four -- will receive subsidies to help afford premiums.

Also, Newsweek has a great article discussing how healthcare reform will cover more people while reducing the deficit that you may want to check out. That article is titled, "How Health Care Reform Reduces the Deficit in 5 Not-So-Easy Steps." Here's the link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/235246