Last week Washington CAN! and Northwest Health Law Advocates partnered to release a new study by the Urban Institute that offers an independent analysis of the viability in Washington State of the Federal Basic Health Program.
May Day march & rally!
May 1st. is a day that reminds us of our country’s rich history of standing up for workers rights and is an opportunity for people to come together and stand up for human rights for all. Join us on Tuesday, May 1st at 4:30pm for a rally and march for immigrant rights and workers rights!
Tax Day Actions!
On Tuesday (tax day), Washington CAN! staged actions in both Seattle and Spokane to raise awareness about the inequities in our tax structure and call on large corporations and the wealthy 1% to pay their fair share.
Legislature finally passes a budget
After much back and forth, the Legislature finally passed a budget yesterday morning. Thanks to the hard work and advocacy of our members, we had some major victories. We fought hard throughout the session to protect the programs that were vital to our communities and our work made a measurable difference. We were able to fight off the worst of the cuts and preserve the programs that keep our families healthy.
Latest News
Pierce County hospitals make $1,000 more profit per patient visit than the Washington state average
Tomorrow we’re releasing a study entitled “Caring For Pierce County: Are Our Local Healthcare Providers Adequately Serving Our Community?” The study analyzes the acute health care systems in Pierce County highlighting the fact that Pierce County hospital systems make a $1,000 more in profit per patient visit than the state average.
According to the report, Franciscan St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma has posted an annual profit every year since 1992 , for a total operating profit exceeding $479 million over that period. Multicare Tacoma General-Allenmore Hospital has also posted an annual profit every year for the last 19 years, for a total operating profit exceeding $652 million over that period. These combined profits of over a billion dollars are much higher than average for comparable hospitals.
The average operating profit (or margin which the non-profit world prefers to call their profit) for general acute care hospitals in Pierce County – all of which are Franciscan or MultiCare hospitals – far exceeds the average margin for all general acute hospitals across the state.
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Wells Fargo tax day action
Next Tuesday is tax day. As millions of people throughout the country file their taxes, we’re taking to the streets to demand that large corporations and the wealthiest 1% pay their fair share.
For too long corporations and special interests have been receiving tax breaks at the expense of the 99%. If everyone paid their fair share, we could help rebuild our economy and invest in education, health care and jobs to ensure that our communities get back on track.
Despite the fact that Wells Fargo has raked in almost $70 billion in profits over the last 4 years, the big bank is one of the worst corporate tax dodgers. With $21 billion in special tax breaks since the bailout and an effective Federal income tax rate of only 3.8%, Wells Fargo is paying far less than the 35% corporate tax rate set in law.
Wells Fargo spent $14 million lobbying in Washington DC and Olympia for special rules that let the company avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Angry yet? Good!
Posted in Economic justice, Education, Events, Health Care, Social justice, Take Action
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99% Spring Trainings
The 99% Spring is coming.
Groups from every corner of our movement—inspired by the everyday heroes of Occupy Wall Street and Madison —are planning a massive campaign of bold nonviolent direct actions to make the voices of the 99% impossible to ignore.
This week (April 9-15), in small towns and big cities all across America, 100,000 people will come together for an unprecedented national movement-wide nonviolent direct action training. We’ll learn to tell the story of our economy and what went wrong, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll learn how we can take action and create great change in this country.
Posted in Economic justice, Events, Social justice, Take Action
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Emergency rally demanding McKenna drop the health care lawsuit
Tuesday morning, over one hundred small business owners, community members and health care providers held an emergency rally calling on AG Rob McKenna to drop the health care lawsuit. The rally was inspired by the story of Tessie Goheen, a 24-year old breast cancer survivor from Bremerton who delivered a letter yesterday to Attorney General Rob McKenna sharing her story.
Tessie was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 20, while she was studying for a degree in elementary education. Over the past three years, she’s had a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and a total hysterectomy. Read her full story here in our recent blog post.
Tessie is currently cancer-free and working at a pre-school in Bremerton while finishing her degree. She takes daily medication and sees her oncologist regularly. It is critical that she has health insurance. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, she does.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court began to hear oral arguments on McKenna’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act. In response, Tessie went to Attorney General McKenna’s office in Olympia to deliver a letter sharing her story of how the law has helped her and asking him to drop the lawsuit.
AG Rob McKenna often claims that his lawsuit simply seeks to challenge the constitutionality of specific provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but that it will not overturn popular provisions of health care reform, like new protections for people with pre-existing conditions or allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health plan.
However, his lawsuit explicitly asks the court to strike down the entire law. McKenna’s lawsuit asks the court to “Declare the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended, to be unconstitutional,” and the plaintiffs have stated, “neither the ACA’s Medicaid changes nor the Individual Mandate is severable from the other provisions of the ACA. The unconstitutionality of either requires that the Act be struck down in its entirety.”
Posted in Events, Health Care, Social justice
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24-year-old cancer survivor stands up for health care reform
Monday, March 26th was the first day that the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments on the lawsuit to overturn national health care reform.
Attorney General Rob McKenna has signed Washington state onto the partisan lawsuit that threatens to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act. That’s why Monday afternoon, Tessie Goheen, a 24-year-old breast cancer survivor from Bremerton who has health insurance thanks to health care reform, took her fight to keep coverage directly to Attorney General Rob McKenna.
What’s at stake if this lawsuit is successful? The benefits that millions of Americans are currently receiving thanks to the law, as well as the benefits that would come into place in 2014. If the lawsuit is successful, insurance companies could return to denying coverage to people and children with pre-existing conditions and imposing lifetime limits on coverage. Young adults could lose coverage on their parents’ insurance, and seniors on Medicare could lose help paying for costly prescriptions.
Posted in Social justice
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