By Chuck Smith-Dewey
healthinsurance.org founder & ceo
July 1, 2009

Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Democrats, time to put up or shut up. We don’t expect you to pull all 60 members of your caucus into voting for a public option, but we DO EXPECT you to be able to brush aside any filibuster designed to keep it from a vote.
Congratulation Senator Al Franken of Minnesota. Our country needs your strong voice on health care reform.
Editor's Note: Opinions expressed on these pages are those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or ownership of healthinsurance.org.
Dr. “H” Rob Huizenga of “The Biggest Loser” knows that education equals motivation for folks who need to change unhealthy behavior. The individual mandate could do the same: getting more folks back to doctors for the treatment – and education – that they need. (Photo courtesy of NBCUniversal)
These are telephone hotlines providing callers with knowledgeable human beings to help with health insurance problems. Now, sadly, Congress seems to be allowing the program to die an early death, declining to fund it beyond the initial $30 million, which was distributed to 35 states.
For anyone who wonders how the battle over health reform came to dominate so much of the nation’s attention over the past few years – and whether the battle will ever end – Paul Starr provides answers in Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Reform.
You will hear a lot of bashing of “Obamacare” during the current political season. But while we wait for full implementation of health reform in 2014, there have been meaningful changes that are helping American families every day.
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