Action Center

Tell Legislators to Finish the Job! Save Long-Term Care!

Thursday, April 8

Home care hours, health insurance for home care workers, nursing home funding, and Adult Day Health services. Governor Chris Gregoire has a reasonable budget compromise that will help fund these and other essential services. The House and Senate just need to vote on the package and finish the job.

Click here to send your legislators an email. Tell them to back Governor Gregoire's budget proposal and fund long-term care and other essential services.

After weeks of intense negotiations, the state House and the Senate leadership have agreed to a compromise budget proposal that will prevent devastating cuts to education, health care and other essential services - including long-term care.

Industry lobbyists are already doing everything they can to torpedo this compromise during the final days of the "special" session.

Click here to send an email to your legislators. Tell them to stand up to special interest lobbyists, pass a revenue package and protect services for seniors and people with disabilities

We have just a few days to pass this proposal. Legislators are already hearing from anti-tax extremists and special interest lobbyists. We need to make our voices heard today!

The funding package would close corporate tax loopholes and raise targeted taxes on cigarettes, soda and beer. It's better to pay a few cents more for a can of beer than cut home care hours or health insurance, wouldn't you agree?

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Don't Let Attorney General Rob McKenna Block Health Care Reform

Thursday, March 25

Just thirty minutes after President Obama signed health care reform into law, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna filed a lawsuit to block it. Click here to sign a petition telling him NOT to sacrifice our health for partisan politics.

Passing Health Care Reform will:

• Make insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history;
• Give tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress have;
• Bring greater accountability to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care;
• End discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions; and
• Allow children to remain on their parent's coverage - up to age 26.

So far, 10,000 people statewide have signed a petition urging him to drop the lawsuit. Click here to add your name to the petition. We need to send a powerful message to McKenna and the state that he should drop the suit - and that he doesn't represent the people of Washington in this matter - when we deliver the signatures on Friday.

Rob McKenna is abusing the resources and authority of his elected office to pursue a partisan political agenda that traps all of us in a broken health care system.

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Rebuilding Our Economic Future Public Service Announcement on the Budget

Thursday, March 4

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Cathy Byrd, David Lindberg, Ivy Williams and Flash Scaff, Jr. Deliver 14,000 Signatures to Key Budget Writers in Olympia

Monday, March 1

Four home care workers - Cathy Byrd, David Lindberg, Ivy Williams and Flash Scaff, Jr.- spoke for 14,000 in Olympia when they delivered names of members who support raising revenue and preventing cuts to home care and other critical long-term care services. We collected the names in two big binders and delivered them to key budget decision makers. Since home care workers don't have a common workplace, the petition “signed” virtually or over the phone.


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We met with Speaker of the House Frank Chopp; Representative Kelli Linville (Chair, House Ways and Means Committee); Representative Eric Pettigrew (Chair, House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee); Representative Eileen Cody (Chair, House Health and Wellness Committee); Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Marty Loesch (Governor Gregoire’s Director of Outreach and General Counsel). We also delivered books to the offices of Senator Margarita Prentice (Chair, Senate Ways and Means Committee); Senator Rodney Tom (Vice Chair, Operating Budget, Senate Ways and Means Committee); and Senator Karen Keiser (Chair, Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee).

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