Say yes to health care reform, no to health insurance abuses
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund continues to hammer away for health care reform and against health insurance industry abuses.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey (right) at the March 9 Health Care for America Now rally in the nation's capital.
Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey was among the featured leaders at the March 9 protest outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., where America’s Health Insurance Plans — the health insurance lobbying group — was holding its annual policy conference.
The Task Force was the only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organization officially participating in the huge protest organized by Health Care for America Now, the nation’s largest health care campaign designed to stress the urgent need for health insurance reform.
Bottom line: Health care reform is an LGBT issue. The lack of adequate, affordable health care is hurting tens of millions of people and their families all across this country, including LGBT families.
It is clear to nearly everyone that reform is critically needed, yet the powerful health insurance lobby remains a major obstacle. Blocking reform comes down to greed, and this must end. There is no sound reason why anyone who wants insurance is refused adequate and affordable coverage. Nobody should go bankrupt because of health care.
The Task Force refuses to let LGBT lives and families be left behind. Health care reform will happen, and it must address some of the stark realities that LGBT people face every day. How our families are legally defined greatly impacts the costs of and access to coverage. Every April 15, LGBT families write an extra check to the IRS to pay for domestic partner benefits — the very same benefits opposite-sex married couples get tax free. Health care reform must abolish the insurance industry’s ‘preexisting conditions’ barrier, which far too many in our community are subjected to because in 2010 the federal government still does not protect us from employment discrimination.
America, we can and will do better.
Watch this short clip of Rea Carey at today’s rally:
