This is incredible news for Americans who can now rest assured that they can continue to get their health care benefits.  Senior citizens remain safe from the donut hole. People still can’t be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions or be thrown at the mercy of insurance companies.  Young adults can remain on their parents insurance until they’re 26.

The Tea Party, Republicans in Congress and Mitt Romney need to hear this message loud and clear and stop their partisan attempts to take away health care from tens of millions of Americans.

It is time for everyone to move forward from these partisan battles and focus on fully implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Below are some facts on what the Affordable Care Act has already done:

• Expanded access to insurance: 3.1 million young adults are insured because of the ACA.

• Closed the “donut hole”: More than 5.2 million Medicare beneficiaries saved more than $5.2 billion on prescription drugs because of the ACA.

• Provided seniors with free preventive services: More than 32.5 million seniors received preventive care like mammograms and colonoscopies for free in 2011. And 14.3 million have already received at least one preventive service at no cost during the first five months of 2012.

• Kept children healthy and insured: As many as 17 million children with pre-existing conditions already cannot be denied coverage nor have lifetime limits placed on their coverage.

• Expanded preventive care: Approximately 86 million Americans received no-cost preventive care services such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

• Expanded coverage for those with pre-existing conditions: About 60,000 Americans who were denied coverage now have insurance through the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.

• Stopped unreasonable premium increases: Now, insurance companies must publicly justify raising rates by 10 percent or more. HHS has granted millions of dollars to states to bolster their ability to stop unreasonable premium increases.

• Held insurers accountable for excessive profits: Insurers must now spend 80 percent of premium dollars on health care coverage and not advertising or executive bonuses. State regulators reported that some companies “have not applied for premium increases and are making adjustments to lower premiums.”
• Eliminated lifetime limits: 105 million Americans no longer have lifetime limits to their insurance coverage.

“These strong fundraising numbers are yet another example of the excitement and energy that is out there to educate people about, and to defend, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid,” said Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale.

Vale continued, “Our strong fundraising has allowed us and our partners to hold over 1,000 events across the country educating people about their new health care benefits, celebrate the 1^st and 2^nd anniversary of the Affordable Care Act with a coalition of over 100 progressive organizations, and dramatically out organizing the Tea Party outside the Supreme Court.”

These fundraising totals include a) the results of our Form 990s filed with the IRS today that cover June 4, 2010 through May 31, 2011 and b) additional amounts raised after May 31, 2011 that will be on our next Form 990 filing.

On the two year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law, Know Your Care Communications Director Rachel Wolf released the following statement:

Two years later, it is clear that the Affordable Care Act is working for millions of Americans who are now healthier and paying less for healthcare because of the law. Taking away any of the provisions of the law would mean snatching real benefits away from seniors, women, children, young adults, and people with pre-existing conditions. We all want a healthier America, and that is becoming a reality thanks to the Affordable Care Act. At more than 500 actions and events across the country this week, the message from Americans was clear: healthcare works for us, works for our families and friends, will work for millions more as it is fully implemented.

Statement by Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale on the second iteration of the Paul Ryan plan to end Medicare:

A Republican budget to end Medicare, is a Republican budget to end Medicare, no matter what you call it.  Paul Ryan can claim a tweak here or a tweak there from his last budget that ended Medicare.  He can try to latch onto a new co-sponsor.  But no window dressing can change the fact that at it’s heart his budget is a plan to end Medicare by ending the way the program has worked successfully for decades and throwing seniors out onto the mercy of the private insurance companies.

The Republican budget to end Medicare is a one-two punch to seniors because at the same time Republicans want to throw them back into the prescription drug donut hole and take away their preventative care benefits by repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Statement by Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale on the Blunt Amendment:

It is good news that common sense prevailed and the Blunt Amendment was voted down, preserving the rights of women to have access to contraception provided under the Affordable Care Act.  However, it is unconscionable that in the year 2012, so many Republican Senators, and their presidential nominees, have gone on the record voting to take away women’s contraception.  These members need to stop attempting to cozy up to the extreme Tea Party agenda by trying to take away health care benefits that tens of millions of Americans are getting from the Affordable Care Act while simultaneously trying to end Medicare for seniors.

Statement by Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale on Romney’s and Health Care’s Win in the Iowa Caucus:

While we don’t yet know the final placement of the candidates it is already clear that tonight the IA caucus gave a big win to Mitt Romney and health care.

It was believed by many that the conservative voters in the IA caucus would reject Mitt Romney’s passage of health care in Massachusetts – including the individual responsibility provision – that laid the foundation for the Affordable Care Act.  But with Romney set for a strong finish among the tightly grouped top 3 it shows that this extremely conservative slice of the electorate saw past the heated rhetoric and accepted that the health care policies he implemented in Massachusetts with Ted Kennedy included many common sense conservative policy ideas.

This bipartisan support is why the individual responsibility provision was supported by Romney, Obama, Gingrich and the Heritage Foundation.  If Romney continues on to become the Republican party’s nominee it will be another victory for health care where both candidates in the general election will have supported, and implemented, similar health care policies.

Statement From Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale on Romney’s ‘Friends’ Attack on Gingrich:

Mitt Romney used to model himself as a bipartisan consensus builder and that’s why his common sense health care plan garnered wide support including Ted Kennedy and Deval Patrick and was used by President Obama as the foundation for the Affordable Care Act. That makes it even more disappointing to his health care and mandate friends on the left that he would flip-flop on this issue in hopes of appeasing the Tea Party and attacking Newt Gingrich by doubling down on his support for the Paul Ryan plan that ends Medicare.

Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale released the following statement in response to Paul Ryan’s upcoming speech:

Paul Ryan decrying partisanship is as credible as a guy standing in front of a burning house with a can of gasoline and matches whining that the firefighters response time is too slow.

We understand his frustration and sense of isolation but it’s his own fault for proposing a massively unpopular plan to end Medicare while giving away massive tax breaks to millionaires, big oil companies and private jet owners.  We also understand how his frustration must have gotten even worse when vast majorities of the public also are now supporting President Obama’s plans to protect Medicare and create jobs while ensuring that millionaires pay their fair share of taxes.

But if he wants to have less partisanship he may want to consider availing himself of some of the mental health care options available under the government provided, tax payer funded, health care he accepts instead of projecting his anger into his obsession with taking away Medicare from seniors.

Protect Your Care Communications Director Eddie Vale released the following statement in response to Herman Cain’s recent ad that features Chief of Staff Mark Block smoking a cigarette:

We were surprised to see Herman Cain’s recent ad that features Chief of Staff Mark Block smoking a cigarette. Given the documented health risks of cigarettes, we would expect candidates to encourage healthier behaviors than smoking. Unfortunately for Block, if Herman Cain becomes president he would take away expanded access to smoking cessation programs that are included in the Affordable Care Act. Cain’s opposition to the life-saving health care benefits that are part of ACA puts millions of Americans at risk, including his own Chief of Staff.

Candidates aren’t the only ones preparing for tonight’s Orlando debate. Protect Your Care has headed down to Florida, where Medicare and Social Security are huge issues, and health has gained even more prominence after the last “let him die” Florida debate—and we’re rolling out a TV ad, beefing up our online ad buy and hosting a number of on the ground events.

The message this week will be clear as we call out the candidates for their extreme positions on health care.

The TV ad, titled “Listen”, will be running in the Orlando market from Thursday through Sunday, including spots during the debate itself. The TV ad is available at www.LetHimDie.com.

The ad hits the candidates twice on their extreme plan to end Medicare and their extreme silence as they stood idly by on stage without comment as members of the audience applauded letting someone die.  BUT this is much broader than that single incident.  The “let him die” applause was just the latest illustration of the extreme lengths the Presidential candidates are going through in their attempts to pander to the far right Tea Party extremism on health care.

Protect Your Care will also be increasing its online ad buy that was started last week to continue its national run, to add saturation in Orlando from Thursday to Sunday and to expand outreach to Hispanics in Florida.

Click here to view the embedded video.