MEDIA ADVISORY

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 9AM

JACKSON LEE HOSTS TIMELY SPECIAL INFORMAL HEARING TO PUSH PUBLIC OPTION FEATURING PATIENTS AND EXPERTS

“In ‘60s Civil Rights Tradition, Rep. Jackson Lee Joins With Rep. Conyers and Over a Dozen Other Congressional Leaders To Host Historic Panel On Care”

 Washington, DC – On Oct. 27, prominent members of the House of Representatives will hold a unique Town Hall-style hearing entitled: "Costs of Broken Health Care System, Benefits of Public Option" from 9 am to noon at the Judiciary Committee Rayburn House Office Building hearing room.

Members and witnesses will consider H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 in Room 2141. The bill would provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending.

This is part of a series of citizen Congressional hearings until reform is passed, according to a committee of congressional hosts led by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). “The hearings,” they said, “are to allow the voice of the American people who want a strong public option to be heard in the halls of Congress—voices that have been drowned out by insurance company propaganda, and disruptive tea-baggers at health reform town hall meetings.”

Among scheduled witnesses are:

• Phyllis Zolotoro, Executive Director of Patients with Chronic Illnesses for Universal Health Care and part of a family afflicted with huge medical debts given her husband's and child's illnesses.
• Natalie Noel is a Native American from Alabama and documentary film producer. She has captured stories of Gulf Coast residents who have suffered health-care hardships post-Katrina, and is herself a cancer patient whose insurance coverage was terminated. 
• Dr. Renaisa S. Anthony, MD, MPH, Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. She is boycotting work in hospitals until the nation develops laws that would allow her to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay.

 Initiated by U.S. Rep. Jackson Lee and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), the hearing’s hosts include U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Grijalva (D-Arizona), Barbara Lee (D-Texas), Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) and Hank Johnson (D-Georgia) with more expected soon.

 “Surveys show that nearly three out of four voters want a public health insurance plan,” said Rep. Jackson Lee, representing the 18^th congressional district in metropolitan Houston. “Further, 73% of doctors as well as 1,000 state legislators – representing all 50 states – favor health reform legislation with a public option. Moreover, a public option has been proposed by four of the five congressional committees with responsibility for drafting health reform legislation.” 

Many members of Congress and national organizations supporting this hearing believe that the Senator Baucus version of health care reform in the Senate will not create meaningful health reform that the President wants because it still relies on private health insurance, which has failed to provide Americans with affordable, accessible, and high quality health care. The Baucus plan does not give the American people the freedom to choose a public option that will lower health care costs for middle class families, lower co-pays for middle class families with chronic illness, 70 million Americans have chronic illnesses.”

 At this historic juncture in the nation’s health care debate, the informal hearing will provide a vital platform for both experts and ordinary citizens to describe the importance of access, competition and cost-accountability that a public option can provide. The hearing is modeled after pivotal experiences in the 1960s public education efforts leading to changes in civil rights law and Vietnam War policy. 

The planning leadership for the Oct. 27 hearing included the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, the principal organizer for the iconic 1963 civil rights March on Washington and 1965 marches in Selma, Alabama working under his friend the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in cooperation with six major civil rights groups. “From every poll,” according to the Rev. Fauntroy, a former congressman representing Washington, DC, “it's clear that the people want an end to the tyranny of insurance companies. Insurers tyrannize doctors, they tyrannize patients.”

Among witnesses are Harriet Mayor Fulbright, widow of the Arkansas senator whose 1960s Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Vietnam War helped change public understanding. 

 Rep. Jackson Lee said: “As far as our motivation for this effort, let me share that in my home state of Texas, the situation is dire. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured. In my home county, one in three adults does not have health insurance. More than 6 million Texans do not have health insurance and that number is increasing. The average premium is projected to increase from $13,507 to $23,049 in 10 years if we do not reform the health care system. I find these figures highly unacceptable.” 

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Special Informal Hearing: Costs of Broken Health Care System,

Benefits of Public Option

Current Hosts: Jackson Lee; Conyers; Ellison; Johnson, H (GA); Lee; Kucinich; Clarke; Woolsey; Doggett; Baldwin; Andrews; Nadler; Olver; Clay; Grijalva; Gonzalez; Sanchez; Weiner

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

9am – 12pm

2141 Rayburn House Office Building

House Special Order: 2^nd Democratic Hour

Preliminary Agenda

• Opening statements from Hearing Hosts
• Panel One: Public Option Advocates
• Panel Two: Patients harmed by present health care system
• Panel Three: Physicians with real life experiences about challenge of caring for uninsured or under insured patients
• Media availability at conclusion of hearing
• Special Order featuring Photos of Americans harmed by nation’s health care system

Goals

• These activities are designed to support efforts to include a public insurance option in final health reform legislation in the House and Senate.
• We aim to provide a voice to the majority of the American public who back the public option.
• This event has significant potential to attract media attention and tip the scales in both Houses of Congress in support of the public option.

Preliminary Witness List

Panel One: Advocates & Celebrities

• Confirmed - Harriet Mayor Fulbright: President of the J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center, a non-profit organization which serves to advance the work of Ms. Fulbright’s late husband, Senator J. William Fulbright, and to continue her own lifework.
• Confirmed - Brent A. Wilkes: The National Executive Director for the League of United Latin American Citizens this country's largest and oldest Hispanic organization. Wilkes manages the operations of the LULAC National organization with primary focus on national policy and legislative advocacy, membership development, program development, and resource development. A graduate of Dartmouth College in 1988, Wilkes majored in Government and Philosophy and studied Spanish in Morelia, Mexico. He has worked in various capacities for LULAC since 1988 including Special Projects Coordinator, Resource Developer, and Director of Policy & Development.
• Confirmed - Jim Winkler: General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS); served as general secretary of the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS), the international public policy and social justice agency of The United Methodist Church; Jim leads a staff of 22 who seek the implementation of the Church’s Social Principles through education, witness, and advocacy; and he has preached and led workshops and training events in Russia, Nigeria, and the Philippines, and is a frequent spokesperson for the justice work of The United Methodist Church to the national and international media. The board carries out a wide-ranging ministry of peace and justice throughout the world with offices in Washington, DC and New York City.
• Confirmed - Natalie Noel: Documentary Producer of film that captured stories of people around the Gulf Coast who have suffered hardships related to the health care system.

Panel Two: Patients

• Confirmed - Phyllis Zolotoro –Executive Director, Patients with Chronic Illnesses for Universal Health Care: She and her family were afflicted with huge medical debts given her husband’s and child’s illnesses; since Ms. Zolotoro’s husband had a pre-existing condition, she passed up better paying jobs to avoid risking cancellation of family’s Medicaid benefits.
• Confirmed - Arturo Griffin –Latino labor and health care activist who could not afford monthly out of pocket costs and premiums.
• Confirmed - Dianne Schamus–Attorney, TV Producer, and former National Field Coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America who lacked health care insurance, despite her professional career successes.
• Confirmed - Joan Kosloff: Philadelphia mother who lost her son due to a lack of health insurance.

Panel Three: Physicians

• Dr. Ben Carson – Nurosurgeon: Dr. Carson went from the Detroit projects to Yale and University of Michigan, After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the world-famous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.  In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate a pair of Siamese twins. Carson's other surgical innovations have included the first intra-uterine procedure to relieve pressure on the brain of a hydrocephalic fetal twin, and a hemispherectomy, in which an infant suffering from uncontrollable seizures has half of its brain removed. This stops the seizures, and the remaining half of the brain actually compensates for the missing hemisphere. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Carson is in constant demand as a public speaker, and devotes much of his time to meeting with groups of young people. In 2008, Benjamin Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
• Confirmed - Dr. Renaisa S. Anthony MD, MPH; Professor, Department of Prevention and Community Health, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services: OB-GYN physician who teaches public health and has boycotted working in hospitals until the nation develops laws that would allow her to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay.
• Confirmed – Dr. Sanjeev K. Srirarm, MD, MPH; National Physicians Alliance: Physician and public health expert who has conducted significant research on minority health disparities.
• Confirmed –Vivek Murthy MD, MBA: Practices and teaches at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
• Confirmed – Alex Blum, MD: Pediatrician, Health Fellow, Mount Sinai; National Field Director for Doctors for America, membership 15,500 physician supporters of health care reform and health care for all Americans.
• Confirmed – Dr. Lucy Perez” Co-Chair African American Health Alliance along with former Surgeon Elders, and is President, The Cave Institute, and a Former President, National Medical Association (focus patient, faith-based, provider, research plus)
• Confirmed – Dr. Gregory Dodell, MD: Resident, St. Luke’s Roosevelt, University hospital of Columbia University Physicians and Surgeons, Diabetes and Obesity researcher

Current Hosts: Jackson Lee; Conyers; Ellison; Johnson, H (GA); Lee; Kucinich; Clarke; Woolsey; Doggett; Baldwin; Andrews; Nadler; Olver; Clay; Grijalva; Gonzalez; Sanchez; Weiner

Media Outlets Who Have Covered or Are Set to Cover Event: Mark Thompson – Sirius/XM, WPFW, Huffington Post

Contact: Talib I. Karim at Talib.Karim@mail.house.gov (5-3816) - Jackson Lee