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S.1955 FAILS ON PROCEDURAL VOTE
ACA, Hundreds of Provider and Consumer Groups Declare Victory for Patients
Click here to see how your Senators voted.
Click here to see how we did it!
(Washington, D.C - May 11, 2006) In a historic victory for chiropractors and their patients, S.1955, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act, was withdrawn from the Senate floor and effectively defeated when Democrats threatened to filibuster the bill. The controversial small business health plan legislation spurred an unprecedented grassroots lobbying campaign by the American Chiropractic Association and hundreds of provider and consumer groups that believed the bill would gut state patient protection laws and leave millions of patients without crucial health care benefits.
"The ACA extends an enormous 'thank you' to the entire chiropractic profession - state associations, individual doctors, patients, students, chiropractic college leaders and other organizations - everyone who joined together to successfully defeat this potentially devastating legislation," said ACA President Richard Brassard, DC. "A special thank you also goes out to our allies in Congress - Senators Tom Harkin, Jeff Bingaman, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and others - for their outstanding leadership on this important issue. Not only did we safeguard the health coverage of millions of patients across the country, but we also showed the nation's decision makers that the chiropractic profession is a force to be reckoned with. I can assure you that your thousands of emails, faxes and phone calls to Congress, letters and news releases to local media organizations, and other grassroots efforts made the difference."
Deliberations on S.1955 began Tuesday, May 9, when Senate Democrats, in a procedural move, voted to allow the bill to advance to the Senate floor -- with debate limited to 30 hours. On Thursday, May 11, after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that debate would end and limited amendments to S.1955 would be considered, Senate Democrats voted against cloture and the bill was pulled from consideration. (In order to invoke cloture, 60 votes are needed. The final vote was 55-43.)
The defeat of S.1955 comes after a nearly two- month-long grassroots lobbying campaign kicked off in March at the ACA's 31st annual National Chiropractic Legislative Conference (NCLC) in Washington, DC. During that meeting, ACA's House of Delegates declared a "state of emergency" in response to S.1955 and committed to using "all available resources" to defeat the bill. Chiropractors nationwide joined together in the effort and flooded U.S. Senate offices with concerns about the bill. At the same time, ACA and a diverse coalition of labor unions, health care and consumer groups - including AARP, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the AFL-CIO -- shared information and resources in a national lobbying and media relations campaign to defeat the legislation.
"Today, we can breathe a great sigh of relief," added Dr. Brassard, "but only for a moment. The small business or association health plan concept is a popular one, and a new bill will almost certainly surface again in the very near future. The ACA will work to ensure that the chiropractic profession has a place at the table when a new proposal is developed, and we will once again call the chiropractic profession to action when necessary to ensure the health and well being of our patients."
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How Did We Do It? On Behalf of the Profession We:
Generated hundreds of thousands of letters, e-mails, phone calls and faxes from DCs and their patients to the United States Senate.
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Changed entire agenda of National Chiropractic Legislative Conference to triple coverage of S.1955, including two-hour briefing session to state association leaders (co-hosted with Wisconsin Chiropractic Association).
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Created an S.1955 Action Center on our Web site that provided the entire profession with the latest information and tools as they became available.
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Sent 40,000 faxes to the profession.
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Mailed Legislative Action Alert flyer with April 2006 ACA News – reaching 60,000 readers
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Placed full page ad in May ACA News – reaching 60,000 readers
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Placed full page ad in Dynamic Chiropractic – reaching 60,000 readers
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Provided up-to-the minute status report e-mails to ACA leadership and state associations. Approximately 80,000 e-mails sent.
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Held weekly conference calls with state chiropractic associations to share information and to assess each Senator's position on S.1955. Used this information to coordinate ACA and state association lobbying strategy and to inform members of our national coalition.
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Coordinated lobbying efforts across the chiropractic community, providing sample letters for colleges to send to students and alumni and for ACA's sponsors, advertisers and vendors to send to their clients.
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Met with most U.S. Senators to discuss ACA's opposition to S.1955; placing particular focus on those whose positions were wavering.
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Participated in and promoted two national call-in days that generated tens of thousands of calls to the Senate switchboard, all opposing S.1955. -
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Worked with Capitol Hill allies, such as Sen. Tom Harkin, to build opposition to the bill. Click here for a copy of Sen. Harkin’s pro-chiropractic statement on the Senate floor.
Participated as a leading member of a national coalition of advocacy groups – including AARP, the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association.
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In conjunction with coalition partners, targeted influential media organizations and aggressively pitched S.1955 concerns – resulting in at least 419 stories mentioning the bill and our coalition partners. For an example of one of the media pitches sent to national reporters on behalf of coalition members, click here.
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Shared resources and information with hundreds of coalition groups – positioning ACA as a leading organization on political and grassroots advocacy issues.
Launched national media relations campaign – independent of the coalition -- that resulted in a host of radio, television and print media interviews.
Placed provocative advertisements in Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, that referred to S.1955 as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
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The ad created a buzz among legislators on Capitol Hill and was quoted in an op-ed by Sen. John Kerry and referred to in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
Created local media relations, community outreach and advertising tools that state associations and individual doctors used to support national efforts.
- Provided camera-ready “Stop S.1955” ad materials to all state associations in the country.
- Designed a “Stop S.1955” poster for use in chiropractic offices nationwide – to educate and mobilize patients.
- Developed sample letters to the editor and op-eds discussing the negative aspects of S.1955 and encouraged the profession to submit them to their local papers. Just a few examples of letters and columns published across the country include:
- Senate Bill Bad For Patients, The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, May 12.
- Don’t Let Congress Cut Critical Health Benefits, Quad-City Times, May 11.
- Don't Let Congress Weaken Health Care, The Longview News-Journal, East Texas, May 8.
- Letters To the Editor, Express-Star, Chickasha, OK, May 6.
- Senate Bill Disastrous for Nation's Health, The Capital-Times, Madison, Wis., May 5.
- Health Care Bill Needs Rejection, Monroe News Star, April 30, 2006.
- My Turn: Truth About Senate Insurance Bill, Juneau Empire, Juneau, Alaska, April 24 (log-in required: username – ACAmember; password -- chiropractic).
- Enzi Bill: Bad Medicine for America, Casper Star Tribune, Casper, Wyoming, April 23.
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