Today, the White House announced the third in a series of numbers that make the case for why we need health reform: 625.

That’s the number of people who lost their health insurance EVERY hour last year.

If you’re on Twitter, click here to change your icon to today’s number.

You can also check out the previous numbers:

Yesterday’s number: 8
Tuesday’s number: 1115

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From Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart:

President Obama has called for the House to vote to move health reform forward as early as next week.

Today, across the country, supporters of President Obama are calling their representatives to thank them if they’ve been fighting for reform, and ask them to support it if they haven’t made up their mind. The final vote will be very close, and we need to let members of Congress know that voters at home are standing with the President on health reform.

Click here to look up your representative and make a call today.

We know the stakes: Coverage for millions of uninsured Americans. Ending insurance company abuses, like denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and drastically raising premiums. Reining in costs that are bankrupting families and crushing businesses. Putting life-and-death decisions in the hands of patients and doctors, not insurance company bureaucrats.

Everything we’ve worked for depends on winning this upcoming vote in the House of Representatives — and it’s going to be very, very close. If there was ever a time to pick up the phone and make a difference, that time has come.

Please call today:

http://my.barackobama.com/FinalMarchCall

Thanks for joining together for this Final March for Reform. Because of you, we’re going to win this.

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

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If we enact health reform, it will restrict how much of your premium dollars can be spent on profits and overhead by requiring health insurance companies to spend 80-85% of the money they take in on care.

That’s worth keeping in mind. Because right after the Insurance companies announced huge rate increases for families across the country, they gathered at the luxurious Ritz Carlton in Washington to announce that they are spending $1 million on ads to defeat health reform.

That money could probably be better spent keeping rates down for customers.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

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Starting today, WhiteHouse.gov is highlighting one key fact or figure each day to show how the numbers make the case for health reform.

Today’s number is $1,115: the average premium for employer-sponsored family coverage per month last year. Annually, it adds up to $13,375 — roughly the amount someone earning a minimum wage makes. If we do nothing on reform, a recent study found that expenses for Americans with health insurance could increase 35 percent over the next ten years.

Find out more on WhiteHouse.gov, and share today’s number with friends and family.

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Editors Note: Watch President Obama and the First Lady speak about the achievements of women around the world at a reception marking International Women’s Day.

I grew up in a time when graduating from high school was an accomplishment, and expectations of young women were very low…especially for women of color.

My high school guidance counselor told me that I was best suited for a career as a secretary… an office assistant to be exact. Well, he was right after all. I ended up as a Secretary, but not quite the one he had in mind.

I am a product of the women’s movement… the social justice movement… and the civil rights movement. I come from a home that valued hard work and taught me to provide a lending hand to your neighbor when they are in need.

And so, yesterday in celebration of International Women’s Day I thought of several women I have met in my travels across the country. These are women who are trying to feed and clothe their children without a guaranteed income, or without a doctor to see because they have lost their health insurance.

Despite the changes in today’s workforce and families, today’s workplace benefits simply do not reflect the challenges and realities of today’s workers. Too many families must make the painful choice between the care of their families and a paycheck they desperately need.

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of hosting the First Lady at the Department of Labor. In an address to more than 600 employees, she emphasized this administration’s commitment to today’s working families saying “It’s time we viewed family-friendly policies as not just niceties for women but as necessities for every single working American—men and women.”

Reducing work-life conflict is a priority for the President, First Lady and for me. Together we support such proposals as the Healthy Families Act which would make sure workers have the ability to stay home if they are sick without fear of losing their jobs.

Millions of working women don’t have one, single, paid sick day. Many face discrimination and harassment in the workplace, and the recession has again brought to light long-standing disparities in employment status among racial and ethnic groups.

This is unacceptable to all of us. While we are working to help American families get back on their feet, this Administration is making investments in women and girls, at home and aboard, a priority.

Since families are depending more and more on working women’s wages it is more important now than ever that we:

Encourage and support more young women in non-traditional and science, technology, engineering, math and health fields;
Demand fair and equitable wages and work to close the pay gap;
Reject discrimination and harassment in the workplace; and
Provide flexible workplace and leave options, including paid family leave, child care benefits and support services.

I am proud to say that my Department is doing all it can to support women. My proposed 2011 budget establishes a $50 million State Paid Leave Fund to help cover start-up costs for states that choose to launch paid leave programs. In addition, it provides resources for the Women’s Bureau – celebrating it 90th anniversary – to improve the collection of data related to the intersection of work and family responsibilities.

Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity — men and women — to reach their full potential.

Hilda Solis is the Secretary of Labor

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This morning, we see more word from opponents of health reform that they are amping up their efforts to kill the bill before it even comes to a vote.   The insurance industry lobby, which is holding its annual conference at the Ritz-Carlton today, announced that it is going to spend more than a million dollars on television ads in the coming days to try to protect the status quo; this is on top of the millions of dollars they have poured into a supposedly-grassroots effort to block reform.  And the Chamber of Commerce, which we already know has also run anti-reform ads funded by the insurance industry, is holding a conference call today with executives from a handful of industries to lay out to discuss their plans to try to block reform.

Over the coming days, you’ll hear a lot of noise from opponents of reform who are desperately trying to protect a system that earns billions in profits while rates climb so high that many Americans can’t afford coverage.   Consider that the average premium for employer-sponsored family coverage per month in 2009 is $1,115 – incidentally, that’s also just about the cost for non-members to attend the insurance industry’s conference, at $1,125.  If nothing is done to reform our broken health care system, a recent survey found that over the next ten years, out-of-pocket expenses for Americans with health insurance could increase 35 percent in every state in the country.

That’s why it is important for the American people to hear what the insurance industry and their allies won’t be saying: that reform will actually bring down costs for American small businesses and workers. 

As a result of health insurance reform, millions of small businesses nationwide could qualify for a tax credit to make coverage for their employees even more affordable.  Reform will prevent insurance discrimination based on health status, meaning that small businesses will no longer be unfairly subjected to arbitrary premium hikes if a worker falls ill.  Reform will create a health insurance exchange that pools small businesses and their employees with millions of other Americans to increase purchasing power and competition in the insurance market – a luxury that is afforded only to large firms under the status quo.  And for the millions of young adults who work at small businesses, health insurance reform will also allow them to stay on their parents’ employer-based insurance until the age of 26, providing an essential option for coverage.

Health reform will also put Americans in control of their health care coverage.  It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.  It will make insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care, thereby helping over 31 million more Americans afford health care.  It will hold insurance companies accountable by laying out common-sense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

And it puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

So when you see those insurance-industry funded ads or hear the same old rhetoric from insurance industry allies, remember that they’re fighting to protect their bottom line – and keep the facts in mind.  The reality is that health insurance reform will put Americans in control of their own health care and bring down costs for American workers and small businesses.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

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