Action Alert: The LGBT Community Must Be Included in Health Care!

Health Care Reform IS an LGBT Issue!

Tell Your Representative to Vote YES on Reform!

We are at an unprecedented point in the process of national health care reform: the House of Representatives is voting on its reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), within the next week.

It is crucial for the LGBT community that this bill passes with a strong majority. The House bill includes numerous provisions that are key to the health and well-being of our community, including:

* a strong public option that expands coverage
* data collection that includes sexual orientation and gender identity
* strict prohibitions on discrimination in health care and insurance coverage

Our community is the under- and uninsured. We are seniors and youth, women, people of color, immigrants, and transgender people. We are too often discriminated against by insurance companies and health care providers and denied the care that we need. The status quo harms our community and our families, and we deserve better.

Tell your Representatives to pass LGBT-inclusive health care reform NOW.

Here are three ways to support the Affordable Health Care for America Act:

1. GATHER People Together. Hold a community call-in night at a local community center or your home. Tell people to come with their cell phones charged up and spend the evening calling toll-free 1-877-264-HCAN (1-877-264-4226), contacting their Representatives to push for passage of the House bill.

2. CALL Your Representatives. Use that toll-free number 1-877-264-HCAN (1-877-264-4226) to call your Representatives and ask them to support the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

3. EMAIL Your Representatives. Send your legislators a letter pushing for the passage of the House bill stressing that a strong public option, LGBT-inclusive data collection, and clear nondiscrimination provisions are especially important to LGBT people.

Thank you to our partners at the National Coalition for LGBT Health for spreading the word about this important issue.