Speak Up!

Update 1/25/17: Thank you to the clinicians who participated in this campaign to speak up on behalf of their patients. We need these voices now more than ever. Scroll to the bottom of this post for a list of the articles published (18 newspapers and counting!).

This week, the Clinician Action Network is launching a Speak Up Campaign as Congress prepares to reconvene in January to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act. The goal of the “Speak Up” Campaign is to have commentaries written by you published in local and regional newspapers across the country during the week of January 9, 2017. As a healthcare provider, your voice, expertise, and experience matters to your community, and can help to galvanize support for the progress that the ACA has made. The op-eds should focus on how ACA repeal without replacement would affect our patients and our profession. See this summary of the impact of ACA repeal.

If you are interested in writing an op-ed, fill out this form with your name, community, and topic and read this quick primer on commentary tips & ideas. We will then contact you to provide editorial and submission support, media resources, and connect you with others in our Network who are in similar geographic areas or interested in similar topics.

We would like to specifically target members of the House and Senate budget committees in swing districts that may be responsible for the reconciliation process. These include key districts in:

• Wisconsin
• Pennsylvania
• Ohio
• Iowa

(Find out more on the reconciliation process here and here.)

No matter what district or state you live in, we encourage you to speak up. There’s no better time than now to join a growing movement of healthcare providers who are seeking a say in the direction of our healthcare system.

Articles published (as of 1/25/17):

The Affordable Care Act has helped me to be a better doctor (Megan Testa, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio)

Killing Obamacare will hurt many (Mallory Holz, Rapid City Journal, South Dakota)

Much ado about Obamacare (James Loehr, Wilmington Star News, North Carolina)

ACA should be repaired, not repealed (Bich-May Nguyen, Houston Chronicle, Texas)

Health care politics put patients at risk (Jeremy O’Connor, Hartford Courant, Connecticut)

​Thoughts on ACA from women’s health physician (Amy Kelley-Osdoba, Argus Leader, South Dakota)

​Rural America, already hurting, could be most harmed by Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare (Margaret Greenwood-Ericksen and Mahshid Abir, The Conversation, picked up by Newsweek and Salon.com)

​Faces of the uninsured: the cost of repealing Obamacare (Ralph Freidin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

​Protect families; oppose repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Lisa Patel, Sacramento Bee, California)

​The risk to women’s health of ACA repeal (Jennifer Sneden, Colorado Daily Camera, Colorado)

​America’s health must be top priority (Brian Ewert, Marshfield News Herald, Wisconsin)

​Before jumping on repeal, weigh ACA’s successes (Amy Gardner, Cape Cod Times, Massachusetts)

​Repeal of Obamacare would be a disaster (Wesley Clark, Addison County Independent, Vermont)

​Women rush to get IUDs, fearing ACA repeal (Emily Cronbach, San Francisco Chronicle, California)

Why some women are clamoring for contraception ahead of Inauguration Day (Sarah Horvath, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania)

Affordable Care Act lifesaver, doctor says (Nancy Elder, Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio)

Doctor: Obamacare shouldn’t be repealed (Emily Thomas, Clarion Ledger, Mississippi)

​Obamacare repeal would destroy key mental health protections (Samuel Dotson, Charlotte Observer, North Carolina)