Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I was promised a recession.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You cannot shame the shameless.

T R E 4 5 O N

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Call the Senate and comment at CMS

Call the Senate and comment at CMS

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Call the Senate and tell them what you think about Medicaid expansion. Ask for their health policy aide:

Also, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants comments on their latest rule making changes. Let them know what you think about the Exchanges and Medicaid.

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    You say “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wants comments on their latest rule making changes” but what are these and are they good, bad, a mixture or what?

  4. 4.

    The Red Pen

    I live in a state that rejected the Medicaid expansion and my (evil) Senator is Roy Blunt. If I call his office, what would I say?

  5. 5.

    David Anderson

    @The Red Pen: improve the ACA, follow lead of Cassidy Collins to actually work on a health bill not a tax bill with Medicaid pay-fors….

    That is the polite phone call.

  7. 7.

    Betty

    Contrary to the info given by Ben Wikler, the health assistant for Toomey is Brad Grantz. Per an active group in Pennsylvania: PA folks: @SenToomey’s staff director for the Senate Healthcare Subcommittee is Brad Grantz. His email is [email protected]. Toomey is on the committee writing the legislation and is a hard right winger, ex-Wall St.guy.

  9. 9.

    mousebumples

    Just called – I started with Senator Baldwin (easy phone call) and then talked to Senator Johnson. I definitely played up the fact that I work in health care (I’m a pharmacist). The guy I talked to seemed nice – but I didn’t ask to talk to the health care aide because I have no idea what I’d say to them. >_>

  10. 10.

    Groucho48

    That CMS link was full of Republican talking points and weasel phrases.

    The RFI follows steps CMS has already taken to help improve the health care system, including issuing the Market Stabilization Final Rule on April 18, 2017. This new rule will place downward pressure on premiums, limit special enrollment period abuses, and help to improve choices; while also reducing regulatory burden.

    What that means is that they are cutting the open enrollment period drastically, lowering the % of costs insurers have to pay, and will let some states, which are qualified to do so, review the health provider networks, instead of the Feds. In states that aren’t qualified, insurers can just assure HHS that their networks are adequate.

  11. 11.

    TooManyJens

    @Cermet: CMS has put out a “Request for Information” on several topics. If you go to this link and scroll down to Section II, starting in the middle of page 6, you can see what they’re asking about. There isn’t a specific proposal on the table, at least not in this document.

  12. 12.

    H.E.Wolf

    I called the toll-free main number for CMS: 1-800-633-4227. After saying “I want to speak to a human being, please” to the recorded prompts a few times, I got a 10-min. wait with guitar music, and eventually spoke to a customer service person.

    I said that I was concerned that the Republicans were hoping to weaken or destroy Medicaid/Medicare, that I was strongly opposed to that plan, that I thought that course of action was immoral, and that I wanted to see Medicaid and Medicare strengthened.

    I also used my reliable “get the phone rep on my side” method: I asked the cust. svc. rep where their call center was, and upon hearing [State], I said, “Oh, I hear that [State] is the most beautiful place in the country!” This works 98% of the time to put the conversation on a friendly footing.

    (The other 2% of the time, the cust. svc. rep says the equivalent of “blech, I don’t like living here”, and in those cases… I commiserate. Which also works. :) )

    After we agreed on the loveliness of [State] and the wonderfulness of people from [State], I thanked the rep for the work that CMS was doing to protect the most vulnerable of U.S. citizens (“Yes we ARE!” said the rep, with feeling), and we parted as allies.

    [ETA: After the “what a beautiful [State]” conversation, the rep volunteered the toll-free # for the nearest regional Medicaid office, so that I could call those folks too. Allyship in action!]

    I get a huge kick out of this sort of thing. One unknown stranger at a time, one gossamer thread of a phone conversation at at time, I’m weaving a web of resistance and comradeship. Laugh at it if you wish – eppur si muove.

  14. 14.

    jc3

    @The Red Pen:

    I just called the number in the post above. You will probably get an assistant of Desiree Mowry. I told them as someone who goes through the ACA, I was very concerned that the Senate thought it was OK to jam a bill they wouldn’t let the public see through Congress. I also told them I was well aware Mr. Blunt was safe for six years, but that I would remember a vote to take away my and others healthcare six years from now. Then I gave them my zipcode.

  15. 15.

    frosty

    @Betty: Thanks, just emailed him. I have never (not once) gotten anything but voicemail when calling Toomey’s office. Casey too, for that matter.

  16. 16.

    Raoul

    I e-mailed Sen. Gardner, I own a second home there and use the local address as the ‘from’. I decided to use “drugs” as the choice from the pull-down, rather than “health” and wrote a meaningful note about the personal impact of the opioid crisis on my extended family, and that the AHCA would make things much worse for us as well as countless others. I also worked in a dig about “I have to go by what is in the House bill since the Senate is working without public hearings, which I hope you’ll also speak out against”.
    I haven’t called him (this time – I called in late winter when it was so nuts that I couldn’t leave even a VM at either his DC or suburban Denver offices). I feel sort of weird calling since my actual Senators are Klobuchar and Franken. I will call them momentarily, even if it’s just a ‘keep fighting’ message.

    eta: Is there a link to the public comment area for CMS? The press release conveniently (for them who don’t actually want public comments) omits it.

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