For Immediate Release August 28, 2009 Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez 202-863-8148 OVER 1,000 NEW MEXICANS RALLY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE REFROM AT ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA’S "HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM NOW: LET’S GET IT DONE!" STOP IN ALBUQUERQUE Follows st

For Immediate Release

August 28, 2009

Contact: Ricardo A. Ramírez 202-863-8148

OVER 1,000 NEW MEXICANS RALLY FOR HEALTH INSURANCE REFROM AT ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA’S "HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM NOW: LET’S GET IT DONE!" STOP IN ALBUQUERQUE

Follows stop in Phoenix with more than 1,000 supporters as momentum builds to pass health insurance reform this year

Over a thousand New Mexicans rallied to support efforts to pass health insurance reform this year at Organizing for America's Health Insurance Reform Now: Let’s Get it Done! Bus Tour stop in Albuquerque last night. The tour kicked off this week with stops in Albuquerque and Phoenix where thousands have rallied to show their support for passing reform this year. The tour is part of a wider set of events in the next two weeks being held throughout the nation highlighting the strong support for reform throughout the country.

These strong showings of support offer further evidence of the building momentum to pass health insurance reform this year which lowers costs, protects choice and ensures all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care.

In addition to these basic principles, President Obama announced eight Health Insurance Guarantees which will protect the millions of Americans who already have insurance, but aren’t getting the care they need because of sky-rocketing out of pocket expenses and unfair insurance company practices: 1) no discrimination for pre-existing conditions, 2) no exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, or co-pays, 3) no cost-sharing for preventive care, 4) no dropping of coverage for the seriously ill, 5) no gender discrimination, 6) no annual or lifetime caps on coverage, 7) extended coverage for young adults, and 8) guaranteed insurance renewal.

OFA National Director Mitch Stewart

“We are at a cross roads as a country, it’s important that you continue to talk with your friends and neighbors and pushing back against the miss information because the status quo is unsustainable. Our current system is bankrupting families, it is bankrupting businesses and it is bankrupting government. It’s not just for folks who don’t have insurance – that are suffering - it’s for those that do and that is why the President has laid out eight health insurance guarantees.”

State Senator Dede Feldman

“Yes we can, yes we can break the gridlock and yes we can overcome the fears and miss information that are being spread today as we speak at senior citizen’s halls and town halls throughout this state. We can do this because peoples own personal experience with the difficulties of getting and affording health care show them that the status quo is unsustainable . With a little help from you, and from Organizing for America, their own experiences as individuals and small business and health care providers … those experiences, those real life experiences, will ultimately trump the current series of lies that can be exposed by a little reality check from us.”