Texas-Sized Gratitude

Texas-Sized Gratitude This week, Texans like these will gather at Thanksgiving tables, where your willingness to be a champion for health care is a cause for great thanks. Cameron recently graduated from college in Austin and is able to stay on her parent's health plan this year. Arlington's Mary Etta finally got that mammogram she needed this year, thanks to newly covered preventive screenings under health reform. Brazoria County's Wesley knows he can keep receiving life-sustaining medical services, no matter what, just as Plano mom Michelle knows her leukemia-survivor son is now safe. Both are grateful that the Affordable Care Act bars insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. Destiny, age 9, of Houston won't have to go the E.R. to get treated for her asthma, because Children's Medicaid lets her visit the pediatrician instead. These are truly just a handful of stories of the many millions of people for whom your advocacy for a well and healthy Texas makes such a difference. So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, and we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving! P.S. Do you have a health care story to share?  Please contact us. We would love to hear about it!

Health Care Action Calls to Restart in the New Year In December, our monthly Health Care Action Call will take a brief hiatus for the holidays (and while both our community educator Cheasty Anderson and I are out on maternity leave). The calls will return early next year when the legislative session is underway. You will hear from other great members of our campaign team about it. These monthly emails will keep coming from our campaign project manager Laura Guerra-Cardus, so make sure if you have a "safe senders" list, that she's on it: [email protected].

Save the Date - March 5 is a Day for Health Care Champions to Come to the Capitol In 2013, will our state protect Medicaid for the many kids and vulnerable Texans who benefit from it now? Will 1.4 million low-income adults without affordable health care get Medicaid coverage at no added cost for Texas? You can help get lawmakers to "yes" on both those questions by joining us and hundreds of Texans from across the state at the Capitol on March 5. Hope to see you there!

News and Announcements from our Texas Well and Healthy PartnersBehind the Texas Well and Healthy campaign are four organizational partners that each have exciting work of their own going on. Here are some highlights this month: The Children's Defense Fund - Texas is ramping up its new outreach program especially for small businesses in Texas. Want an educational workshop in your community about what the Affordable Care Act means for small businesses? Contact CDF's Courtney Watson. Texans Care for Children will have a 2013 Children's Policy Conference. The conference will be held in Austin on February 6 and includes workshops and panels on health issues for kids. Register for the conference now. The Center for Public Policy Priorities has a new website and blog, where you can find posts by some of our campaign's policy experts. For example, catch the latest video shorts featuring Cheasty and find out why Texas will, in fact, have a health insurance exchange, at the Better Texas blog. Engage Texas this month held a live event in conjunction with partners Progress Texas, the Texas Civic Engagement Texas, and Be One Texas, where we examined what this month's election means for Texas and what lies ahead for the legislative session. Learn more about progressives' takeaways from the election.