I was in the audience at a taping of a program on WHYY TV on health care reform tonight.

And now I know how we managed to get PA ABC, Governor Rendell’s program to insure another quarter of million people, through the Senate.

The representative from Aetna said that the company thinks everyone should be insured.

The representative from the Hospital Association said that everyone should be insured.

The representative from the Pennsylvania Medical Society said that everyone should be insured.

And it was the support of these wonderful representatives of the insurance and medical establishment that helped us overcome the ideological opposition of the Republican Senate leadership, got the bill that passed the House in March to the Senate floor, and got it passed with bipartisan support.

Editorial: Health Care Unfinished business
Wednesday, Sept. 17

Even though Pennsylvania just implemented its most sweeping public-health measure in years - the workplace smoking ban - this is no time for Harrisburg legislators to sit by while nearly 770,000 people in the state continue to go without health insurance.

State lawmakers just back in session this week need to break their months-long stalemate over expanding health care for the uninsured.

At rallies yesterday in Philadelphia and in Harrisburg, community activists and business leaders alike sought to ratchet up pressure on officials to do the right thing.

The legislative standoff revolves around whether to move aggressively or accept incremental progress. It's a case of House Democrats and Gov. Rendell versus Senate Republicans - whose tax-phobic leaders want a go-slow approach.

No one has to tell you that our healthcare system is broken. We all know it. We already live it. We pay too much in premiums, we are denied care, and hundreds of thousands of us can't afford insurance at all.

Thankfully, there is a solution just within our grasp. Governor Rendell has proposed sweeping legislation to solve the healthcare crisis in Pennsylvania, insure more than 275,000 uninsured people, and give the state the power to keep down your premiums and costs to employers.

This plan - called PA ABC - passed the House this year, but is now stuck in the Senate, blocked by the Republican Party leadership.

We can pass healthcare reform this fall. It is within our grasp. But Governor Rendell needs your help.

Here's how you can help pass healthcare reform:

1. Call your State Senator and express your strong support of SB 1137 and HB 2005. (More information is below.)