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Call your Senator today & Pass Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the Senate this Week! Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202)-224-3121. Visit http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information to look up your senator!

If your Senator IS already cosponsoring, tell or leave a message for the staff person:
1) I am a constituent from (city and state) and my name is _________.
2) I want to thank Senator____ for co-sponsoring S. 47, a strong, bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, and voting YES on the bill.   Please urge Senator _____________ to follow Senator Leahy’s lead and vote NO on any weakening or non-germane amendments.
If your Senator is NOT already cosponsoring, tell or leave a message for the staff person: 1) I am a constituent from (city and state) and my name is _________.
2) I urge Senator____ to co-sponsor S. 47, a strong, bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, and to vote YES on the bill and vote NO on any weakening or non-germane amendments.
3) Thank you and I look forward to hearing that the Senator is a co-sponsor and/or voted for VAWA without harmful amendments.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! APIASF is needing volunteers to help review this year’s scholarship applications.  APIASF received over 7,000 applications and have completed only about 25%. Visit http://www.apiasf.org/ for more information.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - Survey on Discrimination Against Women in Economic and Social Life - Make Your Voice Heard: 

the Working Group on Discrimination against Women invites you to contribute to its 2014 report by taking the survey on discrimination against women in economic and social life. Deadline for reply is March 1, 2013. http://www.wunrn.com/news/2013/

Ask Obama to Nominate a Woman for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair! Sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-should-nominate-a-woman

Eve Ensler and Tony Stroebel's film "One Billion Rising" is gaining momentum. You can watch the trailer for the film here: http://onebillionrising.org/blog/entry/one-billion-rising-trailer.

Asian Americans hopeful on Immigration Reform

From blueprints to bills, the ideas from Washington this week on changing the U.S. immigration system have Asian-Americans in Illinois hopeful. - WBEZ. Read more...

Immigration Reform: Where do Asian-Americans Stand?

While Asian Americans voted for President Obama this past election in record numbers, when it comes to the immigration reform it seems that the Latino vote dominates the conversation. - The World. Read more...

28 Asian American Groups Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Prevent Voter Discrimination by Upholding Section 5 of Voting Rights Act

Today, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder on behalf of 28 Asian American groups. - Paramus Post. Read more...

Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks

The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. - Washington Post. Read more...

Shared by Eric Lachica: 

‘Obamacare’ to boost Medicare portability bid

Manila Mail DC

McLEAN Va. Some doctors in California and Nevada are working with insurance companies that would allow Filipino Americans in the Philippines to avail of US Medicare, which proponents say could provide the best justification to push a Medicare portability law in Congress.

“Doctors are taking the lead to create a win-win collaborative partnerships with Medicare Advantage insurance companies to extend temporary Medicare benefits,” explained portability advocate Eric Lachica.

He was referring to a group called the United Physicians International (UPI) of Panorama City Ca. that is led by Dr. Rene Lim.

They work with The Medical City, one of Manila’s top-notch hospitals. Fil-Ams admitted to its Emergency Room will no longer be required to pay their bills upfront – the biggest burden for Fil-Ams getting medical care in the Philippines – because it’ll be shouldered by UPI which later collects the patient’s Medicare reimbursement.

Loida Nicolas Lewis said they haven’t found anyone to sponsor Medicare portability on Capitol Hill, but assured they’re working on it. “I have the 2 senators of New York who I can approach. I also have (Congressmen) Carolyn Maloney and of course Charlie Rangel and Hakim Jeffries,” she told the Manila Mail.

 In the meantime, they have to settle for smaller gains like the precedent established in Guam and Northern Marianas that have won Medicare waivers that allow their new US nationals to be treated at accredited Philippine hospitals.

Lachica believes every time they can demonstrate huge savings from Medicare portability moves them closer to finding support in an increasingly cost conscious Congress.

The implementation of the Affordable Healthcare Act – Obamacare – has made such innovations especially attractive.

“The whole thrust of Obamacare is to reduce cost and maintain quality care. Uninsured Americans will have to choose and if they don’t buy insurance, the state has to make the choice for them and have until June 1 (California) to establish so-called exchanges,” he explained.

Insurance companies, he predicted, “will be running the show.”

He revealed that one major health insurance company has been encouraging Fil-Ams facing serious medical challenges, to get treatment in accredited Philippine hospitals because of the huge savings compared to treating the patient in the US.

“Certain medical procedures, especially surgery, can be done in world-class Philippine hospitals at a fraction of the cost here,” Lachica averred, adding that the insurance company was now busy recruiting medical partners in the Philippines to work with their network.

Lewis is confident the boons of Medicare portability would soon become self-evident. She noted that a generation of Fil-Ams is reaching their “golden years” – Filipinos who immigrated to the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s who are retiring and will need sustained medical care.

Medicare portability, she argued, will be given them the choice of spending their final years in the land of their birth and at the same time maximize US taxpayer’s money.