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Join Your Friends and Neighbors June 6 in the Fight for Real Health Care Reform
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This Saturday, you can join with your friends and neighbors in the fight to win the kind of real health care reform that President Obama describes as vital to ensure quality health care for all and to revitalize the economy.
That’s the day Organizing for America is holding thousands of events in private homes and community centers around the country to discuss real health care reform and craft plans to build local support and help pass health care reform. Click here to find an event near you. Enter your ZIP code and you will get a list of events, contact numbers and names and directions.
In the next few weeks, Senate and House committees will complete their work and introduce health care reform legislation. This weekend’s events are a great opportunity to ensure America’s workers are represented in the fight for real reform. When you go to an event and are asked your thoughts on comprehensive health care reform, let them know that working families say health care reform must:
- Include a public health insurance option that will bring down costs and guarantee quality affordable health care for all.
- Require employers to pay their fair share to prevent companies from shifting costs for their workers to taxpayers and firms that offer good benefits.
- Ensure affordable coverage for pre-Medicare retirees, who can’t get affordable coverage on their own.
- Reject schemes to tax health benefits, which would unfairly raise costs for workers—especially vulnerable workers.
These efforts are part of a growing grassroots counterattack to the multi-million dollar advertising campaign and lobbying efforts from opponents of real health care reform. The private insurance industry, big pharmaceutical companies and other health industry corporations are bent on protecting billions in profits and their control of the nation’s health care system.
Just yesterday a new coalition of progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO, announced a grassroots action plan to make sure a public health plan option—one that allows a family to keep their private insurance or chose a public health insurance plan option—is not derailed by the private insurance industry.
And on May 30, the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), Health Care for America Now! (HCAN!) and some 200 other community, faith, civil rights and advocacy groups marched and rallied in Seattle, demanding health care reform. The event drew more than 5,000 people. Check out the video above for a closer look.
Make sure your voice is heard this weekend. Click here for the event nearest you.
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12 Comments
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All right brothers and sisters, plan on attending a meeting near you, here is an opportunity to tell the Obama-ites we don’t want the public option, we want single payer health care! Educate attendees on how single payer works, is not socialized medicine, and how the insurance industry has failed in providing health care coverage. Obama is now talking about taxing health care to pay for his “reform”. Tax the insurance companies if they are going to be a part of his “reform”.
So when is the leadership of the AFL-CIO going to acknowledge the stated wishes of 40 of its state affiliates and support single payer? Are you at least going to explain to the membership why you are ignoring them?
Leadership may feel that they are protecting the larger interests of the rank and file by not opposing the public option paln currently supported by Obama and Senate leadership, bu tth eAamerican people are going to realize that this is being turned into the biggest bailout yet. The insurance industry is only at the table because they realize they are pricing their product out of the market and have no solution to ever rising costs while maintaining their profits in the non-system of health care delivery.As a result, they are looking for a massive and permanent infusion of taxpayer money to support their profits, at the expense of true reform.
Obama, Baucus and others opposing even discussing single payer are ignoring the will of the 60% of the American people and physicians (and growing) who recognise that SP is the only sustainable form of universal health care.
EWhy doesn’t leadership get ahead of the curve for a change and support its members in calling for the solution that every industrialized country has already recognized. Does the union really want to accede to the continued control of the Semnate by corporations? How does that serve its membership?
Rick Staggenborg, MD
Physicians for a National Health Plan
Coos Bay, OR
Obmama is now talking making his plan like Massachusetts’ plan: Mandated Insurance.
We cannot live without our doctors, but we can live without insurance companies. Being in the life, health and P&C insurance business for over 20 years, I would estimate that 50% of premiums, and a substantial portion of human resource expenses, go to waste on other than healthcare, such as—wining, dining, lobbying, contests to attend resorts and unreasonable executive bonuses (the latter 2 going to the most effective liars, cheats and thieves). I support a public plan or single payor system of which most of the premiums paid would go towards healthcare. Even in property and casualty insurance, and similar with health insurance, I can give examples of where, system wide, as much as 150% of premiums acquired go into client acquisition expenses in the name of competition and efficiency (Not).
I have three health insurance companies engaging in lying, cheating and stealing, deceptive trade practices and fraud. One is using the excuse of the employer’s lack of paying the premium. The employer uses the excuse of election problems , which is due to their highly secure and complex online systems that do not work and take an act of congress to correct. The other insurance companies use the excuse that they sent a survey form inquiring about other coverage. Even when you finally get it and swear you do not have coverage, they misinterpret that you do have other converge. All of the parties use highly-secure corporate websites to communicate messages that are erased after a few weeks. However, they never fail to collect the premiums.
Between Banks, credit card companies and health insurance companies, insurance companies are tied for first in the example of lying, cheating and stealing, which is the order of the day for big business (Republicans). This is not godly, not even free enterprise, and will lead to the destruction of this country and the world. We are all consumers. This has to stop.
Successful “Raise Your Voice” for Real Health Care Reform event was held in Edwardsville, Illinois on Saturday June,6th.
More than 25 active and retired USW members joined with the members of the United Congregations of the Metro East [UCM] and the Downstate Democrats For Change at the Goshen Farmers Market in downtown Edwardsville on Saturday June 6th.
We passed out hundreds of flyers and pamphlets promoting that a Single Payer health care system should be considered in any health care reform.
Several speakers took to the steps of the courthouse to express our views of the health care crisis and possible solutions. The speakers were Dr. Pamela Gronemeyer from the Downstate Democrats For Change, Jeff Rains president of the Steelworker Organization of Active Retirees, Larry Evans from the United Congregations of the Metro East and Mike Fultz USW Local 1899 member.
The response from the general public attending the Farmers Market was generally very supportive of real health care reform with a single payer system option.
The Edwardsville Intellinger and the Suburban Journal newspapers covered the event.
At the link below is a photoshow of the event.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denbark/sets/72157619255723785/
Hats off to the organizers of those events which allowed a serious discussion of the issue and presented the different options for health care reform, rather than simply rallying the troppes behind Obama’s plan. There are serious questions about what form Obaama’s public option will take and whether it can work in practice. They need to be discussed openly and in thoughtful and principled way. Sloganeering won’t cut it any more–too much is at stake.
Obama’s plan for a public option is not real health care reform. Any plan that leaves the for profit insurance companies in the loop can never realize the cost savings that a single payer plan can. Single payer removes the complicated accounting required of multi payer plans and saves billions by also removing costs like marketing, CEO’s massive pay packets and profit that go with every insurance company. Remember that insurance companies are created to generate profitd while a government run single payer is created to provide health care. Don’t be satisfied with anythong less.
While ultimately I support single payer, I am a little swayed by arguments that we cannot force people currently on private employer based plans to give them up against their will. Now, with that said, there are a few points I want to make. One, we don’t really know how many of these folks would have a problem making the switch to a robust public plan initially. We probably should not assume that all would fight to keep their current plan. God knows the insurance companies are intensely unpopular these days, but for those who would want to hold on to their plans, I don’t want to pick that fight with them.
I believe our bottom line needs to be that a quality, robust Public health Plan must come out of this. I do believe that if we are successful, millions will “migrate” over to the public option, and as you’ve already pointed out, we would no doubt see many employers look to free themselves from the private plans further bolstering the membership of the public plan.
With all that said, this does not mean at all that Single Payer should be off the table. It was a strategic blunder on Obama’s part to declare single payer off the table if he truly wants to free this country from the tyranny of the insurance companies. I hosted one of the recent health reform kickoff meetings here in Tucson. It was a highly successful meeting that drew a large number of people, because I presented this narrative, I believe. I’ve said this repeatedly of late, that it was obscene to exclude single payer advocates from the dialogue and the Senate hearings in full view of the insurance companies and big pharma, who were seated at the table. To acquiesce to this is to agree to go into battle with one hand tied behind our backs.
We will all be the worse off for it, and without single payer at least on the table, whatever emerges in the end will suffer for it. In the end, no robust public plan means no reform at all.
Ed Hunt
Tucson, AZ
PS: Don’t want to knit pick with one of the other commenters. But I would say that single payer is socialized medicine, so is medicaid, medicare, etc. But so what? That’s not a bad thing, except to the free market extremists. And many polls have shown that a majority of American’s are fine with it.
Not to denigrate Ed Hunt’s fine comment but his PS is incorrect. Single payer is not socialized mediicine, it’s socialized insurance.
Under single payer our private health care delivery system would remain untouched.
I did go to one of the locations for the Healthcare rally… unfortunately only 5… yes FIVE!! people showed up and none of them was the organizer that was listed in the online registration form. Come on people, we need a better commitment from members to turn folks out, and better communication besides a passive email system. Make some phone calls to Labor and community groups, bring out neighbors, etc. If I was new to this and turned out to what I saw on Saturday, I’d wonder why bother and probably never turn out again! Get off the couch and get involved…
You want a good suggestion? Make the movie Sicko available to everyone online or buy and distribute it to Labor and community groups to share with members. That movie converted a hard right wing neighbor of mine to vote for change and vote for Obama…. and he is racist! The movie Sicko is the single best eye opener tool we have…. Buy a bulk amount of copies and make them available at a discount price on this website!
I attended one as well. My questions (besided the details of the plan) asked “where was the single payer option. ”
I for one would like to know whom and why they stacked the deck against single payer folks supporting plans like HR676? The single payer folks (like the nurses and doctor’s association/ some labor organizations like SOAR–more) has worked long and hard to push this issue before the American people.
One hopes that the Democratic party is aware there will be political reprocussions over this. As a matter of fact, the Obama folks need us and if he continues to make deals with the thieves of the insurance company; single payer folks can and will make some trouble next presidential election (if not before in the midterms).
I attended one of the Obama meetings.
We discussed his plan as well as the alternative single payer plan HR676.
At the end of the meeting we voted on which plan to support and were unanimous for the single payer plan.
I think it is time for the AFL-CIO to wake up and throw its’ support behind single payer.
Tom Cox
Hollywood, FL