The various groups supporting real universal health care -- citizens, patients, nurses, doctors, labor, business, Democrats and democrats, and many others -- finally have a unified site for both coordinating activity and providing tools to activists, especially for organizing congressional visits and other direct citizen lobbying of Your Congress.
You should check out the homepage, but below are direct links to some of the tools to help you become active.
The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care is the national alliance for single payer healthcare reform – publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare for all. We are a coalition of groups promoting comprehensive reform legislation to guarantee health care for all Americans as a basic human right.
The Leadership Conference helps member organizations utilize their respective resources, capacity and constituencies to educate, advocate and agitate to pass H.R. 676, the National Health Insurance Act/Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. To pass H.R. 676, the Leadership Conference is committed to developing coordinated legislative, media and grassroots strategies to support health care for all Americans through a privately-provided, publicly-financed system modeled on Medicare
Again, you should check out the homepage directly and then go from there, but to get an idea of what is being offered, below are direct links to some of the tools for to help you get active:
- Who were co-sponsors co-sponsors in 110th (last) congress?
- Who has signed up as a co-sponsor so far in the so far in the 111th congress (it's only been two weeks since HR-676 was reintroduced)?
- Who are thought to be potential co-sponsors we should target to get to sign-on?
- Contact an organizer in your congressional district. This list is just starting. So if you don't see your district listed yet, please contact the Leadership Conference if you don't see your district listed. Also there is a more complete list of state and local single payer contacts here and here.
- Upcoming congressional visits.
- Congressional district reports.
- Congressional vists in recent past
- General events calendar
- Oh yeah... What is H.R. 676 , National Health Insurance Act/Expanded & Improved Medicare for All?
TOP 10 REASONS TO SUPPORT H.R. 676, THE U.S. NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT
- Everybody In, Nobody Out. Universal means access to health care for everyone, period.
- Portability. If you are unemployed, or lose or change jobs, your health coverage stays with you.
- Uniform Benefits. No Cadillac plans for the wealthy and Pinto plans for everyone else, with high deductibles, limited services, caps on payments for care, and no protection in the event of a catastrophe. One level of comprehensive care for everyone, regardless of the size of your wallet.
- Prevention. By removing financial roadblocks, a universal health system encourages preventive care that lowers an individual's ultimate cost and pain and suffering when problems are neglected and societal cost in the over-utilization of emergency rooms or the spread of communicable diseases.
- Choice. Most private insurance restricts your choice of providers and hospitals. Under the U.S. National Health Insurance Act, patients have a choice, and the provider is assured a fair payment.
- No Interference with Care. Caregivers and patients regain their autonomy to decide what's best for a patient's health, not what's dictated by the billing department. No denial of coverage for preexisting conditions or cancellation of policies for "unreported" minor health problems.
- Reducing Waste. One third of every private health insurance dollar goes for paperwork and profits, compared to about 3% under Medicare, the federal government’s universal system for senior citizen healthcare.
- Cost Savings. A guaranteed health care system can produce the cost savings needed to cover everyone, largely by using existing resources without the waste. Taiwan, shifting from a U.S. private health care model, adopted a similar system in 1995, boosting health coverage from 57% to 97% with little increase in overall health care spending.
- Common Sense Budgeting. The public system sets fair reimbursements applied equally to all providers, private and public, while assuring that appropriate health care is delivered, and uses its clout to negotiate volume discounts for prescription drugs and medical equipment.
- Public Oversight. The public sets the policies and administers the system, not high priced CEOs meeting in private and making decisions based on their company’s stock performance needs.