It never fails to amaze me how incredibly warped the debate in Congress is on health reform. While majorities of the public likely favor Medicare-for-All, this Congress full of shills dismisses the idea out of hand.
But now it's time to fight back. We need to call our Representatives and Senators and tell them to cosponsor HR 676 and S. 703 and support the Weiner and Kucinich amendments for health reform!
Every cosponsor we can secure for HR 676 will move us that much closer to enacting system wide health care reform in this country. On S. 703 the situation is about as utterly outrageous as could it possibly be--our revoltingly corrupt Senate has NOT ONE cosponsor yet. Let's see which one will be first!
The state efforts for single payer also need our support. That's why it is important to tell your Representative to support the Kucinich amendment to remove any legal roadblocks to state single payer!
Here's the action list!
- CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW through this easy call in system and urge them to cosponsor HR 676 and vote yes on the Weiner amendment to HR 3200 coming to the House floor later this year. One possible script is:
I am calling to urge Representative _____ to cosponsor HR 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act, which would extend Medicare coverage to all Americans.
I also urge her to support Rep. Weiner's Medicare-for-All amendment to HR 3200, which will receive a floor vote in September.
Finally, please fight to retain Rep. Kucinich's amendment to HR 3200 which would give states the ability to create their own single-payer systems.
- Call your Senators and tell them to cosponsor S. 703 and vote yes when Bernie Sanders brings it to the floor of the Senate later this year. Let's see who can get the first Senator on board!
I am calling to urge Senator _____ to support S. 703. This bill will be brought to the Senate floor later this year by Senator Bernie Sanders.
S. 703 is single-payer healthcare legislation that would save Americans billions of dollars while providing universal, comprehensive coverage to all Americans.
Don't forget to explain what each bill does!
- Send an e-mail to your Representative HERE to tell them to support the Weiner amendment to HR 3200 that would replace it with a Medicare-for-All national health insurance system.
- Call members of the House HELP Committee and tell them to keep the Kucinich amendment that waives any federal ERISA laws that might pose a threat to state single payer movements.
California is very close to passing single payer and they need your support. Help keep the Kucinich amendment in the final health bill! Then if we can succeed in electing a single payer supporter (such as Jerry Brown) Governor in 2010, the path will be free and clear to pass single payer legislation in California!
- Write a letter on PAPER to your Representative and Senators. You can easily look up the address of your Representative here and the address of your Senator here. Congresspeople take written letters more seriously than e-mails because of the time that has to be spent in preparing and physically sending a letter. Physical letters show your commitment. Mine began:
I am deeply saddened by your refusal to support Medicare-for-All, or a single payer national health insurance system, in the United States of America. The United States currently spends 16% of its GDP on health care, far higher than any other industrialized nation. It is estimated that 31 percent of expenditures in our system are devoted to administrative overhead--double the Canadian figure.
- Find your local Healthcare-NOW! organization and get involved offline. Sustained involvement in your community is the best way by far to promote change because building political influence is by necessity a drawn out process. Some local organizations also have a mailing list that they will gladly add you to containing updates about nearby events. Don't miss this opportunity!
- Attend a Medicare-for-All event in your area. Healthcare-NOW! features a list of nationally recognized events, and you can often find other events by staying in contact with local organizations. As a New Jerseyite, the rally for Medicare-for-All in New York City on September 29th looks like a good choice to me!
- Make a donation to Healthcare-NOW! Big insurance, big pharma, and the provider lobbies have a massive financial advantage over activist organizations. We can only go so far with no budget!
- Don't forget to tell others online. Daily Kos is a useful and large forum on which to share ideas. Facebook members can easily join the Healthcare-NOW! Facebook group. You can also blog on other places like TPM Cafe.
- Support challengers of candidates in your area who don't favor Medicare-for-All despite constituent support (this link has good info but may be out of date). And many, many DON'T, as you can see by looking at the Congressional corruption meter below. From the link, in my state we have:
NJ-01 Rob Andrews
This guy ran in 2008 against single payer supporter Mahdi Ibn Ziya in a district leaning Democrat by fourteen points and won because he had nearly fifty times the funding. We can see on OpenSecrets that his top industry supporter was Health Professionals! What a total shill!
Please RECOMMEND this diary to ensure that others see how they can call out this corrupt Congress that continues to snub its nose at constituents' wishes!