As some of you may already know, I have been an organizer advocating for universal health care for over 15 years now. We are on the doorstep of a significant step forward if the House passes the Reconcilitation bill and the underlying Senate bill.
As a long-time organizer though, I am aware that we will need to put the pressure on immediately after this current health insurance legislation passes. Progressive change means that we have to keep pushing forward. For the past 14 months, I have been actively organizing for HCR in my community.
Just yesterday, we helped to organize 75 people to go to Congressman Guttierez's office on North Avenue to ask him to vote yes on the bill. We just got word that he will in fact vote yes. Community pressure really does work. It is the most effective form of organizing out there. It is even more powerful than online organizing -- though I believe that that has its place too.
Anyway, I believe that those of us who are progressive need to immediately pivot to pushing for a bill that offers a medicare buy-in option to people 45 years and up. I believe that this would be a straightforward bill that would build upon the legislation that is still waiting to pass in the House and Senate.
I would love to have people's thoughts about how best to proceed with launching such a campaign. I know that I am EXHAUSTED from all of the work that I have done in the past few months just to get to this point in the process. I anticipate that many other organizers are going to want to take a long break from this really tough fight and yet I know that now is when we must keep the pressure on.
Do folks think that organizers should be advocating for a stand alone public option bill instead? I would love to get some feedback and ideas.