1-26-07, 8:51 am

H.R. 676 has been reintroduced: Single payer, quality, national healthcare!

This is your chance to help make history!  What you do right now will make a huge difference? How can we really get to a quality national healthcare system now, this time around?

Step One: We have a great bill, H.R. 676, that covers our medical needs without continuing to support insurance companies. Improved and enhanced Medicare for All that will save about one third of every dollar we have been spending.

Step Two: We already have 45 Co-sponsors.  Three are not yet listed in the official list below.

Step Three: We need YOU -- every one of you – yes YOU – to be in touch with your Congress Member today –by the end of January to be sure that he or she signs onto this bill, H.R. 676, and understands that you are committed to seeing it passed.  Visit your Congress Member when he/she comes home; take a delegation with you; call your Member at work 1-866-338-1015 on our toll free number. Do it now. And send them letters from our website under “Campaign Tools” and “Write Congress”  Or take a big batch of postcards and hand deliver them to his/her office. 

Don’t wait for someone else to do this.  You don’t want to miss out on this chance to make history.

FREE CONYERS VIDEO

If you send an email to Healthcare-NOW (info@healthcare-now.org)  letting us know that your Congress member is on board, we’ll send you a free 7 minute DVD of John Conyers talking about how we can win.  Just let us know.  1-800-453-1305.

Now the next part gets tricky.  But it is really easier.  If your Congress Member is already listed here, then you only have to call to remind him/her that you are supporting the bill and you need him/her to be sure it gets passed. It is also important to write to Congressman Charles Rangel, and call on him to hold hearings on H.R. 676 during April or as soon as possible. His fax is 202-225-0816.  His phone is 202-225-4365. He has already signed onto the bill, so be sure to thank him. 

Tell them all that we are sick and tired of waiting for healthcare in this country.

We want it NOW.

WAY MORE SPONSORS Our bill already has a lot more co-sponsors than any other healthcare bill in the House. The pundits and the nay-sayers are still saying it is not possible, just too hard – but they haven’t taken into account the broad and growing movement for a national single payer healthcare plan that says “Yes, we can win this. We can do it together.” 

Here’s a really important point. Since the Congress has passed the Pay/Go measure mandating no deficit spending, our bill, H.R. 676, is the only one that can pass muster because it pays for itself. Pay as we go. Single payer is the only way.

By the way, if you want to read the bill, H.R. 676, just go to Thomas.gov, click in Conyers name and scroll down to 676:   

OUR NEW CO-SPONSORS LIST:

Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 1/24/2007 Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] - 1/24/2007 Rep Carson, Julia [IN-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] - 1/24/2007 Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 1/24/2007 Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [MD-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5] - 1/24/2007 Rep Engel, Eliot L. [NY-17] - 1/24/2007 Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17] - 1/24/2007 Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] - 1/24/2007 Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] - 1/24/2007 Rep Green, Al [TX-9] - 1/24/2007 Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] - 1/24/2007 Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] - 1/24/2007 Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 1/24/2007 Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] - 1/24/2007 Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 1/24/2007 Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice [TX-30] - 1/24/2007 Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. [MI-13] - 1/24/2007 Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] - 1/24/2007 Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 1/24/2007 Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] - 1/24/2007 Rep Loebsack, David [IA-2] - 1/24/2007 Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 1/24/2007 Rep McNulty, Michael R. [NY-21] - 1/24/2007 Rep Meehan, Martin T. [MA-5] - 1/24/2007 Rep Miller, George [CA-7] - 1/24/2007 Rep Moore, Gwen [WI-4] - 1/24/2007 Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 1/24/2007 Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] - 1/24/2007 Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] - 1/24/2007 Rep Roybal-Allard, Lucille [CA-34] - 1/24/2007 Rep Scott, Robert C. [VA-3] - 1/24/2007 Rep Towns, Edolphus [NY-10] - 1/24/2007 Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 1/24/2007 Rep Weiner, Anthony D. [NY-9] - 1/24/2007 Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 1/24/2007 Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 1/24/2007 Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4] - 1/24/2007

I would be remiss not to say thank you again to all of you who have worked so hard over the past three years to get to this point.  We will have hearings, and we will get this passed. 

Call us up if you want more information, and go to our website  for more guidance on what else you can do – holding hearings, getting ready for Martin Luther King Healthcare Month, (APRIL) taking an action every 6th and 7th of each month…1-800-453-1305.

If you are not yet a member, please join us now.  .

This is a happy day,

Marilyn Clement National Coordinator, Healthcare-NOW