12-18-06, 9:03 am

After the Smoke has Cleared: The Latest View from Healthcare-NOW

It is now clear that our victory at the polls didn’t move the Congress immediately to take up national single payer healthcare for all – not yet. However, there are dozens of incremental healthcare plans being proposed all over the place. It is no surprise that people are scurrying to make proposals since the voters were so clear that healthcare is our #1 domestic priority. 

There are quite a few Congress Members who have put forward their own partial plans – to fund a few States to do studies, find out what is wrong with healthcare in their particular State and try out a solution; to provide Medicare for All and let people buy into it if they wish or buy into private for-profit healthcare insurance, perhaps leaving the hardest and most expensive cases for the public to pay for. All kinds of State by State by State plans are being proposed – most of which are not single payer, most of which would spread thin coverage over the uninsured and leave millions insecurely underinsured while adding more expenditures from workers’ pockets. Congressional leaders are thus far offering coverage for all children and negotiating down the costs of Medicare Part D as the only healthcare legislation planned at this time. And there is no denying the desperate need for each of these proposals. Unfortunately, infusions of lobbying dollars keep many Congress Members from being bold and challenging the industry.

So far, their proposals don’t get us much closer to a national non-profit healthcare system for all people in this country.  They don’t cut the costs and provide better healthcare for everybody.  They are not secure. They don’t provide improved and enhanced benefits for all.  Non-profit, single payer is the only plan that will do that – H.R. 676. is the starting point. 

Unfortunately, some citizens will buy into these less comprehensive plans hoping that, finally, they are supporting healthcare security for all or thinking it is just the best we can get.  As we know, that is not the case. The voracious greed of the healthcare industry knows no bounds. They will not stop until we stop them. As their profits and their control of the system go up, so do the costs of healthcare for all of us. That cost is now 16% of our U.S. gross domestic product. Will it have to go up to 25% before we say, “No more!  We are sick and tired of being sick and tired!” as Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer used to say. We must be clear that we won’t continue paying twice as much as the dozens of advanced countries who have better healthcare.”

 SO – HERE’s OUR STRATEGY:

Here’s the Biggie. We want you and the others in Healthcare-NOW to hold 1,000 Healthcare-NOW Truth Hearings all over the country in every nook and cranny. These hearings have been tremendously successful during the past two years in building this movement. Now, we must continue this strategy until everyone understands the issue. We need you to plan for one or more hearings in your community providing testimony from the people who are hurting and DYING for a national healthcare system. Your hearing (s) could be before or after the April 4th month of Healthcare-NOW activities. They could be small or large. They could be on a radio program or in your church or union, library or home. Be creative. But don’t delay. We need to start setting dates now. Please let us know what you are thinking and how we can help you get started. See our website for more information.  www.healthcare-now.org  Call our office to talk about it:  1-800-453-1305.

REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT --  Please send $25 and join Healthcare-NOW. Here’s how:  Go to “Donate NOW online – or send a check. https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2264.  We hardly ever ask for money, but we really need your support right now.

There are 30,000 of us on this list. If 1,000 of you do this one thing, join Healthcare-NOW and contribute $25, we will be able to hire an organizer to work in Washington and to do outreach to the faith communities to complement the great work of Kay Tillow organizing labor union endorsements, the work of PNHP in signing on doctors, and the work of the California Nurses Association and other nurses unions recruiting nurses nationwide to H.R. 676.

Please do it now. It will be tax-deductible and a great gift to all: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2264.

Needless to say, if you can contribute more, you know what to do.

Right now, this week, send a note to your Member of Congress and ask him or her to get ready to sign onto H.R. 676 in January. On January 6 or 7th call and remind him/her. Everyone will need to endorse the bill again as we move into the new Congressional session. *

Write a letter or a fax to Congressman Charles Rangel, new Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ask him to call official hearings on H.R. 676 during the week of April 4th, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorating his commitment to universal healthcare for all. *

Write similar letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Pete Stark who heads the Health Sub-Committee of Ways and Means.*

Your organization can endorse H.R. 676 and Healthcare-NOW. Your group can sign on and help win quality healthcare for everybody.  You can go to the endorsement page on our website: http://www.healthcare-now.org/endorse676.php. This would be a good way to start off the New Year.

The warmest of best wishes and love to all of you during this season of contemplation and joy from all of us here at Healthcare-Now.

 Marilyn, Tresa, Georgette, Ajamu and Thelma

 P.S. HEALTHCARE-NOT WARFARE!  We saw a button the other day that said “And I am opposed to the next war too!”   We can choose as a nation what our priorities will be.  We can choose to fully fund education, people’s pensions and healthcare, housing, jobs, Social Security and Medicare or we can choose war.  Support a healthy country.   Join the “Grannies’ Peace Brigade” in Washington, D.C. on January 18th – “to restore citizen participation to the corridors of the U.S. Congress.”

 Call 212-533-2125 for more information.

 * WRITE TO CONGRESS - You can write letters to Congress through our website:  “Look at http://www.healthcare-now.org/action/write.htm  and stay in touch…

Healthcare-NOW, info@healthcare-now.org, 1-800-453-1305, www.healthcare-now.org