Moving Forward on Health Care

From my email inbox to you - and a job to be had in D.C., if you are interested:

Last week President Obama spoke to the nation and said he wants healthcare reform within a year! We do too. But we want it done the best way, the simple way, the economical way, the humane way - the HR 676 single-payer way!

We've got our work cut out for us. President Obama's health advisors have all been exposed as big insurance and big PhRMA types. And we continually hear that single-payer isn't politically feasible.

But it is feasible. We know it. The polls and experience around the world show it. Most doctors, nurses, and patients say it. It's the only way to cover every U.S. resident without increasing our national spending on healthcare. Healthcare-NOW!'s network of activists amplifies this messages every day.

Our efforts helped forge a strong and united national single-payer coalition that can claim 20 million constituents. Because of thousands of phone calls and visits our activists have made, HR 676 now has 60 co-sponsors since it was introduced in the 111th Congress.

We organized a briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building last week that brought in experts to expose the Massachusetts mixed public/private insurance plan for the failed mess that it is. Our activists personally delivered an invitation and package of materials about the MA plan to every House office.

Our work over the past five years helped generate new CBS News/NY Times polling data showing that 59% of Americans believe the government should provide national health insurance, vs. 40% who believed that in 1979. Our work helped win HR 676 endorsements from the US Conference of Mayors, and big cities such as Philadelphia, Seattle, Baltimore, and Boston.

We need your help to keep Healthcare-NOW! running at full speed. We do lots, but we could do more. We need a part-time staff member in Washington. We need to bolster our communications with tens of thousands of people in our networks all over America. We need to strengthen local coalitions in key Congressional districts around the country.

This year is crunch time for our movement time to deliver the pressure necessary to make the Obama administration and Congress do the right thing. We hope you can help us.

You can donate via our web site. You can designate how your funds will be used for lobbying, which is critical now or for tax-exempt educational purposes.

Thanks for helping to keep us running at full speed. The times demand it.

Thanks for all that you do,

Marilyn Clement

Healthcare-NOW! National Coordinator