Guaranteed Healthcare

http://www.massaforcongress.com/index.asp

WASHINGTON, DC -- Within less than a week of being sworn in as the new Congressman from New York's 29th Congressional District, Eric Massa proudly informed Rep. John Conyers that he will co-sponsor HR676.  Massa also proclaimed his intent to be active in his support of the bill to provide publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare to every Amercian.

Many of CNA/NNOC's tireless RNs will remember visiting Massa's district during the election season with the bus tour that brought the RNs report card on candidates' healthcare refrom plans to the battleground states and districts. 

In addition to being a staunch supporter of healthcare reform, Massa is a cancer survivor and a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy.  He defeated a Republican incumbent to take the Congressional seat and wasted no time diving into the work that needs to be done in Washington.

Like many candidates from this cycle, Massa took on tough issues and fought hard -- and still has bills to pay from the campaign. Any individuals who may wish to congratulate Rep. Massa on his co-sponsorship or help him in any way can visit his campaign site link above.

Massa made a special point during his swearing-in reception to thank the nurses who traveled to his district to talk to voters about healthcare and those activists on the ground in his district who stood by him even when the going got tough.  Welcome to Washington, Rep. Massa. 

JANUARY 15th, 2009, Call to Action  
As MLK, Jr., proclaimed over 40 years ago: 

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

In honor of the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968), we are gearing up for the second national call-in day to Congress on Wednesday, January 15, 2009. 

So please join our national call-in. You may reach the main U.S. Capital switchboard at 202-224-3121, and ask to be transferred to your Representative’s office to express your support for single payer healthcare reform, HR676.  

Keeping calls brief and to the point is best.  It makes it easier for Congressional staff to log in your message(s), but don’t be afraid to do some educating about what you see happening to your patients and your profession..And don’t be embarrassed if you need to look up the contact information for your Congressional representatives – just check it out at  www.votesmart.org

By Donna Smith

CHICAGO -- While other devoted election workers and issue activists were taking a much deserved breather following the November 4th general election and planning their trips to celebrate their success in Washington in January, single payer healthcare reform activists stepped up their energy levels and gathered twice in national formations within just 10 days after the historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. 

The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare met in Washington, DC, on November 10th and 11th, with leaders from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee along with other labor organizations, faith-based groups, Healthcare-Now, Progressive Democrats of America, medical students, Physicians for a National Health Program and representatives from more than 20 diverse organizations.

Just three days later, in Chicago (see above), the committed activists from Healthcare-Now convened their 2008 National Strategy Conference with representatives from 23 states and the District of Columbia to pull together the various states organizations and member coalitions of Healthcare-Now and map out the immediate efforts to support HR676, Rep. John Conyers' national single payer bill.  Single payer is the publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare reform plan that addresses and repairs the lack of access and affordability issues facing millions of Americans.

Rep. Conyers attended both national meetings.  He assured both the group assembled in Washington and the folks gathered in Chicago that he will reintroduce HR676 in the 111th Congress and that his support is stronger than ever for the bill. 

John Conyers sees the RNs' bus for the first time.

By Donna Smith

KENT, Ohio -- Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, who is also the chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the primary sponsor of HR676, the National Health Insurance Act, looked up with joy as he spotted the RNs' bus on the main drag in Kent, Ohio.  Conyers was at the local Democratic Party headquarters helping stoke up the troops for the 10-day push to election day 2008.  The nurses were making their way from Cleveland to Youngstown to educate citizens about their healthcare report card for candidates for this election cycle.

For nurses who have met Conyers before, seeing him in Ohio is a reminder of just how critical Mr. Conyers believes this election is.  And for the nurses who have not met him, he took a bit of extra time to shake hands and admire the bus that rates the candidates but also clearly tells all that the RNS believe HR676, publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare is the treatment the ailing nation needs for its healthcare system.

The stop in Kent followed a morning of finding opportunities to reach out to citizens who may not know where the nurses stand on healthcare reform and why nurses know a single payer system is the right way to go. 

Seattle PI & John Conyers Rock the Healthcare Boat!
John Conyers yesterday...and the Seattle PI today...ask us the same question: are you ready to rock the boat on healthcare and fight for genuine reform?

The answer is yes from a growing number of people....editorial boards across the country, 450+ labor organizations, 59% of physicians, the national nurses movement, and—I suspect—a majority of delegates to the Dem convention.

Well I guess the healthcare apolcalypse is upon us:

Infomercial king Billy Mays, known for screaming about the wonders of cleaning solutions Kaboom!, OxiClean, and other household products, is now starring in a commercial for what he calls "the most important product I've ever endorsed:" health insurance.

That’s right.  The man who brought you the Bloomin’ Onion Maker and the Samurai Shark is now selling health insurance.  

In today’s roundup from the movement for guaranteed healthcare, Progressive Democrats of America lead the charge to put real healthcare reform in the Democratic platform, a Hawaii activist reports on single-payer organizing at Obama platform meetings, a Massachusetts RN warns that the healthcare mess in their state was created when “moderates” cut a deal to protect insurance profits, and Senatorial candidate Jeff Merkley endorses HR 676…though he also endorses the terrible Wyden bill, from his future fellow Oregon Senator.
 
Oh and health insurers keep laughing to the bank, with Aetna reporting another few hundred million in profit. 

It’s all below! 

By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist, CNA/NNOC 

While ad campaigns rolled out from some groups and the media focused themselves on -- well -- themselves, and their coverage of the presidential race, the champion of single payer healthcare reform rolled out his own plans and moved ever forward in the steady march toward victory.

Rep-John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary and primary sponsor of HR676, joined the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign in seeking national platform status for true reform.  No wiggle, no waffle, no sequential silliness that allows some Americans in while holding others partially out of the plan.  Conyers knows that with 91 co-sponsors already on board and many more in the November election pool, the path to passage of HR676 is much more "politically feasable" than the convoluted and corrupt path to marginal change.

Awesomely simple and exquisitely responsible, single payer offers patients maximum flexibility in seeking quality healthcare, and it offers the nation maximum “bang for the buck” by removing the mark-ups for excessive profit necessary in the current for-profit, private health insurance markets.

The incremental health reform plans are quite convoluted and difficult to follow. Designed to protect all the corporate, for-profit entities currently making money in our system, it is nearly impossible to accomplish universal access to care while maintaining the status quo of our national corporate healthcare system.

Steady as we go, single payer friends, Conyers and his cohorts always remind us that our cause is just, the path is clear and we can win true, universal care for every American.  

I am blessed to be one of the four national co-chairs of this PDA campaign, along with Conyers, Soloman and Marilyn Clement of Healthcare-Now.  Read the attached article and jump in with us.

Sign on to this effort and spread the good word.  Single payer reform is on the agenda.