It's Your Health - Join the May 1st Healthcare Rally in Montpelier

by: Maggie Gundersen

Thu Apr 29, 2010 at 19:02:36 PM EDT

    11am: March from City Hall, 39 Main Street
    12 Noon: Rally at Statehouse Lawn

It's for your health!  

Need details, see the links and contact information below for the Vermont Workers' Center  

From the email sent to me by Jonny Leavitt of the Vermont Workers Center:

The day will feature art, theater, music, and entertainment for all ages. Invite your neighbors and co-workers, bring your friends and family, and come celebrate with the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign

Join with thousands of Vermonters and Senator Bernie Sanders for a rally which will help put Vermont on course to lead the country in establishing a healthcare system in our state that treats healthcare as a public good for all.  The bill S.88 has now been voted through both chambers of the state legislature and is on its way to becoming a law that will design and implement a universal system of healthcare in Vermont.

Can you help us make the rally even bigger?
-  Take the I'll Be There pledge that you'll be there at the rally and will try to bring family and friends to show our legislators that we need healthcare as a human right!  http://www.workerscenter.org/may1
-   Help promote the May 1 online and Facebook and Listen to a PSA by Willem Lange, see more here: http://workerscenter.org/node/513
-   Trying to figure out how you'll get to the rally? We have information on transportation and carpooling here: http://www.workerscenter.org/t...

For more information, visit http://www.workerscenter.org/h... or call 802-861-4VWC

Tomorrow CAN be a better day

by: Maggie Gundersen

Sun Oct 25, 2009 at 21:49:58 PM EDT

Last year I testified in Burlington to a panel of government officials, civic leaders, and doctors regarding my experience back in the early 1990's without health care.  It was a challenging and difficult time for me and my family, and luckily we and our children were in good health and came through that hardship relatively unscathed.  

All around me, friends are losing jobs and health care, and those friends who do have healthcare are finding their coverage lessened as their costs rise astronomically.  

According to the Grassroots orgainization Billionaires for Wealthcare,45,000 people die every year because they can't get access to the health care they need.  What kind of cruel third-world country have we become where corporate profits are more important than the health and welfare of our citizens.  

This video brings home the point that

AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them - with song.

How Can We Stay at 37?

by: Caoimhin Laochdha

Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 17:30:00 PM EDT

. . . if we don't even take care of the most vulnerable and deserving among us? You know we need to protect . . .

. . the health insurance executives.  

Today's the day: contact our congressional delegation

by: Jack McCullough

Sun Aug 16, 2009 at 18:26:46 PM EDT

What we may have considered inevitable appears to be happening: Obama is selling out real health care reform.

According to this report from NPR, 

Bowing to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Obama's administration signaled on Sunday that it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that a government alternative to private health insurance is "not the essential element" of the administration's health care overhaul. The White House would be open to co-ops, she said, a sign that Democrats want a compromise so they can declare a victory.

I'm sure that most readers of this site will find this utterly unacceptable. President Obama ran on a platfom of delivering health care reform, and the fraudulent package he is apparently willing to accept is a betrayal of all of us who worked so hard to put him in office.

If you agree that health care "reform" without even the watered-down public option is no reform at all, please contact your congressional delegation and ask them to oppose any health care package that does not include the public option.

Senator Patrick Leahy:

P.O. Box 933 - 87 State Street, Room 338 - Montpelier, VT 05602 - (802) 229-0569

Senator Bernie Sanders:

 Representative Peter Welch:

Make Public Health Care Happen

by: mataliandy

Wed Jul 22, 2009 at 11:02:31 AM EDT

@ChuckGrassley Public option = $256B in savings. Your plan = $32B in added cost. http://bit.ly/VDBH4.  Public Option, now.  #health_care
-------

More than 70% of Americans want a public health care option, but the health insurers and others who profit from the current "death by spreadsheet" system are fighting tooth and nail against us.

There are two paths for action, both of which are needed, to get the message across to our elected leadership in Washington.

Path One - Call People in Key States and ask them to Contact their Congressional Delegation

Those making deals with insurers and others to weaken health care need to hear from their constituents (aka: the people who can vote against them in the next election). They need to hear every single day, and the way to make that happen is to make sure their constituents know that these fine folks are planning to vote against the constituents' wishes.

The Organizing for America Neighbor to Neighbor tool is the key tool for this path. You'll need and Organizing for America account, if you don't already have one, but it's an easy sign-up.

Look for this button when you go there:

Click it, and on the page that appears, choose the state of one of the key legislators. Those states and legislators are listed in the table on this page.

Path Two - Call Key Representatives and Senators Directly

-------
Update: Tweet the following on Twitter, and get all your friends and family to tweet it, too:

@ChuckGrassley Public option = $256B in savings. Your plan = $32B in added cost. http://bit.ly/VDBH4.  Public Option, now.  #health_care
-------

This path is slightly less effective than when constituents call, BUT is still needed in order to let these particularly important folks know that we're all watching and that campaign funds from us might just find its way to their opponents next time out, if they ignore us on this issue.

Over the fold is a complete repost from today's DailyKos diary by slinkerwink on the subject. It provides a little background, contact info, and talking points.

We can sit by and despair over how "it's never going to happen" or we can do our best to make it happen despite the odds. I'm for the latter option.

Get Busy!