Feed.TheHungryHead.com

First newsletter From November5.org

December 14, 2008 7:16 am The Head Politics, U.S. Law and Policy

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Since the end of the 2008 Presidential election there was  new website formed to keep people more enganged with government called November5.org

Just received the first contact since the confirmation email.. It is below and it is About HEALTH CARE!

December 12, 2008

Thanks for signing up to find out more about November5!

Several
of us from the Nader for President 2008 campaign had decided to channel
our efforts toward one big goal, but we lacked a major focus. Recently,
results of a survey done by the campaign came back. Top issue? Adopt
single payer health care. It’s not the only issue people care about,
obviously. But, to turn this country around it’s clear that we need to
address our own pain now.

Our big goal for the next Congress
will be to drive for national health insurance to cover
privately-delivered healthcare for all Americans.

We’re far from
alone in this. The array and scope of the groups and their allies
supporting national health insurance is impressive. But we are not
reinventing the wheel, either. As long as you want to build a lasting
organization that will get Congress to focus on people’s needs — not
those of big business — November5 can be the place to do it.

Here
in the United States, we have excellent private health care. So why are
nearly 100 million of our citizens uninsured or underinsured? You
already know why: profit-driven private insurance companies. Taken
together, they make the Pentagon look streamlined.

Not
only that, but consider over 18,000 dead and hundreds of thousands
getting sicker every year specifically because their health insurance
is inadequate — or non-existent.

The way to fix health care is
to cut private insurance companies out of the basic health care
picture, while keeping our system of private delivery. This is how
Medicare came into being in the 1960s. It now covers all Americans over
65.

If we succeed in creating a system of “Medicare for All,” we
will help businesses and other organizations, independent contractors,
veterans, people with pre-existing conditions, students — all of us.
If we get this done, it will revolutionize all of our lives for the
better. We’ll be able to focus on everything else that we want to
accomplish for our communities, and our nation.

Passing national health insurance will be difficult, but it is achievable.

General Plan

1. Huge
   amounts of leg work have been done on this issue. H.R. 676, the
   legislation that supporters of national health insurance have
   introduced, had 93 original co-sponsors in the House. That number will
   probably increase as the new Congress comes into session. The first
   task now facing all supporters of the bill will be to make a new tally
   of co-sponsors and supporters in the next Congress.
2. We
   will be up against alternatives to “reform” health care, such as the
   plan promoted by Senator Max Baucus. They simply extend the status quo
   – and the damage. They would expand the profits of the private
   insurance companies, and therefore cannot check the spiraling inflation
   generated by these companies, and the broken system they inhabit. So,
   right away, we have to draw a sharp line between what we want, and bad
   compromises.
3. Remember, to pass the House, we will
   need roughly another 120 votes. That means that we will have to go for
   a margin, to have around 140 votes in addition to the co-sponsors. Here
   is where our district-level organizations will have to go to work to
   pick up votes.
4. We will need sponsors of the
   legislation in the Senate. Those do not yet exist. This is a critical
   early step that we hope to help other groups active on H.R. 676 to take.
5. November5
   is non-partisan. We cannot be bound by the notion that Republicans will
   not buy into national health insurance. It maintains private delivery
   of health care and will expand choice of doctor, creating conditions
   for greater innovation and competition — not less.
6. We
   will need to build fast. This effort will work only if it moves deeply
   into communities, where members of Congress get their votes. We are
   currently designing a structure that will allow people to begin
   organizing independently, district by district, around our current goal
   – without having to wait for plans from above.

Specific Steps

1. Inform yourself and others by reading:
   • H.R. 676
   • and these three articles:
     • Rose Ann DeMoro, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 8, 2008
     • Physicians for a National Health Program, Talking Points, December 10, 2008
     • Statement of Dr. Marcia Angell introducing the U.S. National Health Insurance Act
   • and
     by watching these excellent videos on H.R. 676. Pass them along in
     emails, on blogs, facebook and myspace pages. If you create videos on
     youtube, do one on national health care yourself:
     • HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 1 of 4
     • HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 2 of 4
     • HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 3 of 4
     • HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 4 of 4
2. Write
   a letter — not an email — in your own words to your member of
   Congress stating that you’d like their commitment to vote for H.R. 676.
   If your member of Congress is a co-sponsor of the bill, express your
   support for that stand. Email a copy to us, if you would, with the
   words “Letter to My Congressperson” in the subject line.
3. President-elect
   Obama has asked for volunteers around the country to host discussion
   groups on the health care issue during the last half of December.
   Attend a discussion in your area and make the argument for single
   payer. Click here for more information.

Soon,
we’ll be raising money online to build the November5 movement.
November5.org will not be a passive website, it will be a place where
each Congressional district will be represented by the people of that
district. You’ll be able to login and see the latest on your
Congressional representative, plan with others events that make sense
to you for promoting H.R. 676, and organize for meeting with your
member of Congress.

If the model works, we’ll be able to tackle
other issues. For now, let’s focus in, and get November5 built. The
bell has rung — and we are in a struggle that we can win, if we all
dig deep.

The politicians who want to nibble around the edges of
the rolling disaster that is our health care system may have industry
on their side, but we have the best plan. Many highly-qualified
doctors, economists, and legislators have put enormous work into it, we
just have to stand up, be counted and gather others with us to do the
same.

We look forward to the rewarding work ahead.

The November5 Team