HealthJustice Pushing Hard
What You Have Accomplished
Dear All,
This has been an extraordinarily busy couple of days for HealthJustice and for single payer advocates. It has been a turning point for single payer as an idea. We are finally getting the message across to the public and even (imagine that) to Congress.
Read what has happened and what you can do to keep up the momentum. Now is a crucial time because we are at the turning point. Congress will go our way or not in the next couple of weeks. Don’t let it be the NOT way.
After ordering the arrest of five more single payer speakers on May 12, Baucus said “I will personally meet with anyone.” OK Max, you know what that means. We are invited to your party and we are going to RSVP big time. Send your request for a personal meeting with Max to his scheduler. This free e-fax also goes to the White House and the Senate Finance and Health Committees. Let’s give Max the meeting requests he says he will honor. And just for fun, let’s suggest a meeting in the National Stadium, where Max can charge admission so he won’t have to keep taking insurance money. Win-win, wouldn’t you agree? Max gets the money and we get to give him an earful.
To top it off, you can stay (cheap, $35/day) with Medea Benjamin of Code Pink at theCode Pink House. Fill out the form here to stay with fellow activists while you are keeping your appointment with Max.
Health Insurance Horror Stories
Congressmen Conyers and Kucinich need your health insurance horror story. They particularly need stories that show “keeping the health insurance you have ” and the “Massachusetts plan” are bogus solutions. So if you are from Massachusetts or if you got screwed even though you were insured, write your story here. It will become a free fax to the White House but will also be used by single payer supporters in Congress to illustrate why the insurance companies do not belong in health care.
It’s easy. Write your story. Fill out a little contact information. Click send. Your fax is on its way.
The Ruckus We Are Making (Donate to Keep It Going)
As of today, you have sent 44 thousand faxes. About 5900 are still queued up for receipt. We have five lines going.
As of today, you have sent about 2000 individually recorded phone calls to Sen. Baucus and the White House. At two to three calls per minute, you are sending a couple of hours worth of calls each morning. The voice messages are also transcribed and faxed to the White House and to key legislators. You are on your 11th set of transcribed voicemails, each with about thirty pages of closely typed messages totalling 200-300 messages per day.
As of today, all five Mike Farrell ads are running. They have been on with Hardball, with MASH, with Larry King Live, with Campbell Brown and several others. Each time they run, there are five to twenty more phone calls in support of single payer. Altogether, an estimated 6.5 million people have seen the ads at an average cost of $3.50 per thousand and a total cost of $22,675.30. See the ads here: http://www.youtube.com/user/1PayerHealth
As of today, you have donated a little over $18,000. As you can see, donations have not quite kept up with costs for the TV ads. That of course does not even consider the cost of the faxes ($350/month currently), the phone services ($600/month) or the cost of health coverage and care($50-90/day.) Yes this is expensive. Is it worth it? Only you can make that decision.
