Health care march of the century now organizing--please help!

[eridani]

Volunteer, get your organization to endorse, ect.

Vision statement

Mother’s March for Health Care – May 2009, Washington State

Vision: President Obama has put out the call for health care reform in 2009, and the Washington State community proposes a large march in response to that call.

We have heard over and over again that if we hope to achieve progressive policies in our state and country at this time, we must build a grassroots movement to make it happen. President Obama has repeated what FDR said when he was being lobbied to pass some of the progressive social programs of the New Deal: “Make me do it.” A mass gathering is a significant way to galvanize people to act and to drum up the power of our numbers. A major event that brings people together and communicates to the policy makers that people want change and they want it now is a key tactic for community organizers and has influenced policy makers throughout the history of our country.

The Washington State HCAN coalition proposes this event but the march must have widespread participation from all communities to create the pressure we need to win health care. This event will build toward health care reform efforts on the national scale, particularly to a national mobilization coordinated by the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) campaign. States around the nation will be holding events around the country in April and May to build to a June 25th national event with tens of thousands of people in Washington D.C.

Theme: HCAN proposes a Mother leading the way for health care reform theme. The theme highlights a powerful message that connects people across communities and their personal stories and families to the fight for national health care reform. Regardless of a person’s personal connection to motherhood, the concept of mothers protecting loved ones is well known. Focused, clear messages have the most success transferring to the media and the general public, and the imagery of Mothers for Health Care will garner much attention. This theme is not meant to exclude any non-mother parties, but rather, it’s meant to evoke and convey the previously mentioned messages when it comes to health care.

Mothers and health care: Health care, like many institutions in our society are not gender neutral unfortunately. Two years ago, the median expense paid by women under 45 years old using high deductible health plans is $1266-$800 more than it is for men. A year ago, 74.6 percent of health care workers in America identified as women. “Women have traditionally been the health care decision makers, and that's translated over to politics, too,” Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners has said.

And while we recognize that not all women are mothers, women as mothers play a significant role in their families’ health care, with 8 in 10 mothers taking on the chief responsibility for their children’s health care.

Program: As we focus on winning health care reform within the year, we have come to a point where we need people out in the streets showing the people’s mandate for reform. With the political energy around health care in President Obama’s administration, now is the time to mobilize the absolutely biggest event we can build. That means, working to build as broad a base as possible, bringing nationally prominent speaker(s), and musicians and entertainment with broad appeal. Staying true to the theme and raising up community voices, all speakers will fit the theme of Mothers for Health Care.

Some endorsing organizations so far

65th Street Change Gang
American Friends Service Committee
Casa Latina
Chapter 3 of Retired Public Employees of Washington
El Centro de la Raza
Healthy Washington Coalition
Issues Committee of the First District Democrats
Jobs with Justice
Northwest Women's Law Center
One America
Physicians for a National Health Program
Planned Parenthood
Religious Coalition for the Common Good
Service Employees International Union
Sound Alliance
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21
Washington Bus
Washington CAN
Washington Federation of State Employees
Washington State Labor Council
Latino Heat
Youth Eastside Services

Endorsement form

Please send us the following information if your organization would like to endorse the May 30th mobilization for health care.
Organization:
Contact person:
Phone:
Email:
Please mark if you or your organization would like to be a part of a committee:
__ Logistics
__ Program
__ Media/Publicity
__Outreach
__Fundraising

Contacts for further info

Chair: Lynne Nguyen: lynneln {at} gmail.com
Logistics committee: Sunny Kim at sunny {at} washingtoncan.org
Media/Publicity: Tom Geiger at tgeiger {at} ufcw21.org
Program Committee: Joshua Welter at joshua {at} washingtoncan.org
Outreach Committee: Rachel Berkson at rberkson {at} seiuwa.org

[eridani]

1. Email change for Lynne Nguyen

She'd prefer being contacted for march business at her work email lynne {at} washingtoncan.org

[eridani]

2. The website is now up

http://may30march.org

[eridani]

3. Sign up to be on the bus from Bellingham

You have an opportunity to make a strong statement for a national, non-profit single payer healthcare system on May 30 in Seattle at a rally at which upwards of 2500 persons are expected to attend!

If you would like to ride the United for National Healthcare bus from Bellingham to Seattle for the May 30 health care reform march, I strongly urge you to sign up now. You can e-mail me at:

[e-mail]

or call me at [phone] (a local Whatcom County phone number).

We have almost filled one bus and need to know in a few days if there is enough interest to charter a second bus. It turns out that because of high school graduations, we don't have a lot of time to make our decision.

Here is the Rally Information:

Bus will leave at approximately 9:30 am from Bellingham to:

Mothers Leading the Way statewide health care reform rally.
May 30, 2009 - begins 12:30 pm
Pratt Park - 18th Avenue S. and Main Street near Yesler - Seattle WA
After the Pratt Park rally, we will be marching from Pratt Park to Westlake Mall. There will be buses for those who cannot march the full distance.

40 statewide community organizations have endorsed the March.

Snacks and beverages will be provided for the trip down and beverages for the trip back.

For more information visit the March website: www.may30march.org

Aileen Satushek
United for National Healthcare

[braindon]

4. Health Care Solutions

Hello,

More than anything, if you care about true health care you should lobby and support efforts aimed and encouraging greater health. That means opening up school gym facilities to be used by the public, supporting business that provide healthier foods, reduce the effectiveness of welfare foodstamps for less healthy foods, and allowing and supporting policies that encourage accountability for poor health choices. This includes reducing, raising the price of, and eliminating public resources going to pay for people who smoke, chew tobacco, drink alchohol, etc. This means extending the cap on HSAs and allowing them to be used by people that don't have HDHPs. This means exchanging FDA limitations on drugs imported to America for greater transparency, education, and drug effectiveness label requirements.

You can talk about health care all day long, but the fact remains that nobody can afford to pay for a population that is committing health suicide. I'm not saying we should not make health care possible for situations that are not preventable, but we should not support poor health choices. I don't want to see family have to choose between paying their taxes and buying a healthier meal for their children and believe me; they will have to if you keep suggesting we pay for all health issues, period.

Do you think us Republicans and Libertarians despise health care? Far from it. We believe very strongly in it; but the moment you start forcing tax payers to pay for "glutton yourself and get free heart surgery" cards, is the moment all of will quickly find ourselves dealing with different kinds of health care problems such as suicide, depression, and starvation (because we won't have enough money to afford food because we spend so much money on taxes).

Regards,
Brandon

[eridani]

5. Nonsense. Expensive illnesses are like house fires. You aren't likely to have one,

--but you could. Therefore the whole society should pay to share the risks. It doesn't matter jackshit if you wire your house correctly, don't store oily rags in the basement and teach your kids not to play with matches. You still need a fire department.

It's delusional to think that prevention saves money. It saves lives and improves the quality of life for many, but it actually costs money.

[eridani]

6. Saturday is the day!

Tomorrow is the day of the Health Care Rally!

Single Payer, Not For Profit Health Care is the top priority in the action plan of the Washington State Progressive Caucus.

In Seattle, meet at 12:30 at Pratt Park, 18th and SE Yesler Way, for a rally and march to Westlake Park in downtown for the final rally.

In Port Townsend, meet at 12:30 on the triangle of land on Sim's Way by the Food Coop and WaMu/Chase Bank for an informal rally. Bring a sign. For more info, call Teri Nomura, [phone] or Ron Nelson [phone].

In Tacoma, the rally begins at First United Methodist Church, 621 S Tacoma Ave., with refreshments at 9:30 AM, rallly at 10:00, and the march leaves at 10:45. For more info, call 253-471-1123

In Spokane, contact Walt Kloefhorn wkloefkorn {at} yahoo.com

Here is a link to statewide bus pickups for the major rallys: http://www.may30march.org/

Here are pointers to 2 sites where you can download and print flyers for single payer…
http://www.healthcareforallwa.org/downloads/101_new_final-3.pdf
https://www.pdamerica.org/pdastore/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=139

Here is a pointer to hand outs you can print and take to the rally.
http://pdamerica.org/iot/iotpage.php?page=Healthcare for All

or make your own poster, banner, etc.

ENACT H R 767 / SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE

In Solidarity,
Judith Shattuck, Chair
Washington State Progressive Caucus

[eridani]

7. Article and pictures

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2009282093_healthmarch31m.html


Tacoma Rally sign-in


Chair of Pierce Co Health Care for All--WA


Stage at Tacoma Rally


Stage at Seattle rally


Belly dancers for single payer


Tandem bikers for single payer


Miss Single Payer


Seattle Health Care for All--WA gathers at the pre-march rally


Citizen Artiste the costume goddess dancing for single payer


Red Health Care for All bandannas were handed out by organizers of the march and were very popular.

[eridani]

8. SEIU's photo album

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=seattle%20health%20care%20march&w=all

And Post Intelligencer article
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406728_healthmarch31.html

[eridani]

9. Discussion and evaluation planned for 6/17

Our May 30th event was incredibly successful, and the momentum from May 30th is building health care reform this year. In fact, health care legislation is moving extremely quickly in Washington D.C, expected to be voted on in Congress this summer and on President Obama's desk by October.

The Health Care for America Now Coalition, the convener of the May 30th coalition, would like to invite your organization to join us for a discussion around the next steps toward health care reform:


When: Wednesday, June 17th, 2-4pm

Where: Washington State Labor Council

314 1st Ave W, Seattle


The upcoming two or three months will be an intense battle for health care reform, and this is the time to be involved, united, and focused. The meeting on June 17th will focus on strategies for advancing health care reform that meet the Health Care for America Now campaign's principles (attached). Specifically, we will focus our discussion on advancing four main policy objectives:

The choice of a public health insurance plan -- a public alternative to private health insurance
The inclusion of everyone, regardless of immigration status
Shared responsibility, including meaningful responsibility for employers

Addressing health inequities, particularly through a diverse and culturally competent workforce, language access, and access for rural communities.
This meeting is open to all organizations who would like to strategize on advancing these objectives together, regardless if you are already a member of the HCAN. If you have not already joined HCAN and would like to, attached is a coalition sign-on statement and list of national and state coalition members.

--
Lynne Nguyen
May 30th March Coordinator
Organizer, Washington CAN!
www.washingtoncan.org
office: 206-389-0050 x232
lynne {at} washingtoncan.org