(1) Andy Stern - damn him - has made sure that the labor movement as a whole won't be getting behind HR676. (2) Healthcare NOW doesn't just have a bad web site; they have no apparent strategy. And no organization working out of 339 Lafayette has the resources to direct a national campaign (I say this with all love and respect for David McReynolds and the good folks at WRL). (3) PNHP is much better organized (and they got started early - Quentin Young kicked this off around 1989), but their focus really is on doctors as a constituency. You can join as a supporter if you're not an MD, but aside from kicking in your $40, there's not much you can do. (4) AFAICT, the strategy right now seems to be to work for single payer at the state level (hence Kuehl's bill in CA). So, for example, there's an organization "Health Care for All in Illinois" that is clearly a PNHP spinoff (they work out of the same office). I guess I can see a couple of rationales here: (a) unfavorable climate in Washington, (b) easier to pressure state legislatures, where a few busloads of citizens roaming the halls can make an impression. But I worry that this states-first strategy will serve to dissipate energy; and in any case at some point it will have to become a national campaign. (5) In contrast, there's no organized movement of any scale that I can discover for the Conyers Bill (HR 676), which apparently can't even get hearings scheduled. I think this is the real hole in the movement. We need a national bill, I think, for a couple of reasons: (a) eventually the national systems in place such as Medicare and VA are going to have to serve as templates for the administration of single-payer; we can't have each state reinventing the wheel; (b) even if we can't get HR 676 now, by using it as the model, it makes state initiatives part of a national movement AND makes any state initiatives that we do pass consistent with the model we want nationally.
So that would be my strategy - focus on the Conyers Bill and link state initiatives to it. And I agree that we should do it for Carl instead of just kvetching. So, seriously, where do we start?
Michael McIntyre
On Feb 14, 2008, at 10:40 PM, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> Shag wrote:
>> i take it from the lack of response that there is no actual group
>> or effort
>> to start something -- concerted political action to ensure that we
>> get
>> single payer?
>>
>> if not, then I propose this: I'll work on this in my locale, who's
>> going to
>> join me. Let's get this party started -- and do it for Carl!
>
> There is. I'm working on this through the Labor Party
> (www.justhealthcare.org), but it's unlikely there's an active
> chapter in your area. Most states have some kind of effort going,
> with California the most advanced I know of (California Nurses
> Association/NNOC, a Labor Party affiliate, is in the lead on this).
> The big national single-payer coalition is Healthcare NOW (http://
> www.healthcare-now.org/) --god they need a web designer, it's a
> jarring mess over there. The 'contacts' tab has a map to hook
> people up with a local effort.
>
> Most of us are pushing HR676 (Conyers' bill), which has maybe 90 co-
> sponsors in the House. There is a significant movement within
> unions to support this bill, with around 27 state AFL-CIO's (now
> including CA) and a zillion locals and central labor bodies signed
> on. That is being kept track of, and pushed, by Kentucky-based All
> Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care. Of course, there's
> also Physicians for a National Health Program, which has great ammo
> on their site, pnhp.org, including critiques of HRC and BHO's
> plans, if anyone wants to read what people who've been working on
> this issue for 3 decades think of the current candidates' claims to
> 'universality.'
>
> SickoCure.org is a site PNHP set up following the release of
> Moore's film. They have ads that the California Nurses Association
> made to criticize the Dem. candidates. Lots of fliers to download.
> Nice site. CNA has www.guaranteedhealthcare.org
>
> Jenny Brown
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