Endorse
HR676
Please add your organization as an endorser
of H.R. 676, the Congressional bill that will provide the healthcare
we need for our communities, ourselves our families - every person
in the United States. We are disgraced as a nation that we do not
have a healthcare system that serves our people. We are # 37 in
the world in the provision of healthcare to our people. It is time
for a change! Please get your faith community, union, club, any
institution or organization, to join us as endorsers of this bill.
Below is an example of a letter requesting enorsement. Please review
and download the
letter in a Word document format.
Sample
Resolution:
The resolution below was recently
passed by USWA (Steelworkers) Local 6787
RESOLUTION ENDORSING HR 676 – Single
Payer Universal Health Care
Workers, their families and their unions are waging an increasingly
difficult struggle to win or to keep good health care coverage.
Almost every union at every contract deadline must battle and sacrifice
merely to sustain health care benefits. The rising costs of health
insurance are blocking workers’ progress in wages and other
areas. All of our unions face a healthcare crisis.
But the crisis extends far beyond union
members. More than 45 million people in the U. S. are currently
without health insurance, more than 75 million went without for
some length of time within the last two years, and millions more
have inadequate coverage or are at risk of losing coverage. People
of color, immigrants and women are denied care at disproportionate
rates, while the elderly and many others must choose between necessities
and life sustaining drugs and care. Unorganized workers have either
no or inadequate coverage. The Institute of Medicine has found that
each year more than 18,000 in the U. S. die because they had no
health insurance.
While we in the United States spend
approximately twice as much of our gross domestic product as other
developed nations on health care, we remain the only industrialized
country without universal coverage. Our problem worsens each year
as insurance costs increase and as gradual solutions have failed
to make a dent in the problem.
The U. S. health system continues to
treat health care as a commodity distributed according to the ability
to pay, rather than as a social service to be distributed according
to human need. Insurance companies and HMOs compete not by increasing
quality or lowering costs, but by avoiding covering those whose
needs are greatest.
Economic necessity and moral conscience
compel us to seek a better way. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
(joined by 70 co-signers) has introduced HR 676, the United States
National Health Insurance Act, also called Expanded and Improved
Medicare for All. This single-payer health care program proposes
an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing health costs
while covering all 43 million uninsured Americans. The bill also
restores free choice of physicians to patients and provides comprehensive
prescription drug coverage to seniors, as well as to younger people.
HR 676 would cover every person in the
U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs,
hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive
care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical
therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision
care, chiropractic and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and
co-payments. HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating
high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry
and HMOs. The transition to national health insurance would apply
the savings from administration and profits to expanded and improved
coverage for all.
A single payer program as provided by HR 676 is the only affordable
option for universal, comprehensive coverage.
Resolved:
That __________________________________ wholeheartedly endorses
Congressman Conyers' bill HR 676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare
for All,” a single payer health care program.
That _____________________ will work with other unions and community
groups to build a groundswell of popular support and action for
single payer universal health care and HR 676 until we make what
is morally right for our nation into what is also politically possible.
That _____________________ will send a copy of this resolution to
Congressman Conyers, to all members of the U.S. House and Senate,
to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and to the news media.
That ______________________ will take other actions to mobilize
our members and our community at the grassroots to encourage other
members of the House to sign on as co-sponsors of HR 676 and to
encourage Senators to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.
Our local union/district council/labor
council also endorsed HR 676:
Union______________________________________International______________________
Address____________________________________________________________________
City__________________________ State _______________________ Zip
______________
Phone:__________________ Fax:_____________________ email:_____________________
Signed by__________________________________Title______________________________
Date____________________
Please return to: Kay Tillow, Nurses
Professional Organization, 1169 Eastern Parkway, #2218, Louisville,
KY 40217, (502) 459-3393, nursenpo@aol.com
Printed in house. Labor donated.
Healthcare-NOW!
339 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10012-2725
800-453-1305
info@healthcare-now.org