Healthcare-NOW! will be there to demand human needs over corporate greed, including life-saving, money-saving improved Medicare for all.

Help us build the single-payer contingent by coming to Freedom Plaza on October 6th. Please email Vanessa@healthcare-NOW.org if you and/or your organization are planning to attend.

The October 2011 movement stands for placing human needs over corporate greed; for stopping the machine and creating a new world. If you want economic justice, human rights, peace, a healthy environment, and an end to corporate criminals’ control of the political process, then you belong in Freedom Plaza on October 6th. Please join us!

If you want to get involved but cannot make it to D.C., check with the organizer in your state to see if a solidarity event is being planned.

As part of the negotiations to raise the national debt ceiling, Wall Street-funded politicians in Congress and the White House are proposing significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They want to:

- Cut Social Security’s COLA – even though Social Security does not contribute one penny to the national deficit, and is financially secure for decades.

- Raise the eligibility age of Medicare from 65 to 67 – threatening the health and lives of tens of millions of seniors and people with disabilities who are dependent on Medicare for health coverage.

- Implement deep cuts in Medicaid funding, assisting the efforts of governors who have targeted Medicaid for state cuts and endangering tens of millions of Americans who count on Medicaid.

CALL YOUR SENATORS
1-866-251-4044 (toll free)

Tell them:
No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid
No cuts to Social Security’s COLA
No Social Security payroll tax holiday

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid belong to you – you pay for them in every paycheck. Don’t let them cut it or raid it.

What’s behind this attack?

The refusal of leaders of both parties to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans and Wall Street – despite a huge decline in tax revenues from the top 1 percent of taxpayers and the majority of big corporations that evade taxes.

Efforts to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and raid these benefits for Wall Street banks, investment houses, and insurance companies. Those who created the economic crisis don’t need more handouts.

This action is part of National Nurses United’s Main Street Contract for the American People – a new direction that puts Main Street first and asks Wall Street to pay their fair share.

Join National Nurses United on Tuesday, June 7th for their national rally and lobby day on Capitol Hill. Please RSVP here.

NNU represents 175,000 nurses across the country, and is ready to bring a new deal to Washington DC: the Main Street Contract.

They support Medicare for all to make healthcare a human right, they oppose cuts to Social Security, and they are calling for higher quality of life for everyone in the United States. Is it any wonder that nurses are the most trusted profession in the nation?

The nurses need our support. Join NNU and allied organizations. Please let us know if you can make it on Tuesday, June 7th by registering here.

To reserve a seat on the bus leaving Philadelphia, questions about regional transportation, or for recommendations on lodging, contact katie@healthcare-now.org.

Thanks for all you do!

Members receive:

• a Healthcare-NOW! t-shirt.
• invites to monthly national single-payer activist conference call.
• access to updated single-payer resources and materials.
• invites to leadership training sessions.
• discounted Healthcare-NOW! National Strategy Conference registration.

We must continue to fight for a single-payer, universal healthcare system even as we reach the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA will leave millions uninsured, fail to control rising healthcare costs, continue to bankrupt our families and our communities, and leave greedy private insurance companies in control of our healthcare.

Become part of the movement to bring real change to our healthcare system.

Individuals can join Healthcare-NOW! for a suggested $40 a year contribution.

Find all the details about our membership system here.

With your support, we can make the movement for improved Medicare for all stronger. Please join us today.

Have questions? Email info@healthcare-now.org or call 800-453-1305.

As workers lose benefits, the people in Wisconsin and around the country know that unreasonably high health insurance costs are at the root of the fiscal crisis in their state and across the nation.

Shifting these costs onto poor and working people is NOT the answer.

Improved Medicare for all is.

Rep. John Conyers reintroduced HR 676 just a few weeks ago. Single-payer healthcare, as proposed by HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, would do a lot towards ending state fiscal crises across the US and will put an end to ever-increasing healthcare costs.

Will you demand that your Congressional Representative cosponsor HR 676?

Call your Representative now.

And/or sign our HR 676 petition now.

If you know who your Representative is, call the capitol switchboard at 866-220-0044.

HR 676 saves money and expands care to those who continue to be uninsured. It retains free choice of physicians and would cover every person in the US for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs and dental. No copays, no deductibles, no hassles–just healthcare.

While President Obama has stated he will not urge cuts to Social Security in his speech tonight, a narrowly defeated proposal by the Deficit Commission to cut these programs means we have to continue to be vigilant.

Leaders in Congress are still seeking to privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into a voucher program, claiming it will save money.

Tell President Obama “No cuts, no privatization, and no raising the eligibility age of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid” on his watch.

Email President Obama here. Or call the White House at 202-456-1414.

The vast majority of Americans support increasing taxes on the rich to fund these programs rather than cut them.

Make your voice heard. Email President Obama here. Or call the White House at 202-456-1414.

As House Republicans make their futile attempt to repeal health reform, join us in launching the “Will You Cry for Me, John Boehner?” campaign.

Because we know Speaker of the House Boehner has an emotional side, we want to tell him our stories of struggle – the stories that make us cry – in hopes that instead of pretending to repeal health reform, we should start talking about real improved Medicare for all reform.

Look – we don’t have anything against crying, but John Boehner cries for the wrong reasons.

American dream: tears.

Millions uninsured: not a drop.

Personally, I shed a few tears of frustration when I opened up nearly $4,000 in medical bills for a doctor ordered biopsy.

We were all stunned and saddened when the Arizona state legislature ended the life-saving transplant program for nearly 100 Medicaid recipients.

We certainly didn’t jump for joy when Blue Cross Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit insurer, increased premiums by 59%.

Tell your story and we pledge to deliver each and every testimonial directly to Speaker John Boehner…along with a tissue for each of your stories.

But we don’t need just sympathy. We need action. We pledge to continue the Campaign to Strengthen and Protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – and demand that single-payer healthcare be seriously considered to control the deficit and solve the healthcare crisis.

It’s easy to participate. Sign on to this letter here and leave your personal comment for John Boehner – anonymously if you prefer.

If you have a web cam, flip cam, or other video camera, consider filming your testimonial and sending it to us directly. Your video could be featured on the campaign website. Post your video to YouTube (here’s some directions) and email us the link.

Let John Boehner hear from you today. We need a real solution to the healthcare crisis. We need improved Medicare for all.

Yours in health,
Katie Robbins
Healthcare-NOW! National Organizer

Join today’s National Call Congress Day and tell your Representative and Senators to SAY NO to cutting our Social Security and Medicare.

Call 866-220-0044 for the capitol switchboard and ask to be connected. Don’t know your Representative or Senators? Go here.

The Co-Chairs of the National Fiscal Commission have proposed deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare – increasing the retirement age to 69, making Medicare recipients pay more out-of-pocket for healthcare, cutting benefits for middle-class workers and reducing annual Cost of Living Adjustments.

We need your help to stop them!

Social Security and Medicare are promises that must not be broken–we’ve worked hard and paid for them in taxes. Social Security and Medicare belong to our children, our parents, our neighbors and ourselves.

ACT NOW! Your voice needs to be heard.

Call your Congress people RIGHT NOW at 866-220-0044 or go here if you don’t know who they are.

Tell the person who answers the phone:
“I am a voter/constituent living in [your state]. I am calling to tell the [Rep. or Senator] – NO CUTS TO, PRIVATIZATION OF, OR RAISING THE ELIGIBILITY AGE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY OR MEDICARE! HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE.”

Please take the time for this very important effort today. An improved Medicare for All system will control health costs and make Medicare sustainable for future generations. We still need improved Medicare for All.

They want to increase the retirement age to 69, deeply cut benefits for middle-class workers, reduce annual Cost of Living Adjustments, increase healthcare costs to patients, and reduce Medicare reimbursements to providers.

We need your help to stop them! Join thousands of Americans in a National Call Congress Day on Tuesday, November 30.

We need to know if we can count on you to call Congress next Tuesday.

Click here to make the “Count on Me” pledge to tell Congress not to cut, privatize, or raise the eligibility age for OUR Social Security and Medicare.

Social Security and Medicare are promises that must not be broken. They belong to our children, our parents, our neighbors, and ourselves. Help ensure that your Social Security and Medicare will be there for your children and your grandchildren.

After you’ve made your personal “Count on Me” pledge, forward this email and tell your friends, family and co-workers to add their voice and participate in the National Call Congress Day on Tuesday, November 30. Don’t let politicians in Washington cut OUR Social Security and Medicare! ACT TODAY.

Sounds a little bit like Healthcare-NOW!’s campaign to implement a national universal healthcare system as the only sane answer to our healthcare crisis.

Yet, corporate interests pour millions into propaganda and lies about rationing and death panels to stop universal health care from coming to the US.

If you are going to DC, or one of the hundreds of local rallies to restore sanity around the country, don’t forget to talk about the sanest of healthcare systems – single-payer healthcare: a system that will cover everyone, use our healthcare dollar wisely, and save money for our country, our states, our cities, our schools, and our families.

In Washington, DC, single-payer advocates will be at the Rally to Restore Sanity this Saturday (12 noon) and will meet at 4th Street on the National Mall (Capitol side of the street). Join us and help us get Healthcare-NOW! postcards filled out. Please bring your single-payer signs!

Download some postcards (.pdf) to get signed by other sane people who don’t want to cut Social Security and Medicare, and instead want improved Medicare for All.

Or copy some of our sign ideas pictured here.