Healthcare-NOW

May 1 – A Day Without the 99%

For more than 120 years, May 1 has been celebrated internationally as a day to honor workers and commemorate the suffering they have endured – and continue to endure – in their struggles for equity for all in the workplace. Building on the history of May Day, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is calling…

How to Organize a Healthcare Teach-In or Speak Out

On March 14 we organized our first ever skill-building call for our members and activists on how to organize effective teach-ins and speak-outs. Listen to the call here: Organizing Teach-Ins and Speak Outs You can also download a simple two-sided handout (.doc) on how to hold a successful speak-out or teach-in that includes: An overview…

Single-Payer Activists’ Views on the Individual Mandate

The Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act hearings last month renewed debate over the individual mandate within the single-payer movement. As expected, there are a wide variety of views on this issue. It’s important to take some time to reflect on some of the arguments made about the mandate. This is by no means comprehensive, but…

Is Single-Payer Inevitable?

You may have seen dozens of articles and news clips claiming that if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act in June, Democrats will have no choice but to turn to single-payer as the necessary alternative to healthcare reform. “It’s inevitable,” they say. It thrills us to see single-payer in the limelight, but…

Injecting Single-Payer Into the Mandate News Cycle

With the Supreme Court hearings on the individual mandate happening this week, healthcare reform is back in the news. It’s time to send letters to the editor all over the country saying, “Individual mandate or not, we need Medicare-for-all.” The Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate provision to…

“Because this is Wrong”

John is from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His son is an X-ray tech, and one day while he was working a woman presented in the ER with a splitting headache. After running scans they discovered she had a brain tumor — but she also had no job and no insurance. The doctors in the ER told…

Action Alert: Never Mind the Mandate

The Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or “Obamacare,” in late March. The mandate would require that almost everyone in the US be covered by some form of health insurance, public or private, by 2014 or be fined. Therefore, it’s no surprise that…

Jan. 2012 National Strategy Conference Report

On January 28th and 29th over 140 active single-payer supporters from 21 different states and Washington, D.C. attended Healthcare-NOW!’s (HCN) Annual Strategy Conference in Houston, Texas. Though healthcare justice activists across the United States face similar struggles when organizing for single-payer – restricted time, resources, and capacity, classism, racism, consumerism, geographical barriers, and more –…

Healthcare-NOW! Strategy Conference Agenda

Don’t forget! Healthcare-NOW!’s Annual Strategy Conference in Houston, TX on January 28th and 29th is fast approaching, so register soon if you haven’t already. Go to our Strategy Conference page to register. You can download the agenda here (.pdf). Registration ends on January 21st and you must reserve your hotel room by January 13th to…

We Need Your Support!

At Healthcare-NOW!, daily letters, emails, and phone calls remind us that the healthcare crisis continues. Vanessa, before becoming our Director of Organizing, joined Healthcare-NOW! in 2005. “Suffering from a chronic illness,” says Vanessa, “I tried hard to find health insurance in the public and private markets, but was always turned down. Meanwhile, I got sicker.…