December 22nd: National Call-In Day for HR 676

GIVE AMERICA A GIFT.

NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY FOR HR 676, Single-Payer Healthcare

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare – National Single Payer Coalition Steering Committee has adopted an action plan that includes two national call-in days to Congressional members. The call-in days will focus coalition organizations on asking their membership to call individual members of Congress to support HR676. With your help, we will get thousands of calls to Congress in support of HR 676!

The first national call-in day is Monday, December 22nd.

The second national call-in day is Thursday, January 15th.

Tips for Single-Payer Activists participating in this effort:

The December 22nd Call-In day will target Congressional members in their in-district offices. The second Call-In Day on January 15th will target the Washington DC offices. Included in this email is a draft script for the first call-in action.

We also encourage activists to target Senator Kennedy’s office on December 22nd. According to a letter he sent in response to a request to support HR 676, he stated “In recent weeks I have been working on legislation that will have bipartisan support and guarantee quality, affordable health care for all Americans and their families.” We need to let him know that the only way to achieve this is by implementing single-payer national health care for all. Kennedy’s in-district office can be contacted at Phone: 617-565-3170 / Fax: 617-565-3183. A draft message to his office is below.

We want to reach ALL members of Congress with our message. Current cosponsors should be thanked for their support and encouraged to get active behind HR 676. Non-cosponsors should be asked to get on board with HR 676 asap.

Keeping calls brief and to the point is best and not only makes your members more willing to make calls but also makes logging the issue and sending a clear message to Congressional members much more efficient.

You may also wish to give your members contact information for one of your group’s “experts” on HR676, just in case the Congressional office wants more information. Or you may certainly give them Rep. Conyers’ contact information or Healthcare-NOW!’s information.

Please do keep track of your group’s outreach efforts – especially reactions to the calls that your members may note. All of this information is critical as we track the support in Congress for HR 676. Please report back about the Call-In day to Healthcare-NOW! at info@healthcare-now.org.

Healthcare-NOW! will be sending an email to remind everyone of the call-in day on Monday, December 22nd. This email should be forwarded widely.

How to contact your representative: You can find your representatives contact information at www.votesmart.org. We recommend calling and/or faxing on this day to get your message through. If possible, request to speak to the Chief of Staff or Health Care Aid, rather than leaving the message with whomever answers the phone.

Draft scripts are below (activists should tweak the call scripts as appropriate for their individual groups).

HR676 Co-sponsor call: Hi, my name is —————-. I am calling to thank Representative ___________________ for his/her support of HR676, John Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act. Rep. Conyers plans to reintroduce HR676 shortly after the Congress is back in session in January, but I want to reaffirm my support for HR676, single payer healthcare legislation and ask Rep. ____________________ to do the same by signing on again as a co-sponsor working for true reform of this terrible healthcare system. I say no to Massachusetts style health care, and yes to single payer health care as proposed in HR 676. Single payer gives more freedom of choice and access to quality care for patients and it is the most economical way to make sure we all can access care when we need it. Now is the time to give the gift of healthcare for all to every American. Happy holidays and thank you. If you have any questions about single payer or about me, please call me at __________________.

Non-co-sponsors call: Hi, my name is —————-. I am calling to urge Representative ___________________ to support of HR676, John Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act. Rep. Conyers plans to reintroduce HR676 shortly after the Congress is back in session in January, and I want to reaffirm my support for HR676, single payer healthcare legislation and ask Rep. ____________________ to do the same by signing on as a co-sponsor and working for true reform of this terrible healthcare system. I say no to Massachusetts style health care, and yes to single payer health care as proposed in HR 676. Single payer gives more freedom of choice and access to quality care for patients and it is the most economical way to make sure we all can access care when we need it. Now is the time to give the gift of healthcare for all to every American. Happy holidays and thank you. If you have any questions about single payer or about me, please call me at __________________.

Message to Senator Kennedy: Hi, my name is —————-. I am calling to urge Senator Kennedy to make his proposed legislation for health care reform single-payer. The current reform in Massachusetts is leaving thousands uninsured and is far too expensive to be sustained because it leaves profit in the middle of our health care system. In the most recent election, local ballot initiatives supporting single payer and opposing individual mandates passed by landslide margins in all ten legislative districts where they appeared. With almost all precincts tallied, roughly 73 percent of 181,000 voters in the ten districts voted YES in support of a single-payer system. Say no to Massachusetts style health care, and yes to single payer health care as proposed in HR 676. Happy holidays and thank you. If you have any questions about single payer or about me, please call me at __________________.

Let us know how it went.

2 Comments

  1. Charles Schneider on December 22, 2008 at 10:01 am

    Everyone has the right to the best health care possible.



  2. Avery on December 29, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    I submitted a question about single-payer to Obama’s change.gov and it jumped right to the top of the pack. Go to http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/ and search for “single-payer” to make sure Obama answers this question.