We’re Organizing Rallies at the Presidential Health Forums

19 Comments

1. Catherine Hunt on March 13, 2009 at 9:22 am

   Single-payer, yes!

   
   
   
2. Marcia on March 14, 2009 at 8:45 am

   I’ll be at the North Carolina rally. I’m hunting around to see who will ask questions, I dread having to ask a question but I will if I have to.
   If you want to do more activism on this subject (postcards, phone calls, etc. join the yahoo group)

   
   
   
   • sari suits on March 23, 2009 at 6:44 pm

     Hi,

     I am very concerned about our healthcare system. Not only are so many uninsured or poorly insured neglected but people who are insured are not being treated unless the problem falls under insurance covered items. I for one want good care for everyone and I know that it costs a fortune. I simply think it is vitally important. How we care for our old and sick is a measure of degree of civilization. The corporate machines don’t have any concern for anything but profit. This is disgraceful, but more importantly it is suffering and more pain for the people who must live in such a system. Please support a one payer system. Its a beginning.

     Sincerely,

     Sari Suits

     
     
     
   • gregory vickrey on March 26, 2009 at 3:44 pm

     Hi Marcia,

     I will be attending the health care summit and rally in Greensboro (rally begins at 9am, bring friends!) and plan to ask questions and make comments. Did you have something specific in mind? Please feel free to email me: indiahaus AT gmail.com.

     Gregory

     
     
     
3. Kent Zavacky on March 15, 2009 at 2:29 pm

   Absolutely nothing less than singlr payer nationalized healthcare- overseen, administered, and regulated by Fed gov’t. What can I do to assist work towards this in South New jersey, Phila city? I am unemployed, and every day am affected by our lack of any health system. Can i work phones, pass out flyers, speak, organize-please give me contacts in Phila region! I am a good persuasive,passionate speaker armed with facts
   I will attend rally in Phila Sat April 4 1pm. I have attended Rep Conyers meeting here in Phila and support fully. I have asked to meet Rep Rob Andrews in NJ , but have yet to hear back. Please help me and our country deal with this travesty!
   Thank You
   Kent Zavacky
   306 W. Woodlawn Ave.
   Maple Shade, N.J. 08052
   856 663 2537

   
   
   
4. Lauren Serven on March 16, 2009 at 8:38 pm

   whether or not obama has decided the merits of single-payer is not the issue. in regard to the health summits, i feel physicians, nurses, and other health care providers should be shown the courtesy of their own summit. here we are trying to reform a health care system and the people at the forefront of health care are barely invited to attend these meetings. what a travesty. physicians of america, use your co-ordinated influence to insist on such a meeting. perhaps the president would like such an exchange but is politically wary of such an exchange. by insisting on a meeting you take the heat off of him and create an opportunity to make your case directly to him. if you have made such a request and a positive reply has not been forthcoming, please keep asking, and maybe even petition for such a meeting.

   
   
   
5. Herman Ramirez on March 19, 2009 at 12:21 am

   How about any protests in the San Francisco Bay Area???

   
   
   
   • margaret on March 23, 2009 at 12:57 am

     Or Washington?

     
     
     
   • LjRose on April 3, 2009 at 5:48 pm

     We’ll be rallying at the SF forum – you can be sure of that. SinglePayerNow.net is organizing for that and likely CNA will be there, et al.

     
     
     
6. McLovin Darnit on March 19, 2009 at 6:11 pm

   Why aren’t there any regional healthcare meetings in FL? This is one of the most important states that should be included in this discussion (lest the Prez forgot this state turned from red to blue) and with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, there are so many blighted communities here that just scream for single payer healthcare.

   If anyone gets to one of the summits, please please please MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! Don’t let the big insurance lobbyists and big PHarma run our country further into the ground than it already is! Free single-payer healthcare for all, healthcare NOW!!

   
   
   
7. Isabel on March 26, 2009 at 11:26 pm

   How about doing a demonstration in D.C. We need to come together in mass

   
   
   
   • Eliza Jane Dodd on April 2, 2009 at 11:55 pm

     Yes Isabel is right ! In Masses we need to go to Washington DC and let President Obama know when we are going to be there and all the Media .Everyone go GreyHound to Washington and sleep on the mall in sleeping bags or in front of the White House on the sidewalk .It has to be mid summer for the most to be able to go .And I have been there duing the summer and you really need Bug Spray or they will eat you up .Too bad all these Health Care Now Chapters cant Rent or Charter GreyHounds for a Health Care Convention and get people to go in that area like Texas and Illinios and New York and other states .
     I have even suggested a PAPER PETITION like a CENSUS ? Why cant We The People get a PAPER Petiton and a Large Group from All over the States Attend Washinton a meeting with President Obama and HAND HIM A SIGNED Petition ?
     Because I have made my own HR676 Papers and handed them out to Hundreds and I have talked to everyone and everyone wants it …not one person said they didnt …everyone Never Heard about it until I handed them HR676 and they asked Questions and everyone was blown away by HR676 …and since then many people have posted online HR676 and the News Papers Have Deleted everything they say with HR676 Universal Health Care so there is a Movement AGAINST HR676 as much as one for it …BUT a PAPER PETITION THE GOV.COULD’NT DENY ! We would Nip HR676 in the BUD ! Bring Bus Loads of Signatures to President Obama’s Door Steps ! HR676 NOW!

     
     
     
     • Brian on April 3, 2009 at 1:36 am

       I think Isabel is right on target here. I am a psychologist and am fully in favor of a single-payer, nationalized health care system that takes private insurance companies completely out of the equation. It would also be best if the pharmaceutical companies could be completely taken out of the equation as well, but that is unrealistic as a national plan would need to have some standardized prescription program. Unfortunately, I do not envision any meaningful change taking place in this process unless there is a very large, well-organized, civil rights style, march on Washington. The change process here is much more than saying ‘We want universal health care.’ Essentially, what we are saying is that we want our government back, and we want the hands of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies (as well as the other big lobby industries) out of the pockets of our legislators, those that we purportedly elected to carry out our wishes. This is a big endeavor, and I can assure you that when a group(s) is/are in power (as the insurance, pharmaceutical, legal, and banking industries and their respective lobbyists have been) for so long, they will be very, very reluctant to willfully give up that power. There needs to be a civil rights style movement across the country that clearly conveys that this is something that much (if not most) of the American public wants, and the movement has to clearly convey that if those in Washington are not willing to make it happen, then the public will find someone that will.

       
       
       
       • Paul on June 6, 2009 at 7:44 am

         Brian

         I admire your passion. I agree that “we the people” must insist on a health care system that results in nearly 50 million of our citizens without “affordable” access to quality health care. “Affordable” in my view means both affortable to the individual and “affordable” to me as a taxpayer.

         I disagree completely that the drug companies have to be taken out of the equation. Who do think makes and pills we use? Who will make them in the future. They and the insurance companies do have too much power. That has to change. But the drug and insurance companies have done a lot more good for this country than they get credit for. They need to be reined in but not destroyed.

         Single payer may or not be the way to go. We have big health care problems to solve. Let’s focus on solving the problem – if single payer does that best, great. Or if another approach…like the bill Senator Kenneday filed this week does the trick, great.

         
         
         
8. Eliza Jane Dodd on April 2, 2009 at 11:59 pm

   DOES Everyone on here Call 202-456-1414 everyday ? The WHITE HOUSE COMMENT LINE …???? I call every day …for HR676 ..Please tell your friends to Make the Call and email The White House e-mail everyday for it and Joe Bidens Middle Class WEB link on there …everyday until They Get it That we Want HR676 NOW !Please make the call and spread the word ?>Call 1-202-456-1414 Please ?

   
   
   
9. Eliza Jane Dodd on April 3, 2009 at 12:08 am

   One More Thing People Have Ya Ever read about Vermonts Health Care ?Or Have ya heard about Bernie Sanders ? I seen him on yourtube about Universal health Care …he is for it ..All these senators and President Obama just ignors us …and Presiendent Obama promised the end of WAR and Health Care and not nothing he said he has done …Has anyone been to the web site the right to resist ? All these services people living in Canada and some going to Prison because they left the Army and so forth ? Record number of suicieds and AWOLS than all the wars combined !And then these people dont get Health Care or as much or less than a Dog …Anyone who has ever joined deserves free medical for them and the whole family so please go to congress.com and vote for all the Veterans issues ? They are all totally worth every minute you spend voting for their Human Rights and their families …please ? Look at what they do for you and me ? in Irag and Afganistan …evryday …every…minute…for the past 6 years long years …congress.com & call 202-456-1414 everyday

   
   
   
10. LjRose on April 3, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    Hey folks – I’ll be in L.A. AND SF for the rallies and I will be filming. Is anybody from HCNow filming? Can we join forces to get all ends/as much as possible of the thing covered? Let me know!

    PS I talked to Leno’s office today – nobody there attending/invited. Sara Rodgers not attending, Leno not attending. As of last week, they were not invited. I understand, though, unions will be there, et al.

    Also – does anybody need place to stay? Let me know. I may be able to help.

    
    
    
11. LjRose on April 3, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    The submission URL for questions to the Whitehouse for the health care forums is broken, folks. Rumor has it that there was concern re privacy. I don’t know how to get question/s to them now but I used the CONTACT US link instead. Since I know that they’re just going to throw out anything mentioning “single payer”, I tried to make my question into something that AT LEAST would get past their little censors/monitors and heard straight through. I also supplemented with a “what happened to HR676? query and etc. about how the governor in CA veto’d twice the bill in CA which the entire legislature passed twice. Anyway, here is my video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8527503181226069698

    
    
    
    • Brian on April 5, 2009 at 11:30 pm

      LjRose- I thought you did a nice job on your video…not sure if anyone that is making decisions on our behalf will actually see it, but I think you did a nice job. B