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A New Movement: Health Care as a Civil Right By Dennis Kucinich

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Joanne98 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 02:16 PM
Original message
A New Movement: Health Care as a Civil Right By Dennis Kucinich

Dear Friends,

There is only one true health care public option: Single payer. It covers everyone, all basic health care needs, with doctor of choice. No more premiums, co-pays or deductibles. All health care assets in America would become not-for-profit. The bill already exists. It is HR 676. Congressman John Conyers and I wrote the bill. Our bill has the support of 85 co-sponsors in the House. And it is backed by a growing national movement of labor, doctors, and nurses. The movement needs you. Please join me for tomorrow's national conference call at 10:00pm EDT. Please call toll-free 1-800-230-1096.

The hour has arrived to begin anew the Civil Rights Movement, this time for Health Care for All. I am calling upon you to become a force in this movement. Go to Health Care as A Civil Right at Kucinich.us to learn how you can circulate a single-payer petition and organize in your community. Please help fund this effort. Go to Kucinich.us now, contribute.



The Preamble to the United States Constitution and Article One, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution both describe an originating purpose of our United States: to promote the general welfare. Health care is a legitimate function of our government. Health care is a basic right in a Democratic society. It is no more a privilege based on ability to pay than is the right to vote, which was once accorded only to property owners.

Health care is also a moral imperative. Forty seven million Americans are uninsured. Fifty million Americans are underinsured. People are losing their homes, their jobs, their life's savings, their retirement security and their financial health because they cannot pay medical bills, and despite this calamity Washington looks another way. We must not avert our eyes to this human suffering and this economic injustice.

Let's prepare a response which Washington will long remember as the time when the people reclaimed their government from the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Join us. Contribute. Together, we can initiate an action plan to intervene and provide health care for all.

1.A National Health Care for All Conference Call from Washington, DC, at 10 pm EDT, Thursday, September 10th at 1-800-230-1096. Join us, so that we can discuss our new beginning and ways in which we can all help. Pre-registration is necessary in order to reserve sufficient phone lines. Please RSVP here. When you call in and the operator asks, "what conference call?" tell the operator, "Health Care for All."
2.On-line petition. Please contact your lists, your family and friends. Please sign the petition for a single payer system. I will deliver the petitions directly to your Congressperson.
3.Petition to download, print and circulate among friends and neighbors - including an instruction sheet.
4.Health Care Meet-Ups. Coming Thursday September 10 2009.
5.Tell A Friend. Every email forwarded will make a difference? Please use the "Forward Email" link below to circulate up to 5 emails at a time to your friends.
I need your help to initiate this action.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-New-Movement-Health-Car-by-Dennis-Kucinich-090909-152.html
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kestrel91316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 02:29 PM
Response to Original message
1. I agree 100% with Kooch on this: healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!! NOW!!!!!
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Davis_X_Machina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 02:29 PM
Response to Original message
2. Not that new, actually


FDR's Second Bill of Rights contained it.

I wish the movement luck, but they can't claim novelty.
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twiceshy Donating Member (259 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 02:41 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. I have to disagree.....
How can it be a "right" if it imposes an obligation on someone else through taxes? Do I have a right to plumbing? I fail to see the difference?
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dflprincess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 02:55 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. I don't have kids but I pay taxes for the public schools
but I think kids have a right to education and it benefits all of us to have the little angels educated.

Access to health care is not just an individual issue, it's a matter of both public health and national security. The current system is harming the economy and making American business less able to compete with the rest of the world.
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bluesmail Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 03:01 PM
Response to Original message
5. ~~dreaming~~~ President Kucinich.
Edited on Wed Sep-09-09 03:03 PM by bluesmail
(Two siblings dying close together). ~~~dreaming~~~ Ah, the good dream.
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RoccoR5955 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 03:09 PM
Response to Original message
6. I have been saying this for a while.
About the Preamble, and Constitution.

It's right in there. When I quote it to Cons, they sit awestruck. I show them it in writing, and they fall down, and say, gee, I guess you are right!

I said it at a "meeting" that some local teabaggers organized in the area, and they couldn't argue with me.

Kucinich is THE MAN!

KUCINICH/SANDERS '12!



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canoeist52 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-09-09 03:27 PM
Response to Original message
7.  "right to LIFE, liberty..." and lack of plumbing won't kill you
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