How do we get to universal health care?

Hey DU.
I posted this thread -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=169x7325 -
about a local legislator that had made a formal resolution calling for the county legislature to support universal health care coverage.
I think this is how we get national universal health care - through grassroots action.
I support Legislature Eachus and his call for Universal Health Care.
Who is your local advocate for universal health care? Got links?
Peace and low stress!

it can only make a specific percentage of profit. Remember at least half of the cost of insurance is just useless paperwork manufactured by the insurance company's to deny you your paid for benefits.

If you want to get most anything in life where you have opponents to what you want, you have to hit them in their wallets. Unfortunately this appears the case.

I propose that we form one big ad hoc organization and contact the biggest 3 pharmacy chains in the United States: Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens and demand the following:

Mr. CEO we demand single payer universal health care and unless you can get the congress and the pResident to enact such a system, we the people will never buy any consumer products in your pharmacies ever again. We will also never buy any prescription medications in your pharmacies again.

We will buy from another pharmacy, say Legend ( but not Walmart ), or another well known chain or a small neighborhood pharmacy.

By the way Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens give money to the Republican party and their candidates.

There appears nothing like a phone campaign to these 3 pharmacy chains that will wake them up and put fear into their executives getting thousands of phone calls from angry but polite callers each day legally threatening their income that they depend on coming from we the people.

Vote with your dollars.


Go to http://www.dmocrats.org and you can find the emails of these 3 pharmacy chains and write them demanding univeral single payer health care.

thank you for the link

Move to Europe.

I was going to say Move to Canada though :toast:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/29/MNGBSKR3RA1.DTL

>>
The Democratic-controlled Legislature is on the verge of sending Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would create a state-run universal health care system, testing him on an issue that voters rate as one of their top concerns in this election year.

On a largely party-line 43-30 vote, the Assembly approved a bill by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system that would provide coverage to all Californians. The state Senate has already approved the plan once and is expected this week to approve changes that the Assembly made to the bill.

Schwarzenegger has said he opposes a single-payer plan like the one Kuehl's bill would create, but the governor has not offered his own alternatives for fixing the state's health care system. As many as 7 million people are uninsured in the state, and spiraling costs have put pressure on business and consumers.
>>

but our fearless guvernator refused to sign it into law

Our attempt at this in 1994 showed that the insurance lobby is too powerful for any meaningful health care legislation to ever pass. Therefore we need to approach this a different way, attack the source of the problem. End the insurance lobby and all other special interest influences over our legislators. Ban their campaign contributions, gifts, and set up a public financing system for campaigns.

damn good luck on that one...

It was down right creepy how much money they spent

Where ya' gonna get the dough?

U.S. Military Spending

The United States, being the most formidable military power, it is worth looking at their spending.

The U.S. military budget request by the Bush Administration for Fiscal Year 2007 is $462.7 billion. (This includes the Defense Department budget, funding for the Department of Energy (which includes nuclear weapons) and “other” which the source does not define. It does not include other items such as money for the Afghan and Iraq wars—$50 billion for Fiscal Year 2007 and an extra $70 billion for FY 2006, on top of the $50 billion approved by Congress.)
• For Fiscal Year 2006 it was $441.6 billion
• For Fiscal Year 2005 it was $420.7 billion
• For Fiscal Year 2004 it was $399.1 billion .
• For Fiscal Year 2003 it was $396.1 billion.
• For Fiscal Year 2002 it was $343.2 billion.
• For Fiscal Year 2001 it was $305 billion. And Congress had increased that budget request to $310 billion.
• This was up from approximately $288.8 billion, in 2000.

These figures typically do not include combat figures, so 2001 onwards, the Afghan war, and 2003 onwards, the Iraq war costs are not in this budget. As of early 2006, Congress had already approved an additional funding total of $300 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/Spending.asp#USMilitarySpending

Good to share with those who don't understand the basics:

http://www.truemajority.org/oreos/

maybe we could all get on the Kucinich bandwagon?

peace

would be down with this resolution.

and as soon as the holidays are over and I am settled into my new house (yes, I survived the housing bubble) I will hold a house meeting to work with our local grass roots group.

http://onecarenow.org/index.html

Universal Health Insurance Campaign:

California's 365 Cities Demand Reform

Quality, Affordable Healthcare is your Right!
The California OneCareNow Campaign is the nation's first-ever statewide grassroots campaign for universal health insurance. Teams in more than 365 California cities are conducting grassroots educational and public awareness "action" events--one event per day, in a different city, for one year--to demand quality, affordable healthcare for all Californians.

Quality, Affordable Healthcare Is Your Right!
Join Us Today!

Upcoming Events

12/21 Walnut
12/22 Los Alamitos
12/23 Auburn
12/24 Cambria
12/25 Moorpark
12/26 West Sacramento
12/28 La Verne
12/29 La Habra
12/30 Lawndale
1/1 Pleasant Hill
1/2 Montclair
1/4 Morgan Hill
1/6 Beverly Hills
1/7 Manhattan Beach

edited to add some more info (how much would a broken leg cost someone without insurance?-not to worry, I can't even afford a day of skiing)

OneCareNow Answers Governor's Veto

Dear Supporters of Healthcare for All Californians,

On Friday, September 22, 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger denied Californians their right to quality, affordable healthcare by vetoing Senator Kuehl's Universal Healthcare legislation (Senate Bill 840). This is understandable since Schwarzenegger accepted over $4 million from the private insurance industry for his re-election campaign (9/24 LA Times). That was an unwise decision by the Governor.

The California legislature affirmed our right to quality, affordable healthcare by passing Senate Bill 840 and now we must fight to bring it back in the coming year.

Please write a letter to your local newspaper editor expressing your outrage that sell-out Schwarzenegger is denying us our right to quality, affordable healthcare by vetoing SB 840. Click here for a quick and easy way to send a letter.

California got very close this last year. Recall that the Canadian universal system started in a single province.

Then just use the money we were wasting there. It's great money because it doesn't even count in the deficit. We should always just use that money instead of the regular money.

The introduction of company-paid coverage was a way around wage freezes to begin with, and once the corporations had the hook in their mouths, the insurers were off and running.

Imagine if all of a sudden it was ILLEGAL for a company to provide medical coverage,....Can you just HEAR the howls of all those $40k & UP employees who all of a sudden were "uninsured"?

Of course all those suddenly uninsured employees would be expecting that cash the company was formerly sending to the insurers, to start coming to THEM in the form of wages.. (Those increases were usually disguised as wage increases anyway..for the millisecond before the insurers gobbled them up)

and of all the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the insurers who had finally killed that golden-egged goose?

Insurers would find themselves with few customers, and employees would suddenly be free to move to ANY company..

Real competition would prevail, once ALL employers were unable to provide medical. They would all be competing for people who showed up, did a task, and then went home.

Employees would no longer be beholden to a boss to be in charge of literal life & death issues for him and his family. His labor would be fairly traded for a job done...and nothing more. No more corporate leverage, no more threats of lost coverage, to explain why no one gets raises.

Of course in the immediate maelstrom, things could get chaotic, but it would not be long until the insurers realized that THEY would have to be creative and provide some real services..(and of course the government would inevitably step in)

It's way past time to call some bluffs.

thanks for the post.

:kick:

:kick:

choice for everyone. The insurance thieves can't compete and employers have no love for these assholes, which brings us to the only downside, the collapse of their stock prices will kick off a strong downward trend in the market at large.

:kick:

Spearheaded by our former Governor, John Kitzhaber (who is also a former ER physician)

http://www.archimedesmovement.org/