How to Counter an Anti-Healthcare Rally

The anti-healthcare "patients first" crowd is coming to my town to hold a rally for death and sickness. We're holding an event for life and health. See our announcement below. Try this at home.

Cookout for Healthcare with Cindy Sheehan
Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009, at noon

Cindy Sheehan, one of the best known peace and justice activists in the United States, will be joined by other speakers in support of public healthcare at a cookout open to the public and the media. Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, VA, 22902. Cindy will talk about her new book and the need for an expanded public healthcare system.

RSVP: http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

Also at noon on Saturday, elsewhere in Charlottesville, others have announced plans to hold an anti-healthcare rally that they misleadingly call a rally for "Patients First." Participants include Kay Coles James, the disgraced director of the United States Office of Personnel Management known for hiring unqualified government employees based on their attendance of a fourth-rate, right-wing university; Del. Ben Cline, whose opinions are paid for by his campaign funders, including Medical Facilities of America, US Tobacco, Va. Hospital & Healthcare Assn., Medco Health Solutions, and Va. Independent Insurance Agents; Tito Munoz, a small business owner who helped John McCain lose Virginia; former city councilman and aspiring Rush Limbaugh, Rob Schilling; and Ben Marchi, a former employee of ethically reprimanded and indicted congressman Tom Delay. Marchi says:

"Health care legislation being pushed by the liberals in Congress will threaten the sacred relationship between doctor and patient and strip away patients' rights to choose a plan that best suits them."

Yet, Americans consistently tell pollsters that they want public health coverage: http://tr.im/sENL

Other nations that have public health coverage (government spending on private or public healthcare) provide their people with better care. The U.S. system is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization. The United States is 24th in life expectancy and 29th in reducing infant mortality. Infants who do not survive the US system do not get a chance to possess patients' rights.

A single-payer system, which would go further than the compromise that has Marchi so upset, would cover everyone at all times with no exceptions, allow completely free choice of doctors, invest in preventive care, allow patients and doctors to make their own decisions free of insurance company restrictions, reduce the 30 percent waste in the current system to the 3 percent overhead in Medicare, and create a net gain of 2.6 million jobs, $317 billion in business revenue, and $100 billion in wages. See: http://tr.im/sETE

House Resolution 676, backed by 86 congress members, would accomplish these things and meet every one of Congressman Tom Perriello's goals for healthcare as listed on his website: http://tr.im/sEUO

Cindy Sheehan said: "Health care is a basic human right and the only way to get obscene profits out of the way of patient health is single-payer, as many nations around the world do. We challenge both Democrats and Republicans to put people before insurance companies, big-pharma, and HMO's."

Summaries of this issue:
http:/charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1939
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1854

Video of recent forum in Charlottesville:
http://charlottesvillepeace.org/node/1882

Join us at noon on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at 707 Gillespie Ave, Charlottesville, Va. Kids are welcome! There is no charge, but it is appreciated if you bring something to eat or drink. Please go to this page and post a comment that you are coming and how many are coming with you. And if you are able to bring something to eat or drink and know what it will be, please post that:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/cindyevent

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thanks

Kay Coles James, the disgraced director of the United States Office of Personnel Management known for hiring unqualified government employees based on their attendance of a fourth-rate, right-wing university...

As John has proven so often in the past, if you know what you're talking about and can present it in the proper way you can persuade right wingers that a National Single Payer Plan is in their best interest.


Winning over RIGHT WINGERS To Single Payer! As John says , the most fun is to wander on over to a right wing rally and sort of like... TAKE IT OVER with a Progressive message... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBJAkCjjz1Y
:woohoo:


John's Single Payer Plan :woohoo:
http://www.johnrussellforcongress.com/page.asp?PageId=35

:thumbsup:

As a former health care giver, I am shocked and saddened to see what has become of health care in America. $ 1. 4 million is being spent per day in DC by the health care lobbyists so your elected representative is getting taken care of and has quality health care we pay for and can't afford ourselves for our families, I know what is deemed, defended and supported in Tennessee and Virginia as quality health care and clearly profit care comes ahead of patient care. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62 MRSA ( methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureas ) is infesting our communities because filthy, uncaring hospitals and emergency rooms are breeding them and spreading them into our schools, homes, restaurants. How many more Americans' will be diseased or die while 74 % of Americans' are begging for health care reform ? More people died in America last year from MRSA complications than AIDS. When MRSA and a flu bug start mixing, it won't be pretty and we are being infected by the very health care system we depend on and trust to keep us safe and healthy. If we had "the best health care" in the world then why does RAM ( Remote Area Medical ) come to Wise County, Virginia year after year so people can go to the fairgrounds and stand in a line like cattle in the hot July sun just to see a health care provider ??? America's health care system is a disgraceful sham !

because of lack of health care or being denied by their HMO?

Frankly it would be a perfect counter to these assholes who have been doing this at abortion clinics for years and unfortunately it's worked for them.

Rp

The first relies pretty much on gross distortion, misinformation and outright lies to attack the single-payer alternative. These are classic straw-man arguments, since the single-payer opponents will lose if they try and argue against the facts.

The second, which has gained more prominence recently is the argument of cost. In a nutshell, the critics say that single-payer is far too expensive, and question how the government going to fund it. It's a false argument. The health insurance industry today is around a one trillion dollar per year industry. Where does that money come from? The American consumer. Public health care would cost about one fifth of that amount. So if we can sustain a one trillion dollar industry, we can surely sustain something far far cheaper.