Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith, community organizer and legislative advocate 

You'd think after eight long and ugly years listening to pompous and wealthy officials slam their versions of social hatred down our gullets, we'd have sent those folks packing for good on January 20, 2009. You'd think as we debate healthcare reform for this nation, we'd have left the arrogance and the flaunting of greed back in the pre-Wall Street bailout days of summer 2008. And you'd think in the People's House, the United States House of Representatives, we'd at least have stood up and said that every single American is deserving of and yes, entitled to, healthcare and protected from going broke in the process of getting care when ill.

You'd think.

by Donna Smith

It's coming. You and me and every middle class, working person in this nation is about to start handing over more and more of their hard earned cash to the private insurance industry, courtesy of our own elected members of Congress and our very popular President. Fire up those Treasury Department presses. We're going to be printing and providing money for insurance companies like no bail-out we've seen yet this economic crisis cycle.

By Donna Smith

Wow.  America’s Health insurance Plan’s  (AHIP) czar -- and the woman our Congress and president have anointed as the nation’s architect of health reform -- has offered a gift to all of America’s moms and women.  The health insurance industry will stop charging you more – they’ll stop discriminating against you – so long as all of you are legally forced to buy their product.

It sounds to me a little like the old saw, “When did you stop beating your wife?” But then when I really thought about it, it made me sicker and sadder and more acutely aware of exactly what this nation’s leaders think of all of the mothers and daughters in the land this Mother’s Day 2009.

CNA/NNOC has been hot on the trail of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) executives for a long time.  Since we marched in San Francisco on June 19th, 2008, with thousands, to the front of the Capital Hilton in our hazmat suits in Washington, DC, in late September 2008, to the cold winds of Chicago and that Magnificent Mile march to the AHIP meeting there in November 2008, we have taken the message forward:  We want healthcare not for-profit health insurance for everyone in this nation.

And watch this video to see newly elected Congressman Eric Massa of New York, tell the story once again, today - March 10th, 2009, in front of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Georgetown, where AHIP heard us yet again.

By Donna Smith

CHICAGO -- Who says working for healthcare reform isn't fun?  Certainly not those of us in Chicago who met before Christmas to laugh and share some holiday cheer -- and to bowl for single payer.  In one of my favorite photos from this entire year (above) are tireless single payer advocates Vanessa Beck, patient and member of Chi-SPAN (Chicago Single Payer Action Network), and Dr. Anne Sheetz of PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program).  Both women are strong and loving -- maybe not great bowlers -- but great people working to make this world a whole lot more just.

The bowling party had been in the works since before the November general election.  All year long, the folks working on single payer -- publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare -- worked on various campaigns and in various ways to move the agenda of single payer forward.  While every individual had his or her reason for being so involved, the collective spirit of the group was clearly one of shared mission and commitment to seeing single payer legislation become the law -- not just in the Land of Lincoln (and now of Barack Obama) but also in the nation.

So we grew fond of one another in the struggle -- you do meet the most wonderful people in the single payer movement.  And we bowled.  Some of us bowled poorly while some bowled a bit better.  We laughed and clapped and just enjoyed one another's company as we each knew that all too soon we'd be back to the task and back at work. 

See another photo or two by clicking on the read more function.

President-elect Obama's transition team says they want to hear from us on healthcare.  So, the time has come to rise up and speak up as never before.  Let's contribute the single payer -- publicly funded, privately delivered -- healthcare message loud and clear. 

Go to the change.gov site to sign up and host a health care community discussion.

http://change.gov/page/s/hcdiscussion

If we're going to have a seat at the discussion table, we're going to have to invite our friends, neighbors and family, set the table and serve up the best option for this nation's healthcare mess --

There is no time to waste.  Join the action.  Take just a moment every week to work for single payer, guaranteed healthcare for all. 

No bail-outs needed.  Just publicly financed, privately delivered healthcare for everyone in America.

Freedom to choose, freedom to live a healthy life, freedom to leave this nation in better shape for our kids and grandkids.  It is up to us.

All Tracy Pierce wanted was to be given a chance to fight his cancer. His insurance coverage wouldn’t even give him that.

Nurses from across the country, actually the world, are on a bus tour promoting "Scrubs for SiCKO" a campaign to recruit a nurse or doctor to each of the movie's 3,000 opening night screens.  These healthcare providers--many in custom red scrubs--will work to maximize the impact SiCKO has on our political and social debates about how to finally guarantee healthcare and get private insurance corporations out of our healthcare system.   Along the way, an unprecedented coalition of activists nurses, many from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, as well as a dozen other nurses groups, is coming together to demand real healthcare reform now. Below is the third report from the tour, co-written by a number of nurses as they travelled to Chicago and New Hampshire last week.  This stretch was incredibly important for we went from the belly of the beast to the belly of the beast...that is, from Chicago's national HQ for Blue Cross/Blue Shield to the epicenter of the Presidential race in Manchester.   

For more information, please visit www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org/Sicko and sign up!

Nurses take their work very seriously but they also love to have fun as you'll see in this creative new YouTube show dubbed "ACCESS HEALTHCARE" which borrows a few ideas from "Access Hollywood," "ET," "Extra," and the like. Go backstage with Michael Moore, experience the buzz around his new movie SiCKO, see the latest RN fashions, and JOIN the movement for guaranteed healthcare in America.

Click here to see the first edition of "ACCESS HEALTHCARE" on YouTube and join us June 29th