Call-in day for Lincoln's Birthday, District visits, and "Houseparties for Healthcare"

Here are three actions you can take over the next few weeks to support single payer health care and encourage others in your community to do the same:

Thursday, February 12, 2009: National Call-in Day for HR 676
Celebrate Lincoln's birthday by speaking out for single-payer health care! The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare is encouraging everyone to participate in the upcoming National Call-in Day for HR 676. If you have not yet called your representative and asked for his or her support on HR 676, do not miss this opportunity to add your voice to the hundreds of thousands who are supporting health care for people, not for profit!

The Congressional switchboard number is 202-225-3121, or you can find links to representatives' websites, with direct-dial numbers, here.

In a letter to Col. William F. Elkins written November 21, 1864, Lincoln wrote:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

In celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, remind your member of Congress to honor his words and heed his warning as we look to reform his precious nation's healthcare system.

A list of current HR 676 sponsors can be found here, and past sponsors here. Thank current co-sponsors and ask them to stand firm and actively seek additional congressional support. If your member was a co-sponsor in the last Congress, ask him or her to sign on immediately as a co-sponsor now.

If your member has yet to co-sponsor HR 676, ask him or her to please do so. Share your story as a constituent, or select one or two talking points from this list.

Please also urge your member to learn more about the serious flaws in the Massachusetts health plan and examine why it cannot serve as a national model for providing universal and comprehensive care, at a special briefing on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 2:00-4:00pm, 2226 Rayburn House Office Building.

Lastly, don't forget to call (202-456-1414) or fax (202-456-2461) the White House to make sure our current President recalls how very troubled another young lawyer from Illinois was as he viewed the future of the nation under the control of the monied and corporate interests just like those swirling in the for-profit health insurance industry.

Plan a district visit for single payer during the Presidents' Day recess
From Monday, February 16 through Friday, February 20, legislators will be working back in their districts for the Presidents' Day recess. Now is the time to make an appointment with your member of Congress to directly urge him or her to support single payer healthcare by co-sponsoring HR 676.

See this handy "how to" on setting up a visit at your Congress member's district office. Information sources online include our posts and downloads on single payer, Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare-Now, and the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care.

Houseparties for Healthcare
We're in the process of putting together activist packs for houseparty screenings of "Health, Money, and Fear," a dvd on the healthcare crisis produced by Dr. Paul Hochfeld. Dr. Hochfeld is an emergency room physician in Oregon and his film is a comprehensive look at how healthcare is funded and distributed in the US. You can preview the film online at www.ourailinghealthcare.com . Links to packet materials will be available on this blog.

Several AfD members in Massachusetts will be submitting "Health, Money, and Fear" to local community access cable stations. You don't have to live in Massachusetts to participate in AfD's "Other Voices" Community Media Project. Find out more by contacting AfD council member Ruth Weizenbaum at rweiz@theworld.com.