| AN EASY WAY TO PLAY A KEY ROLE IN PASSING
"SINGLE-PAYER" LEGISLATION
MNA members can play a pivotal role in a statewide
effort to win passage of S.531, H.1947 Massachusetts Health
Care Trust, a bill sponsored by Sen. Travaglini (D-East Boston)
and Rep. Stefanini (D-Framingham). The bill, supported by
50 legislators in the House and 14 in the Senate, would make
Massachusetts the first state in the nation to adopt a universal,
single payer system of health care. Last month, the Joint
Committee on Health Care granted an extension to the legislation,
which means the legislation is still alive and in need of
political support from the nursing community and nurse-friendly
legislators.
Mass-Care, a statewide coalition of health
advocacy groups including MNA, needs to have at least three
voters in every state representative’s district in Massachusetts,
a network of activists who will be kept informed on the progress
of the bill and, when asked to, will call your state reps
and remind them of the strong grassroots support behind this
reform.
If you are willing to make a minimal commitment
to be part of this vital network of voter support, it will
have an enormous impact on all of us, most importantly our
patients. Call Phyllis Kleingardner at 1-800-882-2056, ext.
728 to leave your name, phone number and email address.
She will pass the information on to Peggy
O’Malley or Sandy Eaton, the MNA liaisons to Mass-Care. We
will send you an introductory packet to make it easier for
you to speak to your legislator on this subject. Then volunteers
from Mass-Care will keep in touch with you.
Our goal is to have a minimum of two nurses
in each of the 160 state rep districts. About a third of them
are already co-sponsors but they need to feel the support
from their districts. If legislators get even five phone calls
about a bill, they pay attention because they know those five
represent thousands more voters. You’ll be joining your efforts
to those of other citizens around the state, including senior
citizens, labor unions, social workers, teachers, doctors
and community groups.
The MHCT bill calls for the elimination of
our current costly patchwork of public and private insurance.
Under the trust, health insurance would be available to all
Massachusetts residents, our choice of health care providers
would remain intact, and administrative costs in health care
would be drastically reduced. Recent studies on the cost of
a state single payer system in Massachusetts show that we
can afford to cover everyone and save money!
All nurses are also welcome at the monthly
Mass-Care meetings. Check them out at MASSCARE@aol.com. |
