Letters Needed From Your Representatives!
As you call your state Representatives to urge House Ways & Means Chair, Paul Haley, to vote H.5067 out of committee, please also ask them to send him a letter with a copy to you or Mass-Care.  We would like to be able to document support for the bill, and make sure that Rep. Haley has been contacted.  You can give your Rep. a draft of a letter to make it easier and quicker for them to follow through.  A sample is below:

(DRAFT)
Dear Chairman Haley;

This is to support H.5067, establishing an Advisory Committee on Health Care Consolidation and Financing, which would provide for a study of the fiscal implications of the creation of a universal, unified and consolidated health care system in the Commonwealth.  I am urging you to quickly vote it out of the House Ways & Means Committee to enable the entire House to consider it before adjournment.

The need to study viable options to address the serious concerns of our current health care system -- 600,000 uninsured in the Commonwealth; double digit increases in premiums; failing community hospitals, nursing homes, and HMO's; loss of nurses and other health professionals from the field; and disruptions of coverage for seniors and others with employer-based insurance -- must be pursued as soon as possible to begin to formulate workable solutions.
I support H.5067, and urge its passage in the Committee.
 
 

Massachusetts Teachers Association Joins Mass-Care!!
Welcome to the Mass Teachers Association as our latest organization to join Mass-Care!!  We now have 62 member organizations around the state.  
Please let us know if you have contacts with others that would be interested in being a part of the growning movement to work for universal single payer health care in Massachusetts.
 
 

NPR Town Meeting On Health Care - June 29, 2:00 pm
National Public Radio, Talk of the Nation, will hold a national town hall forum on "The Changing Face of America"  featuring the Coalition for Health Care's Dr. Susan Bennett, along with  Dr. Tom Delbanco, Dr. Harris Berman, CEO Tufts Health Care.  

It will be held at Boston University School of Management Auditorium, Rafik B. Hariri Building, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA (live on 90.9FM in Boston, on the web at www.wbur.org) from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.

Note: From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., the discussion will switch to the subject of alternative medicine, with an entirely new panel. 

FORMAT:  2 P.M. 
Segment A. 20 minutes: Host Juan Williams introduces the 3 panelists and the topic of the first of two one-hour discussions. The producer of the show, Paul Brown, envisages a lively, interactive 20-minute discussion/conversation between Williams and the trio of guests on the new health care crisis and how a new "health care constitution" in Massachusetts "may serve as a template for what could happen elsewhere."

Pause for one-minute station identification

Segment B. 20 minutes. Public participation. Williams will take phone calls and questions from the audience and facilitate the ensuing discussion among the panelists.

Segment C. 20 minutes. Repeat Segment B.
Although Mass-Care will not be on the panel, we have been assured by NPR that we will be given an opportunity to ask a question and raise our interest in single payer health care.  The following is from an alert put out by the Coalition for Health Care which is sponsoring the ballot initiative and applies to universal single payer advocates as well.  Please plan on attending or calling in.   

IMPORTANT: Brown says the town hall event will live or die by the level and quality of participation from the public and has encouraged us in the strongest terms to activate our grassroots network to: (a) attend the town hall forum or (b) call-in with questions. Attendees will be given index cards on which to write questions. NPR staffers will select pertinent and interesting questions and invite audience members to ask those questions of the panel from microphones dotted around the auditorium. 

Juan Williams will set the stage at the beginning of the forum by emphasizing that MA is a "center of medical research and at the vanguard of progressive solutions" to the health care crisis - that's why NPR is holding the forum here. So although the ballot initiative is not the primary focus of the discussion, it is inherent to the entire discussion.

CHC supporters should ask questions about access, patient rights, and the poor quality of for-profit medicine, questions that allow Dr. Bennett to make the argument for the initiative. NPR is also extremely interested to hear from Dr. Bennett about her personal experiences in trying to secure quality care for her patients. Therefore, your question will more likely be selected if it refers, however briefly, to personal experiences inside the health care system. Questions directed to Berman that address HMO issues and put him on the defensive would also be effective. 

Capacity is limited to 350 and NPR is desperate for a full auditorium. For reservations and more information, please call 888.899.9287. You do not need an "official" invitation. If you cannot make it, please call-in to the forum with your questions on 888.899.8255 (888.899.TALK). Note: This telephone number is subject to change. 

This type of event is tailor-made for a modern, grassroots political organization. The more people who know about the event, the more people we can get to the event and the more people will call in. Ultimately, if we fully activate our grassroots network, the more people will hear about the ballot initiative and vote for it in November. 
 
 

Quote From Senator Ted Kennedy
"The quality of a person's health care should not be determined by the 
quantity of their wealth"
- Sen. Ted Kennedy
May 20, 2000
Graduation Speech at Bentley College