The Activist's Guide to Health Care Reform:

We need all hands on deck. We need you.

If you make your way all through the list below, you'll have tremendous impact. However, it's really not necessary to do everything listed below to make a difference. If your time is limited, pick two or three items and do those. I've listed the actions in order of their importance.

Which do I recommend? I recommend doing steps 1 through 3 right away. Then, as time permits, you may wish to do all of them. There is no reason to ever feel powerless even when assailed by seemingly overwhelming odds! There's always something for an activist to do!

1. Sign These Important Petitions and Lists:
   
   • Sign the America Can't Wait petition
   • Sign the FireDogLake Action petition for the House of Representatives
   • Add your signature to DFA's Thank Our Healthcare Heroes lists going to Congressmembers
   • Sign the Petition for Real Health Care Reform and a Public Option, a project from Sens. Durbin, Leahy and Schumer
   • Sign up with Howard Dean's Stand with Dr. Dean petition
2. Donate Money Targeted Specifically for Our Public Option Heroes in the House:
   
   If you can do only one thing to help this cause, this is the most important one because it helps us speak louder. See, there is a (growing) group of progressive lawmakers in Congress who has vowed to stand up to the insurance lobby and pledge not to vote for any health reform bill unless it contains a public option plan. This commitment will come at a great cost to those lawmakers since the insurance lobby will undoubtedly pull back its campaign contributions to those members. We need to be able to demonstrate to these brave proponents of health care reform that we will work hard to help them get re-elected, even though their contributions from lobbyists will diminish. The congressmembers on this list have said in no uncertain terms that they will not vote for a bill without a public option all the way through Conference. That takes courage, and we need to show them how much we appreciate them for doing so. Please make a contribution-- and thanks for everything else you're doing for the public option. Every penny of every dollar donated in this manner will go directly to the re-election campaigns of the lawmakers supporting the Public Option.
3. Ask Others to Donate Money Targeted for Healthcare Heroes in Congress:
   
   If you cannot afford to donate to the pledged lawmakers, or if you have already donated to the cause, then, now please encourage others to donate by sending an email to them using this tool.
4. Donate Money to the DFA Efforts in the Senate:
   
   Democracy for America (DFA) has been raising money also to put extra staff and resources on the ground starting in as many as 10 states to pressure the remaining Senators that have not yet decided to back the Public Option. Only 50 senators are needed but, so far, we don't have that many (we have many more House members). Even if you gave to the House efforts above, please also give to this Senate work at DFA.
5. Learn All You Can. Get Facts; Help Dispel the Myths:
   
   • Why We Need a Public Health-Care Plan, by Robert Reich
   • Who Are the Uninsured in America? New York Times
   • The Cost of Doing Nothing About the Health Care Crisis, from the Center for American Progress
   • Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies, by Theresa Tamkins, CNN
   • Only a Public Option Bends the Cost Curve, by Eve Gittelson
   • Health Care in Crisis: 14,000 Losing Coverage Each Day, by Center for American Progress
   • Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals, by the Kaiser Family Foundation (excellent & up-to-date always!)
   • Health Reform Fact Check, from Campaign for America's Future
   • We can afford health care reform, from the White House
   • Working Adults Are Losing Their Health Insurance, by Peter Harbage, Center for American Progress
   • Rationing is not a part of health care reform, from the White House
   • No reduced Medicare benefits in health care reform, by CNN
   • Will Reform Be Good for Seniors? from the White House
   • Health Insurance Reality Check, from the White House
   • Blue Cross praised employees who dropped sick policyholders, by Lisa Girion, LA Times
   • Make Health Care Affordable And Accountable, by Jacob Hacker, Campaign for America's Future
   • U.S. Currently Ranks Poorly with Other Wealthy Nations, by Sen. Tom Daschle
   • How Does the Quality of U.S. Health Care Compare Internationally?, by Docteur and Berenson, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
6. Organize Your Talking Points; Keep Your Message Simple:
   
   • Download and print this sheet on How to Talk About Healthcare Reform (pdf)
   • Download and print this sheet on Why a Public Health Insurance Option? (pdf) from Campaign for American's Future
   • Don't Let the Myths About Health Care Reform Scare You, from AARP
   • Five Health Care Lies, and How to Fight Back, from MoveOn
   • More on Why We Need Public Option, by Dr. Howard Dean
   • A line-by-line rebuttal to false email, by Mike Kruger
   • The truth about Insurance Companies:
     • Why Does Comprehensive Health Insurance Matter?
     • Who Pays for Health Insurance?
     • How Do People Get Their Health Insurance?
     • Why Doesn’t Private Health Insurance Meet Our Needs?
     • Why Are Risk Pools Important?
     • Why Insurance Companies Cherry Pick Their Subscribers (and Get Rid of Others)
     • Who Is Left Out? Health Conditions Denied by Individual Market Insurers
   • Health Care in Crisis: 14,000 Losing Coverage Each Day, by Center for American Progress
7. Share the Facts With Others!
   
   • Sign up to write comments at your local newspapers' websites, and start commenting on all health care news items at the sites.
   • Download these great flyers, handouts and white papers - print them and give them out (these are wonderful for sharing):
     • Download a printable side-by-side comparison of all proposals and topics (pdf) - This is always up-to-date and is very detailed; complete reference of all proposed legislation
     • Top Five Lies (pdf)
     • Why a Public Health Insurance Option? (pdf)
     • The State of Individual Insurance Markets, Fact Sheets for the 50 States, from the Center for American Progress
     • Health Care Premiums Run Amok (pdf), from Center for American Progress
     • Myth vs. Fact Regarding 'End of Life Care' and the House Bill (pdf), from Rep. Earl Blumenauer
   • Download these handbills and signs, print them, and hold them up at meetings and protests:
     • Sign: Public Option = Affordable Health Care (pdf)
     • Sign: Public Option: Increases Choice, Reduces Cost (pdf)
     • Sign: 83% Support the Public Option (pdf)
   • Send emails about the truth about health care reform, by using this handy tool
   • Download, print, and take this sheet on How to Talk About Healthcare Reform (pdf) with you to public events and meetings
   • If you are blogging, you use graphics in your blog by downloading helpful charts showing economic imperative for health reform (pdf here), and a chart from Think Progress here (pdf here), a chart about healthcare dollars from CR here, and a chart about poll numbers here.
8. Call and Write Your Legislators:
   
   • First, find out where your own Senators and Congressional representative stand on Public Option.
   • Call Congress for Whip Count: Ask Lawmakers to Take the Pledge for the Public Option
   • Send an email to your Senators and Representatives asking them where they stand on Public Option healthcare reform here.
   • Call your members of Congress and find out which side they are on.
9. Questions to Ask Your Lawmakers (by phone, in person):
   
   • I'm here (calling, attending) to urge you to push for passage of a health care reform plan with a real public health insurance option as soon as you head back to Washington. It's critical for controlling skyrocketing costs and guaranteeing security for all of us. Will you fight to make sure a real public health insurance option is included in health care reform this year?
   • Our health care system is broken—costs are skyrocketing and too many people can't afford coverage. The heart of President Obama's health care plan—the public health insurance option—is the key to fixing those problems. Will you fight to make sure a real public health insurance option is included in health care reform this year?
   • We need action now. The cost of inaction is too high—every day that we delay, 14,000 Americans lose their insurance and nearly 2,500 file for bankruptcy because of medical costs. And costs continue to spiral out of control: average family premiums will hit $22,000 a year in the next decade. Will you fight to make sure a real public health insurance option is included in health care reform this year?
   • With a real public option, costs will start to go down and millions of individuals, families, and small businesses will have access to high-quality, affordable health insurance. And no matter what happens to our jobs or our health, a public option will always be there for us. Will you fight to make sure a real public health insurance option is included in health care reform this year?
10. Call and Write to President Obama:
    
    • Call the White House:
      Comments: 202-456-1111
      Switchboard: 202-456-1414
      FAX: 202-456-2461
    • You can also write to the President:
      Barack Obama, The White House
      1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
      Washington, DC 20500
      Please include your e-mail address
    • Send Online Comments to the White House
      Online comment form:
      http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
11. Send Others to This Page!
    
    If you have a website, please put a link to this post somewhere in your sidebar. If you do diaries at DailyKos or anywhere else, link to this post in your diary. Also, please Tweet this, Facebook it and share it with others by e-mail. This is not the time to lose heart or give into discouragement. We must remain steadily on course - and, even more importantly, we must encourage others to join us in our very focused campaign. So share this link with others: http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2009/08/activists_guide_to_health_reform.html

I'm asking you to make health care reform your highest priority, even if it's not been the issue you feel the most passionately about. Why am I asking that of you?

Perhaps you care most about climate change, helping the poor, ending war, mobilizing young voters, creating jobs or making college affordable. Why stop everything and focus on helping us pass Public Option health care reform? Think about it this way. Do you know why the flight attendants on airlines instruct you to put the oxygen mask on yourself first?

They instruct, in case of emergency, to place the oxygen mask on your own face first, before reaching out to place the mask on children, the elderly or the disabled? Why?

If you do not save yourself first, you will be unable to save anybody else. We need your help to save us all, so we can work to make life better for all.

The recent turmoil in the job market is likely increasing the number of uninsured at the rate of 14,000 a day. Frankly, if our middle class and working class cannot work, most cannot even access group insurance offerings. Those that can't work, can't buy insurance. Those without insurance, find it difficult to stay healthy. People who cannot stay healthy, find it increasingly hard to work. This is rapidly becoming the main destroyer of our middle class.

80 percent of the uninsured come from families with full-time or part-time workers. They often cannot get coverage at work or find it too expensive to buy. How long will they be able to continue working if they cannot access medical care for their families? Will illness stop them in their tracks? Will they be forced to join the unemployed because of illness?

If our people cannot get preventative medical care, they cannot take care of their families or their communities.

If activists cannot keep themselves healthy, they will not be able to save the world!

You may also be wondering why I haven't recommended that you just work with the Organizing for America website (set up by the Obama campaign and White House). We're not waiting for President Barack Obama's lead on this. There's very good reasons for that. First, the presidential election is over. Now, we need to support our progressive legislators. Our legislators are the ones slugging away at making real change.

Plus, recently, the Obama administration seemed ready to give up on the Public Option, sending all sorts of signals that the president would sign a health care reform bill with a co-op provision, if that's what it would take to get a package through the Senate. Between the missteps by Secretary Sebelius and the crowings from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, we aren't following President Obama any more, we are providing him the way forward ourselves.

If progressives had real trust in Obama’s commitment to doing the right thing, the administration would have broad leeway to do deals. But the president doesn’t command that kind of trust. Partly it’s a matter of style — as many people have noted, he has been weirdly reluctant to make the moral case for universal care, weirdly unable to show passion on the issue, weirdly diffident even about the blatant lies from the right. ...

Add in the dealmaking as part of the health care process itself, and progressives can be forgiven for having the impression that Obama (a) takes them for granted (b) is way too easily rolled by the other side. (Paul Krugman)

It's time to let that voice be heard. Now is time for the crowds, the independents, the young, new voters to show up by the thousands and show up for what you want; what you believe in. (Gerald Britt)

With all of the shouting, the fear, and now what often looks like hatred -- we are in danger of losing the moral “core” of this health-care debate. That core, quite simply, is that many people are hurting from a broken health-care system. They include the 46 million who have no health insurance, but also the many who do but don’t get what they need and simply can’t afford good health...

People of faith need to be the steady, moral drumbeat driving the debate and keeping our politicians accountable. This is a critical and long-overdue opportunity to fix a broken and inequitable system, which must not be derailed either by powerful special interests or by those, on any side, who just want to score political points. It is up to all of us to make sure that doesn’t happen. (Jim Wallis)