OpEdNews - Page 4 of Article: Health Care Activists: A Special Note To Help You Bump Up Your Activism

---Up and running on Day One of the Health Insurance Exchange, in sync with the timing of the private plans on the exchange, not 2013. The Public Option could be implemented within 1-2 years, similar to the time it took for Medicare.

---Able to use existing programs as much as possible like Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and CHIP to cut administrative costs! For instance Adults up to the age of 30 could buy into Medicaid, it is very inexpensive. Early Retirees and their Unions could be allowed to buy into Medicare at a lower rate than the rate that they would incur if they insist on us paying for their expensive private health care plans. In fact everyone age 55 and older could be offered the chance to buy into Medicare. Families of Vets could be allowed to buy into the VA program, which is the most cost effective government run health care program in this country.

---Open to everyone from day one. Anyone who is not already in an existing Federal or State plan or in the VA should be able to sign up for the Public Option, even with employer coverage. Some may have very weak employer coverage and if they want to pay the premiums to the Public Option, without subsidies of course, then they should be allowed into the Public Option. The bigger the pool, the better for long term viability!

---A plan that focuses on Primary Care and Prevention and has all the basic medical care covered.

---A plan that is allowed to negotiate for reduced drug costs for all of its members, no matter what Obama promised. It is my understanding that the House Progressive Caucus has successfully added this as the Schakowsky amendment to the Energy and Commerce committee version of HR 3200; please vote for it and make sure it goes into the Senate bill too.

---A plan that holds prescription benefit managers to a much higher standard than currently in the Medicare Part D program, per the Baldwin amendment on HR 3200.

So please activists get on the phones and call your Reps and Sens every day for the next month. The 800 numbers to Congress are 1-866-338-1015, 1-800-828-0498, 1-888-436-8427. It is now or never!

Also call Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi, and you can call the committee's which are working on Health Care;
In the House;
Rep. Miller's Education and Labor committee,
Rep. Rangel's Ways and Means committee,
Rep. Waxman's Energy and Commerce committee.

In the Senate;
Sen. Harkin's Health, Education and Labor committee,
Sen. Baucus's Finance committee.

Ask to talk to the Democratic side of these committee's and talk to the the staffers who are working on Health Care, these are the folks who are actually writing and reading these bills.

Call the White House, Obama may just cave on the Public Option at the end of this fight, your calls may encourage him not to cave.
1-202-456-1414 or 1-202-456-1111

Obviously the Baucus/Senate Finance Committee bill is worthless to us, it does not even have a Public Option. My sources in the Senate tell me they have 51 votes for the Senate HELP bill, (which is similar to the House Bill HR 3200), which means that they could pass this with the reconciliation rules. It is my understanding that this means that the bill would have to be budget neutral and only passed for 5 years, having to be re upped after that. This whole bill may come down to the Conference Committee after all the votes are done but let's work hard to get the most progressive bill passed. That will help a lot.

Please go to http://healthcare.kucinich.us/petition/ and sign Kucinich's petition about this Health Care Reform and send this email around to all your contacts.

Thank you for all you do for Health Care Reform.
Below is a list of Chicago Single Payer events coming up,
Sincerely,
Dr. Lora

CHICAGO SINGLE PAYER EVENTS AS OF 9-26-09

Sun Sept 27 St Giles Church HC Forum Oak Park Time ??

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