Pennsylvania Can Lead the Way! Rally for Single-Payer Healthcare At the Capitol on June 11th

This coming Thursday morning hundreds of citizens of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth will descend upon the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pa. to make our voices heard.  An impressive group of speakers and representatives of mainstream organizations representing millions of Pennsylvanians will raise their collective  voices in the Capitol Rotunda to demonstrate to our elected representatives that the single-payer movement has gone mainstream.  We will not be dismissed as a rag-tag band of Utopians.  We are the majority, and they ignore us at their peril.  Please join us.

I want to make it clear that the speakers at, and co-sponsors of this rally do not share identical views about how to approach the repair of our dysfunctional healthcare system that has now risen to true crisis proportion.  On the national level some favor the single-payer bills of Congressman John Conyers (HR 676)  or Senator Bernie Sanders (S703). Others favor the Public Option and are allied with the HCAN Coalition.  In Pennsylvania, however, we have an opportunity to lead the way.   By passing HB 1660 and SB 400 (both bills are soon to be reintroduced in the current sessions of both Houses) we can become the first state in the nation to enact single-payer, universal, comprehensive healthcare for all legal residents of the Commonwealth.  Everybody in.  Nobody Out.  We will all be bearing a common message on Thursday:  PASS THIS LEGISLATION!

You don’t believe this is a mainstream movement?  Our speakers will include Bill George, President of the Pa. AFL-CIO;  David Fillman, Executive Director of AFSCME Council 13, the largest union local in Pennsylvania representing 65,000 workers;  Donna Smith, star of Micheal Moore’s  “SiCKO,” and now a political organizer for the California Nurses Association;  Walter Tsou, nationally known healthcare consultant and former Philadelphia Health Commissioner; Former Senate Candidate Chuck Pennacchio;  as well as representatives from the Pa. Council of Churches; the Pa. League of Women Voters and others.

Organizations that have endorsed the rally include:

The American Medical Student Association (AMSA)

California Nurses Association

Healthcare for ALLPA.org

Healthcare for ALL Philadelphia (HCAP)

Healthcare Not Warfare Campaign (Progressive Democrats of America)

Keystone Progress

National Union of Hospital and Health Employees/District 1199C (Philadelphia), AFSCME, AFL-CIO;  Pa. AFL-CIO

Pa. League of Women Voters

Ni-Ta-Nee NOW,  Centre County

Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP)

Pa. National Organization of Women (NOW)

Pennsylvanians United for Singlepayer Healthcare (PUSH)

Philadelphia National Organization of Women (NOW)

Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for a National Health Program(PNHP) – Pa. Chapter

 Can anyone look at this list and claim that this is not a mainstream movement?

This is obviously a deadly serious rally, but you’ll also have a good time, I promise.  You’ll be entertained by singers Anne Feeney   and Mike Stout .    We’ll be passing out hundreds  of hospital gowns for you to wear to symbolize the plight of millions of citizens of the Commonwealth who are uninsured or underinsured.  WE WILL BE GETTING THE ATTENTION OF THE LEGISLATURE AND THE MEDIA.

Check out our web site here.  At the site you can find links to our flier, driving directions, parking locations, rail and bus information, and an e-mail address (action@healthcare4ALLPA.org) that you can use if you can take passengers or need a ride, or simply want more information.

The rally runs from 11 AM to 1230 PM with entertainment running from 11-1130 AM and speakers scheduled for 1130 AM to 1230 PM.  It will be held in the Capitol Main Rotunda at 100 N. State Street in Harrisburg.

Help us make history this Thursday.  JOIN US! (And if you can’t join us contact your Legislators and tell them you will be there in spirit and you want them to pass this bill)