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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'>SINGLE PAYER ELECTION
STRESS SYNDROME? </span></font></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Over the past two weeks I have received a lot of
emails from people who are depressed realizing that neither the Democratic or
Republican candidates are yet supporting guaranteed quality single payer
healthcare for all. They want to know “Who is better? Obama
or Clinton?” <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>What is obvious to all of us is that neither of them
is willing to utter the “S” word – Single Payer. They
have been terrified by the traditionalist Washington Beltway groups who insist
that single payer is “not feasible.” That we must wait until
we have a really progressive government in place before we can hope to push
forward for a healthcare system that would eliminate the role of the insurance
companies. They are willing to wait another four to eight years or more
to begin working for single payer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>However, more and more people know that the insurance
companies are killing people – every day. The new statistics show
that 101,000 people in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
die unnecessarily from illness – far more than any of the single payer
countries that provide healthcare for all of their people—no questions
asked. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Who is going to bell the cat? Millions of new
people are joining us who want real change in this system of privatization and
denial. Isn’t this the perfect time for us to be saying to Clinton and
Obama and McCain that we insist on single payer, a healthcare system that works
for all of us, that will not deny anyone based on ability to pay? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'>MY ANSWER to all of the
people who want to know who is better is to say that all of them have defective
healthcare programs.</span></font></b> Hillary Clinton supports the
atrocious individual mandate program introduced in <st1:State w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:State>
and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>
by Republic governors Romney and Schwarzenegger. It is also supported by
the Heritage Foundation and the insurance companies who are making a killing
off of the fact that the government of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:State></st1:place>
is criminalizing anyone in the state who does not purchase insurance from them.
Many of them are being forced to pay penalties even though they still don’t
have any health insurance. Ms Clinton almost got it right in one of the
debates when she said, well, if people were not required to participate, the
Medicare and Social Security programs wouldn’t work. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Of course, the difference is that Medicare and Social
Security serve everybody without denials because they are programs that belong
to us, the citizens. We ought to have Medicare handling our national
healthcare system. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>But Barack Obama did not pick up on that opening. It
would have been a perfect opportunity to say, “Then why don’t we go
for Medicare for All? It would cost less and provide more!”
He didn’t do it. He too is requiring everyone to purchase
insurance, even when he talks about his plan that would allow everyone to
participate in the Federal Employees program – a program that provides
everybody with a list of private insurance companies from whom they must
purchase their insurance. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'>BUT DO NOT DESPAIR!</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>To be fair, both Hillary and Barack talk about some
kind of public plan too. NO DETAILS YET. Unfortunately, you can bet your
bottom dollar that the insurance companies will not allow that public program
to be a really competitive program that would attract virtually everybody to go
for public healthcare with no denials, no premiums, co-pays or deductibles –
The truth is it would cost billions of dollars less if we removed the insurance
companies and their profits, lobbyists, advertising, and provide better
healthcare for everybody. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'>SO, HOW CAN WE PREVAIL?</span></font></b>
Big question. But we should be clear that we don’t have to wait any
longer. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,”
to quote June Jordan and Miss Ella Baker of the civil rights movement. We
have work to do right now.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>WE must elect new progressive congress members in every
Congressional District or re-elect those who are already supporting single
payer national healthcare and opposing the war. They must hear our loud
demand that we want “HEALTHCARE-NOT WARFARE.” We can
elect these people. If you are in a district where no one is running
against a bad Congress member, run a candidate in opposition. Even if the
primary is over in your district, run a WRITE-IN CANDIDATE. This is our
year to win! But we can’t win it if we are not in it. </span></font><b><font
color=red><span style='color:red;font-weight:bold'>I can’t urge you
strongly enough.</span></font></b> A number of candidates have dropped
out of the race – Bush supporters who see the handwriting on the
wall. More will do so. Anything can happen. In the meantime,
more and more single payer people are throwing their hats into the ring. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>This letter is going out to an additional 10,000
people this time. People have been sending their lists to us to invite
people to join. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>So, here’s the deal. Our national activist
list is going to be organizing debates and truth hearings, demonstrations in
front of insurance companies, memorial vigils remembering those who have died
because of insurance company denials, conferences in Boston, Oakland and
Minneapolis to help us learn about healthcare as a human right and to be able
to articulate the problems with the individual mandate programs. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Please get involved yourself and</span></font><b><font
color=red><span style='color:red;font-weight:bold'> send us the contacts for
your friends and neighbors, relatives and email buddies if they too would like
to work for a single payer national healthcare system right now in this
strategic period. </span></font></b> We will connect them to the campaign
being organized by some of the student groups working in healthcare clinics
nationwide and/or the healthcare-now activists working in our communities
nationwide, organizing candidate debates and truth hearings. Just send
names to me directly at <a href="mailto:info@healthcare-now.org">info@healthcare-now.org</a>.
We need names, addresses and emails. <b><font color=red><span
style='color:red;font-weight:bold'>We will return to you and each of your
friends a Tool Kit for Organizing -- with critical information about contacts
in their community and their Congressional District number. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=red face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:red;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'>If you can’t
help us with the organizing, please send a contribution. Just go to our
website, <a href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/">www.healthcare-now.org</a>
and hit </span></font></b><b><font color=red><span style='color:red;
font-weight:bold'>DONATE NOW.</span></font></b><b><font color=black><span
style='color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'> This may be the most important
gift you ever gave in this important time in our history, maybe the best chance
we will have within the next twenty years or even in our lifetime to get a guaranteed
national single payer healthcare system. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'>Think about how
fabulous it would be to have a healthcare system where NO ONE IS EVER DENIED!
And where our money is going to healthcare, not corporate profits. To read
about H.R. 676. Go to <a
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr676.html">http://www.healthcare-now.org/hr676.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'>Way to go
folks! Don’t give up. Don’t give in to despair. This is
a goooood time to do this work because our organizing work is paying off.
Are there still naysayers? Sure, but negatives aside, we are on a roll!
Popular fighting Senator Sheila Khuel of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
said recently, “ Single Payer Unfeasible?” Only if you are
not willing to fight the insurance companies!” <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'>Let’s go for
it! READ </span></font></b><a href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/#private">INSURANCE
HAS FAILED US</a>, by Laura McClure. <b><font color=black><span
style='color:windowtext;font-weight:bold'> Much love and support to all of
you, 1-800-453-1305 <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face=Forte><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Forte'>Marilyn Clement,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>National
Coordinator<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Healthcare-NOW<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><a
href="www.healthcare-now.org">www.healthcare-now.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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