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Today, Nov. 2,  is the last day to impact the health care bill which will be taken up by Congress. The Kucinich Amendment, which protects the right of states to pursue single payer health care initiatives, was stripped from the legislation. The only way to reinstate it is for it to be included in a Manager’s Amendment which will be completed this evening.

Today is the last day to demand that the Kucinich Amendment to protect state single payer initiatives be put back in the Health Care bill (H.R. 676). Ask your Representatives to put the Kucinich Amendment back in the bill. It has already been approved by the Education and Labor Committee in a bipartisan vote.

You can find the email addresses to your Representatives here on this site. Click “Activate Government” at the top.

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FROM —http://healthcare.kucinich.us/petition/health_care_for_all_leaflet.pdf

Why We Do Not Have Health Care for All

For nearly one hundred years, beginning with President Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, universal, not for profit health care has been proposed to meet the social and economic needs of all the American people. Yet today forty seven million Americans are uninsured and another fifty million Americans are underinsured.
—Why?
In America today health care is a privilege, based on ability to pay. If you cannot pay, you do not have the privilege, you may get emergency room care, but that’s it. Long term, your life is shorter. If you have health insurance, premiums, co- pays and deductibles may be cause financial ruin. At least 60% of all bankruptcies in America are due to people not having enough money to pay for hospital bills.
—Why Don’t We Have Health Care for All?
Health Insurance Companies are investment companies. They make money when people purchase policies. They also make money by refusing to pay claims. In a recent study by the California Nurses Association, insurance companies denied 28% of claims. This means the people who bought the insurance had to pay the very claims they thought they were insured against. As investment companies insurance companies have an obligation to shareholders to make the most profit, to get the highest rate of return. That is why they have to make money by not providing health care. One of every three dollars in our health care system, $800 billion a year goes for the for-profit system, for corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing and the cost of paper work. The insurance companies, and their Wall Street partners, do not want to change this arrangement.
—Can We Change the System?
Yes. But first we have to understand the influence that insurance companies have on our political process. They make large contributions to both political parties, to committee chairs and to individual members. Why? To protect the status quo, to make sure there are very few changes which interrupt their profits. That is why most proposals coming out of Washington today are weak, because most are written with an eye to the concerns of insurance companies.
—Is There Any Way Out of This Mess?
Yes, it is HR676, a universal, single payer, not for profit health care system, which is supported by 85 members of congress, and hundreds of other organizations made up of students, nurses, doctors, seniors and workers. It provides for all health care needs, doctor of choice, plus vision care, dental care, mental health, prescription drugs and long term care. We are already paying for a universal standard of care; we are just not getting it. We need to work together in making HR676 a reality. We cannot wait another 100 years.

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Please sign the petition. Pass the word. Hold a meeting in your neighborhood. Help grow the movement for a universal single payer system.

A PETITION ESTABLISHING
HEALTH CARE AS A CIVIL RIGHT
Whereas, Universal Health Care was proposed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1912; and
Whereas today, nearly 100 years later, 47 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are underinsured bringing great social and economic harm to the American family; and
Whereas, HR 676, authored by Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich provides for Medicare for All, a universal, single payer, not-for-profit health care system which means the end of premiums, copays and deductibles; and
Whereas we are already paying for a universal standard of care but are not getting it because one of every three dollars in the health care system goes to the activities of the for-profit insurance system; and
Whereas HR676 firmly establishes health care as a Civil Right, consistent with the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which defines a purpose of government “to promote the General Welfare,” now therefore.