Obama Healthcare events June 6th

[Tx4obama]

Just received an email from Obama.com
A copy of the email text is below:

Your Name,

Remember this date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009. We will look back on that day as the moment when the fight for real health care reform began in your neighborhood -- perhaps even in your own living room.

On June 6th, in thousands of homes across the country, we'll gather to launch our grassroots campaign for health care. We'll watch a special message from the President. We'll build the teams and draw up the plans for winning health care reform the same way we won the election: Building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time. And we'll put those plans into action.

These kickoffs are so crucial that President Obama will join confirmed hosts and attendees on a live conference call.

Sign up today to host or attend a Health Care Organizing Kickoff.

There's no prior experience required. We'll send you the details for dialing into the President's call and provide you everything you need to make your meeting a success.

After the election, people gathered at over 9,000 meetings across every state to set priorities for health care reform. Our voices were heard. Now the race is on to make sure Congress produces a plan that reflects the President's call for reduced costs, guaranteed choice, and quality care for all.

To make that happen, we need to build a groundswell of support in every district and every state, and we have no time to lose. All summer we'll be reaching out to our neighbors, knocking on doors, serving in our communities, and building a grassroots network strong enough to win.

These gatherings on June 6th are just the beginning of a battle between those who fought and believe in change and those who would protect a broken status quo. The stakes for our country could not be greater.

Some call this strategy pie-in-the-sky. They say we'll never have enough volunteers to make a real impact; that you need insiders and Washington lobbyists to make a difference. But you and I know firsthand how wrong they are. Starting June 6th, it's once again time to show this country how bottom-up change is done.

Please sign up today to host or attend a kickoff near you.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hckickoff

These kickoffs will be both effective and fun. You'll meet likeminded supporters in your neighborhood, share stories, enjoy good company and a shared mission, and know that no matter what this effort requires of us, if we work together we'll be ready to face it and persevere.

I look forward to joining you and the President to chart our course.

David Plouffe
Organizing for America

[ClarkUSA]

1. Thanks for the heads-up and the Obama policy-supportive OP.

[eridani]

2. I'm going, and telling them that

--I'm not volunteering for shit unless at the very minimum, a public option is included among the "principles."

[vssmith]

3. Single payer ONLY!

Keep the insurance companies and big pharma out of the discussion

[eridani]

4. That's Plan A, which we should insist on to start

Plan B is a decent public option. Even if you'd accept a kitten, keep asking for a pony.

[vaberella]

10. Plan A is to sell it to the American people overall. Hence Public Option.

You don't tell people...who actually like their health insurance. And there are many people on DU who are like that, "Oh we're going to take it away." No, you tell them, you can keep it but if you don't want it and want something cheaper--here you go. It's rational, logical, and the way to sell your position.

You are not thinking about selling...you're looking at long run. What O is doing is looking at short, medium, and long run affects. The long run will be a government plan that wipes out private insurance. But you start with what you can sell.

I've taken many eco classes and urban development classes. The war is not won just by the final battle. The war is one by changing the minds and getting your position marked. What O is doing is changing hearts and minds so he can get his stuff completed.

HRC tried to sell universal the same way you want him to push single payer. It was a FAILURE!! O is not about to repeat those mistakes and fuck up anything he could get done. One would think other Dems would think like that and see the stems that need to be taken.

As one of my professors said as an environmentalist who worked for the government, "You win the small battles to get the big plans through." The way you're thinking is wrong and it will amount to failure like HRC faced.

[eridani]

16. People mostly know diddlysquat about their insurance

What they like about it is that their employer takes care of most of the hassles. If it's shit, 85% will never get sick enough to find out. Holders of individual policies like their insurance entirely by definition--had they actually been sick enough to need it they would never have gotten it.

The more people you can educate, the bigger the base. I still think it's seriously stupid to lead with a compromise. It isn't up to Obama to be pushing single payer--it's up to him to listen to the public. The more people who really want single payer, the more likely it is that we will get a public option that is worth the bother.

And Hillary didn't "sell" jackshit. She had closed door meetings with insurance companies and came out with a final product having no public input whatsoever.

[sandyd921]

20. I don't see many posting to DU about liking their health insurance.

I visit fairly frequently and have not found that the case. More often than not people posting at DU are at least in favor of a public option if not single payer. The problem we face in getting either a strong public option or single payer is not "the American people" it's the g_d damn health insurance cartel and big pharma and their paid-off minions in Congress.

[firedupdem]

5. I'm still checking to see if one will pop up in my area. I'm getting

nervous about the public option. I only see Dean discussing it. Single Payer, while it would be perfect, isn't going to happen to soon. We will not be able to get insurance out of health care in one swoop. This public option has to happen. It has to!

[dflprincess]

7. I'm wondering if this is Obama's and corportists' attempt to head off Howard Dean's efforts

and, will Obama allow single payer to be discussed in his conference calls?

[vaberella]

9. Are you joking?

So what you're doing is calling O a corportist? Secondly, this is for his PUBLIC CHOICE OPTION...ie promoting his health care plan. If you cared and knew anything on what he was talking about. You'd have gone to the WH website on it and realize this is an effort to push his health care plan which has a public option.

If you don't like it...then ignore it. But it has nothing to do with corporations or your conspiracy theories.

[dflprincess]

12. No, I'm not joking

He has been shutting single payer advocates out. In his March town hall he sounded like the public option would be available only to those who could not get insurance elsewhere - not as a choice we all might have. He tosses around terms like "All Americans should have affordable healthcare" just like every other politician but never defines what affordable and then starts babbling about insurance. Health insurance is not health care - as anyone who has a crummy health insurance policy can tell you.

Everything he has talked about points more toward protecting the health insurance companies (and the campaign contributions they make), not increasing access to healthcare.

[vaberella]

13. You're interpretation is not the facts though.

He never sounded as though the public option would be available to those who couldn't get insurance in other places. He always said that there needs to be a public option to meet the needs of the 46-51 Million Americans without basic health care. He has yet to stray from that statement.

There has not been a single place where he said anyone would be denied. The elderly are already covered by Medicare. The poor are covered by Medicaid, women and children by SCHIP/WIC and various other plans. And then this would be here to cover the rest who don't meet the others...mainly middle class Americans. However, in order to cut costs it would be beneficial to eliminate Medicare/Medicaid and just put them all under this one plan along side the other 46 or so Million Americans. Which I think they will do.

He does toss terms like beneficial health care to appease the audience that wants to keep their health insurance and his platform when he was running for president was always to deal with the private insurance companies and force them to lower their rates..ie premium, deductible, co-pay whatever. However alongside this he has always stated that there should be a public option. Sebelius herself had recent meeting with the health committee and sat there and stated there would be and should be a public option which was done about 2 weeks or so ago. Considering I sat there and wrote an excerpt of the transcript for the board.

I already know the difference between healthcare and health insurance. Most people who can't afford health insurance can't afford health care, period. I should know considering I don't have health insurance. A public option is already stating a public insurance of some kind. So there's really no need to define that, I would think.


Please list point by point where what he says means he's protecting the health insurance companies. I've read that myself by many other posters and I don't know where it comes from since there are no subsidies given, nothing he has says, that I'm aware of, supports that belief either.

[dflprincess]

14. Yes he did.

He referred to the public option as being available to those who could not get insurance elsewhere and those who had other options would still be expected to use their employer's plan or purchase a private policy - no explanation on how those private policies will be made "affordable".

At his more recent town hall he rejected programs like Canada's and the U.K.s' because we all ready have a system we're "used to". Apparently the fact the the system we have is broken beyond repair doesn't matter. Just a couple weeks ago he was telling us how the insurance companies were ready to cooperate by not raising prices as much - like they're going to stop the money train they've been riding all these years (and "our" elected officials will do anything to stop the campaign contributions they receive from these outfits).

The only thing that will actually increase access to health care is a tax supported, single payer system that covers everyone. His apparent belief that the people who broke the system will fix it is disingenuous - we know he isn't dumb enough to believe that so he must think we are.

[HopeOverFear]

17. Howard Dean has been promoting Obamas plan

[annabanana]

18. What makes you say that? Howard Dean is promoting single payer.

Obama has NEVER (at least since the primaries) supported that.

[HopeOverFear]

19. He said as much. I saw him on the Ed Show and he said he's in favor of Obama's plan

a public option.

[AllentownJake]

6. Pass

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/organizingforhealthcare

I'm not a policy wonk, but 3 general bullet points that are open for interpretation is not what I'm looking for before I sign onto support the President's plan.

[vaberella]

11. You should look at this...

http://www.healthreform.gov/index.html

[sandyd921]

21. Just looked at it.

No details.

[vaberella]

8. Thanks Tx4Obama...Glad you posted it here. I'm on board!! n/t

[handmade34]

15. May 30th - everyone take to the streets!

http://www.healthcare-now.org/takeaction/events-calendar/

we have to fight for this one!

[sandyd921]

22. Thanks handmade.

I'll be at the Augusta, Maine rally on May 30th!