Healthcare NOT Warfare, Sign the Petition

Healthcare NOT Warfare, Sign the Petition

As Martin Luther King Jr. observed forty years ago, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." While millions of Americans remain in a healthcare crisis, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are able to post huge profits

Today, nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance. Tens of millions of others are woefully under-insured. Meanwhile the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan drain our resources and overburden our budget, while raising the levels of violence in regions already traumatized by war.

We call on President Obama and members of Congress to support H.R. 2404, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, H.R. 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan, and to enact Medicare for All to guarantee comprehensive publicly-funded, privately-delivered healthcare for everyone in the U.S.

We call on the Democratic Party--in party platforms and resolutions--to commit to redirecting wasteful and unnecessary military spending to meet human needs beginning with comprehensive healthcare reform-expanded and improved Medicare for All.

This petition will be presented in congressional districts to the appropriate member of Congress.

Please fill out the form completely--we need your street address to determine who your member of Congress is.

Push Harry Reid toward Medicare for All

Push Harry Reid toward Medicare for All

Put your fingers on the right trigger—Amendment No. 2837

The US Senate just had a working weekend that was supposed to methodically go through the amendments to its healthcare bill. The Medicare for All, single-payer Sanders Amendment No. 2837 should have gone before the body for debate on Sunday.

Funny thing, though. In spite of Sen. Harry Reid’s statement that he would get to amendments “in numeric order,” the two amendments voted on last Sunday had higher numbers than No. 2837. Senator Reid gave no explanation for this.

We’ve been through this before. We had promises from the House leadership that the Weiner Amendment for single-payer would receive a full debate and go to a vote. We know how that worked out.

Unless we act now, Senator Reid can easily argue that he’s skipping over amendments that are considered less important to senators and their constituencies. We can’t let this happen.

Tell Senator Reid in no uncertain terms that a full debate and vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Amendment No. 2837 is absolutely essential.

Senator Sanders’ amendment, cosponsored by Sens. Sherrod Brown and Roland Burris, gives states the power to enact single-payer programs with federal funding. It has everything a state single-payer bill needs: one plan that covers health, mental, dental, vision, and long-term care.

Right now the Congressional Budget Office is scoring a plan to establish private, nonprofit health insurance programs run by private companies, with a trigger for a new government insurance plan if the private plans are not “acceptable.”

Let the American people decide what’s “acceptable” before everything falls to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and their influence over the Senate. Tell Harry Reid that this amendment matters.

Make the calls to Sen. Harry Reid NOW.

• Washington, DC, office: (202) 224-3542
• Las Vegas, NV, office: (702) 388-5020
• US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

In solidarity,

Tim Carpenter, National Director
Conor Boylan, Field Coordinator
Roberta McNair, IOT Coordinator