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<DIV>NATIONAL SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE CALL-IN DAY<BR>Thursday, January
15<BR><BR>Call Congress tomorrow to support HR 676 -- Single Payer
Healthcare<BR><BR>United For Peace and Justice encourages you to join this
nationwide Congressional call-in day. This is the second such call-in day,
organized by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare-National Single
Payer Coalition. The first call-in day on December 22 was a tremendous success,
and thousands of calls were made. In fact, by 11:00 AM that morning, Senator
Kennedy's office reported to have already received over 1,000 phone calls in
support of HR 676 which calls for more than the Massachusetts-style healthcare
reform.<BR><BR>Now is the time to expand this effort. Everyone is being asked to
make their calls to the Washington, D.C. offices of the House of
Representatives.<BR><BR>HR 676 has been reintroduced in the 111th Congress --
there are 86 cosponsors in the House from the 110th Congress who have been sworn
into the 111th session. The goal set by the National Single Payer Coalition is
to double those sponsors through this massive call-in on Thursday and other
efforts. <BR><BR>Here's how you can be part of this Call-In
Day:<BR><BR> 1. If you do not know who your Representative is or how
to reach her/him, click on to congress.org -- and then enter your zip code on
the upper right corner where it says "Find Your Officials". The Congressional
call-in number is 202-224-3121.<BR><A
href="http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/">www.congress.org/congressorg/home/</A><BR>
2. When you make the call, be sure to ask if your Representative is already a
sponsor of HR 676. If they are, thank them and urge them to do all they can to
help it pass.<BR> 3. If your Representative is not yet a sponsor,
urge them to become one now. See below for Talking Points to help you make the
case. They can also attend a briefing on HR 676 that will be held on Wednesday,
January 28 from 3 to 5 pm in the Halls of Congress.<BR> 4. If you
can make one more call, please call one or both of your Senators to support
companion legislation to HR 676 in the Senate.<BR><BR>UFPJ participation in
actions like this is crucial to our building our "Beyond War, A New Economy is
Possible: Yes We Can Campaign", linking the ending of the Iraq and Afghanistan
Wars to changing our government's focus from warfare and militarism to
healthcare and other social programs and community needs. Check the UFPJ website
for more information on this campaign.<BR><A
href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org">www.unitedforpeace.org</A><BR><BR>Finally,
we hope you will take a moment to make a financial contribution to UFPJ. Your
donations make it possible for us to keep doing this important work -- we hope
we can count on you!<BR><A
href="https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ufpj/content.jsp?content_KEY=1553">https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/ufpj/content.jsp?content_KEY=1553</A><BR>----------------------------<BR>Talking
Points<BR><BR>1) Former Sen. Tom Daschle, President-Elect Obama's nominee for
Secretary of Health and Human Services, called for "a government-run insurance
program modeled after Medicare" in testimony before the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions as part of the solution to our healthcare
crisis. His plan also includes health insurance corporations. We already have a
public-private system which doesn't work.<BR><BR>2) In August of 2005, The
National Coalition on Health Care found in a fiscal analysis of health care
reform that "the single payer model would reduce costs by over $1.1 trillion
over the next decade while providing comprehensive benefits to all Americans."
Single-payer is the only reform proposal that can claim cost savings and
comprehensive health care for all.<BR><BR>3) I understand that only HR 676 would
implement a sustainable, fair, and cost-efficient solution to the healthcare
crisis. Reject for-profit health corporation-friendly bills, which put private
profits over public health and will not and cannot solve our healthcare
crisis.<BR><BR>4) Some argue that HR 676 is "not politically feasible," but
that's a facile truism, not an acceptable position. We elect our Congress to
serve the public interest, and the public overwhelmingly supports a national
health plan.<BR><BR>5) HR 676 would help control costs by emphasizing prevention
and universal access to basic care instead of reliance on emergency room
care--the most costly and least efficient method of healthcare delivery. We
can't afford not to adopt HR 676.<BR><BR>6) HR 676 would improve healthcare
outcomes and eliminate racial, geographic and other disparities which currently
plague our nation.<BR><BR>7) All the other advanced democracies adopted national
healthcare, none have seriously considered eliminating these systems, and all
enjoy better healthcare results than we do including: longer life expectancy,
lower infant mortality rates, fewer work-days lost to illness, and many other
measures of health and wellness.<BR><BR>8) It's time to stop funding the wars
and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and start making sure the health care
needs of our families are met!</DIV></BODY></HTML>