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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Consolas'>On March
5, Pres. Obama will hold a summit to discuss healthcare reform. Not one
single-payer advocate has been invited to attend, even though the majority of
Americans support a national health plan. <a
href="http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=12829556&PROCESS=Take+Action">Send
the president an email TODAY</a>, asking, what happened to democracy,
transparency, and accountability?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Consolas'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Rand Wilson [mailto:rand@mindspring.com] <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Labor Campaign for Single-Payer
Healthcare</span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
<em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Healthcare Is A Right -- Not
A Privilege</span></em><br>
<a href="http://www.laborforsinglepayer.org">www.laborforsinglepayer.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
For Immediate Release: March 4, 2009<br>
Contact: Mark Dudzic: 201-314-2653 – <a href="mailto:mdudzic@igc.org">mdudzic@igc.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Labor
Leaders Demand That 'Single Payer' Be Part of Obama Healthcare Reform
Discussions</span></strong><strong><span style='font-size:18.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Obama
administration's plans to hold a "Health Care Summit" that excludes
advocates of single-payer healthcare reform has drawn a sharp response from
labor leaders around the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"President
Obama has indicated that his administration is committed to the passage of a
new 'universal' national health care program for all Americans, and he wants it
done this year. For working people, and particularly the 48 million Americans
currently without health insurance, this is welcome news. We also applaud the
President's efforts to provide immediate relief to the growing number of
unemployed workers faced with the loss of their health insurance," said
Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Healthcare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"At the
same time," he continued, "we are deeply concerned by the apparent
failure of the administration to include a single supporter of HR 676 among the
120 invited participants to Thursday's Health Care Reform Summit. We are
calling on our supporters to call and write the White House and demand that our
voice be heard."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>HR 676, the
"Expanded and Improved Medicare for All" Act, was re-introduced this
year by Congressman John Conyers. It currently has 59 congressional
co-sponsors. Because it eliminates the private insurance industry from
profiting from people's misfortunes and, like Medicare, establishes the federal
government as the "single payer" of everyone's medical bills, HR 676
can provide healthcare for all with no co-pays or deductibles in a fiscally
prudent manner. HR 676 has the endorsement of hundreds of state and local labor
federations and local unions as well as many other civic and religious
organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"The
first step is to ensure that HR 676 has a 'seat at the table' in the upcoming
healthcare reform debates," said South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna
Dewitt. "It needs to be given the same degree of attention as all other
credible proposals for reform and subjected to a side-by-side 'facts based'
analysis with those proposals."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Leaders of
the Labor Campaign for Single Payer are urging President Obama to consider
alternatives which, like Medicare, would not rely on private, for-profit
insurance companies to ration health care to the American people.
"Proposals which funnel our precious healthcare dollars into the pockets
of the for-profit insurance industry and other special interests will do
nothing to contain and control costs or improve the quality of care," said
Fernando Gapasin, President of the West Central Oregon Central Labor Council.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Labor leaders
from Massachusetts are particularly concerned that their state's law requiring
all individuals to purchase private health insurance is being touted as a model
for the nation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"Last
month 40 of my fellow union leaders wrote to President Obama to urge him to
reject a Massachusetts-style plan that would leave private insurance companies
at the center of the system through an individual mandate and expensive public
subsidies supported by taxes for plans that still don't provide enough
coverage. The Massachusetts plan is widely recognized as unsustainable and now
that we are facing an economic crisis, it is even more problematic." said
Peter Knowlton, president of the Northeast Region of the United Electrical
Workers Union (UE).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"If
anyone should be excluded from this summit," said Ray Stever, New Jersey
State Industrial Union Council President, "it should be the
representatives of the health insurance industry. These are the very people who
caused the crisis in the first place. They will move heaven and earth to
continue to deny Americans the healthcare justice that citizens of all other
industrialized countries enjoy."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Labor
Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare joins other single payer advocates and
organizations who are demanding that their views be represented in the growing
debate over health care reform. These include the Leadership Conference for
Guaranteed Healthcare, Healthcare-NOW, the All Unions Committee for Single
Payer, the Physicians for a National Health Program and the California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee whose Co-president, Geri
Jenkins, RN, recently warned, "Any reform premised on expanding the
insurance-based system will likely fail, frustrate the public desire for a real
solution to our healthcare crisis, and undermine the political capital the
administration has earned for reform."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"That is
why it is so important to speak up at this moment," said Clyde Rivers of the
California School Employees Association. "The stakes are too high to allow
special interests to hijack a discussion whose outcome will so importantly
affect the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We call on President
Obama and the leaders of both houses of Congress to give HR 676 the fair and
open hearing that it deserves,"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Labor
Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare was formed at a January 10th meeting in
St. Louis, Missouri attended by over 150 representatives from labor
organizations in 31 states that have endorsed HR 676. We believe that the
struggle for universal, single-payer health care needs labor’s dynamic
grassroots involvement. </span></em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.laborforsinglepayer.org"><em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>www.laborforsinglepayer.org</span></em></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Consolas'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send an email to
wmjwj@wmjwj.org with a Subject of "Unsub Workers' Rights".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>[Workers' Rights] posts opportunities for you
to learn about and show solidarity with workplace and working class struggles.
And these events are opportunities for JwJ members to fulfill their pledge: <a
href="http://www.jwj.org/pledge.html"><span style='text-decoration:none'>"</span>I'll
be there for workers' rights at least five times a year!<span style='text-decoration:
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href="http://www.jwj.org/">www.jwj.org</a>), affirming that workers' rights are
human rights. To subscribe, send an email to wmjwj@wmjwj.org with a Subject of
"Subscribe Workers' Rights".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Western
Mass Jobs with Justice<br>
640 Page Blvd #101<br>
Springfield MA 01104<br>
(413) 827-0301 <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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