Rally for healthcare reform at the National Constitution Center before and/or after Senator Specter and Secretary Sebelius appear there at 3pm for the town hall on healthcare. Help us reach our nationwide goal of one million signatures declaring support for President Obama's three basic principles for healthcare: lower costs, more choice (including the public option) and affordable care for all. Bring a sign and a clipboard if you have 'em, if not, we'll have extras.

Special Town Hall Meeting In Philadelphia On Health Care Join Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter on Sunday, Aug. 2nd at 3 p.m. for a special town hall meeting in Philadelphia entitled Health Reform: What’s in it for you? Sec. Sebelius and Sen. Specter will hold the free town hall meeting at the National Constitution Center, 525 Arch Street Independence Mall, Philadelphia. Source:  Pennsylvania Democratic Party | July 30th http://bit.ly/OE3Sz

Be There For Health Care House Party! At Deb Cole's House Wednesday, August 5th 2009 7:00PM 48 million Americans without health care! Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate to fix the health care crisis. Come hear about it! Join your friends and neighbors for a lively discussion on health care reform. Also, Hear from Marc Stier, State Director for Health Care For America Now! Space is limited so click here to RSVP and get the address. The Problem:  Health Care is Too Expensive.  Tens of millions of Working Americans do not have health insurance.  Those that do find premiums rising much faster than wages.  Every 30 seconds someone in the US declares medical bankruptcy. The Solution:  President Obama's Public Option Plan would allow everyone access to quality and affordable health care by establishing a public plan people could buy into based on their income. This is the Change We Need!  And to get it We Need Your Support! Click here to RSVP.

March 23 - Fairmount Area Healthcare Canvas (myBO link) March 25 - Canvass/Get Declarations at Pennsy Flea Market (myBO link) March 26 - Canvass/Get Declarations at Pennsy Flea Market (myBO link) March 27 - Philadelphia Listening Tour with OFA State Director (myBO link)

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Hi Everyone,

Some of us have been attending meetings of the group Health Care for America Now. Christiane, Angeles, Debbie and myself have been to several in the last few weeks. On Monday, Deb and I were fortunate to be included in a lobbying trip to Washington DC. The local group’s leadership is made up of three young women from the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Athena Ford, Antoinette Kraus, and Katy Weeks. These young women along with Marc Stier, State Director for HCAN, and others are completely engaged in the healthcare reform debate.

Early Monday we drove in vans to DC and proceeded to meet with previously scheduled staffers of key Congressmen. Deb and I went with Katy to visit Representative Chaka Fattah’s and Representative Robert Brady’s offices. Others met with our two Pennsylvania Senators’ staff members as well as some Blue Dog Democrats. Those of you who may be reading this and are represented by Blue Dogs need to encourage them to vote for the strongest possible public option in committee.

I was so impressed with the scope and breadth of all the staffers’ knowledge of the state of healthcare today as well as what needs to be done with reform now. They are engaged with the various committees and brought us up to date on the status and expectations to complete reform within the next weeks. Hopefully this will produce a bill on the President’s desk when Congress returns after the August Recess.

We were well received by the staffers as we each had an opportunity to present our healthcare stories and plead our case for a strong public option that is affordable for all and does not include a” trigger” The public option trigger would prevent availability to those who live in an area with a high volume of current healthcare plans offered by private insurers. It would only be an option for those in rural areas or those with limited health insurance plans from which to choose.

It was exhilarating to walk through the halls of Congress and feel like your concerns are being acknowledged. HCAN has several events planned for the coming weeks. One big one is a Statewide Canvass the weekend of August 14^th to 16^th. We will be educating and encouraging citizens to support the new Health Care Reform Bill, offering post cards and cell phone calls to Congress on the spot. We hope everyone will come out ready to work on this very important issue.

WE WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ON EVENTS!!

Pam Buckner

Want to show your support for a strong public insurance plan option as an essential part of President Obama's health care reform?  Here is one action , organized by MoveOn, taking place tomorrow, in our Ward 5: a rally in front of Senator Specter's office at noon. Event details: Public Option Now! Health Care Rally Sen. Arlen Specter's District Office 600 Arch Street, Suite 9400 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 12 PM To sign up for the event, click here: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=94331&id=

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

OFA at First Friday (Health Care Organizing Event)

Yesterday at a town hall meeting in VA, the President answered the last question from an SEIU member: "What can we do to help you with your reform plan?" by saying: "Get educated, and educate your neighbors".  So our CenterCityEast/Ward5-OFA team will have a table with Health Care Reform information: we will ask people to sign "Declaration of Support of the President plan", write down their health care stories and collect information. Prizes: Obama button for each health care story, and a chance to win one of our new team T-shirt! Time:   Friday, July 3 from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Host:   Christiane Geisler Contact Phone:  202 997 3373 Location: 100 N. block of 2d Street (Philadelphia, PA) Corner of 2d and Church Please RSVP @ http://bit.ly/bVTOn

"Don't Ask Don't Tell" Letter to Speaker Pelosi

On Tuesday, a military board told Lt. Dan Choi -- an Iraq War veteran and Arabic linguist -- that it was recommending his discharge from the Army for "moral and professional dereliction" under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Despite this setback, Lt. Choi is not giving up. Bolstered by more than 300,000 signatures to letters of support calling for the repeal of DADT, Dan is now taking his fight to repeal the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy  to Congress. Dan needs your help as soon as possible. The sooner DADT is repealed, the sooner he can return to service. We need Speaker Pelosi to take leadership now and speak out publicly in favor of current legislation in Congress that would repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. More than 70,000 people, including me, have signed Lt. Choi's letter in less than 24 hours. Will you join me in signing it and urge your friends to do the same? Just click on the link below to add your name:  The letter is being launched on Lt. Choi's behalf by the Courage Campaign, Knights Out and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Sign the letter @ http://bit.ly/17e8ZY