Health care petition campaign (This is where we come in!)

The big theme of Howard Dean’s campaign was, "YOU have the power!" Well, the case of health care in MA is a perfect example — if we just take it.

John McDonough of Health Care for All has laid out the next phase of the reality-based health care campaign: A petition drive to get the Health Access and Affordability Act ("HA3") on the ballot in 2006.

Here’s the overview from HCFA:

The proposed initiative would:
1. Help uninsured workers and small businesses buy affordable health insurance on a sliding scale
2. Expand MassHealth for lower income uninsured working adults
3.Lower health premiums for all currently insured — with an immediatecut of $160 million annually to every health insurance policy holder inMassachusetts
4. Require fair payments for hospitals, physicians and health centers to end the cost shift to private insurance premiums
5.Level the playing field between businesses that provide insurance andthose that don’t by establishing a Fair Share assessment on employerswho don’t provide health insurance to their workers
6. Raise cigarette taxes 60 cents

That’s a fairly snappy way to summarize an obviously complicated bill.

ACT!, the coalition supporting the bill, will be gathering signatures starting in late September and through the fall. I have volunteered to help recruit signature-gatherers in Cambridge (and possibly Medford) for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization.

And we need everyone’s help who is able to give it! Lynne of Left in Lowell has already offered her help; anyone else who wants to help out can contact Lisa Vinikoor at MassACT — she’s helping coordinate the signature-gathering. Or just contact me.

As an uninsured person, Lynne has a stake in this. Everyone who has insurance has a stake, since it will lower premiums. Self-employed people (that’s us, my musician friends) have a huge stake in this, since it will make getting insurance much easier and cheaper for you. Over time, there will also be a positive social and economic impact as currently uninsured or under-insured people will be able to see doctors for preventative care, instead of letting their health problems reach a crisis point.

Now, a lot of people, especially legislators, are not crazy about ballot initiatives. I don?t blame them. But at the very least, this drive is our leverage to get them to pass significant, far-reaching reform before next July. This is the "stick" half of our approach … the "carrot" half is for the progressive crowd to support candidates who support the bill. And if the bill actually goes to the ballot … so much the better.

If you need to know more about the bill, download any of the pdfs below, or post your questions here, or — best yet — make use of Health Care for All blog’s nifty new comments.

GBIO’s Proposal Comparison Sheet
HA3 FAQs sheet
HA3 Fact Sheet
HA3 section-by-section
HA3, the bill itself

For the most part, I’m told that signature-gathering is not terribly difficult — you don’t even have to go door-to-door. But this isn’t going to happen by accident: those petitions don’t sign themselves. For ordinary people, people looking out for their own best interests and their neighbors’ — this will be our moment.