Year-End Status

Two reports follow. Neither one of the reports goes into much detail, so this is an "overall, high-level report" on the status ...

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YEAR-END STATUS REPORT ...
THE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL MOVEMENT to get U.S. single-payer national health insurance

Overall in the movement, many people are doing excellent efforts to educate citizens and to get them active in a variety of ways to support U.S. H.R. 676 legislation for single-payer national health insurance. National and state organizations are still active in their efforts.

Criteria for Measuring Progress --- The bottom-line of progress is

1. having a good current rate of increase in support by U.S. Representatives
2. having a good current rate of increase in support by U.S. Senators
3. having a supportive U.S. Presidential candidate
4. getting endorsements made by individual states.

Status --- As the year ended, little or no progress occurred across the four measurements during the fourth quarter of 2007.

1. U.S. Representatives: 2 more during the last 3 months -- we are now at 19%; we need 67% -- That rate would take us over 25 years to get single-payer. We cannot wait that long.
2. U.S. Senators: still zero -- no support
3. U.S. Presidential candidate front-runners -- no support
4. State resolutions -- 2 of 50 states: Kentucky and New Hampshire, passed resolutions supporting U.S. H.R. 676 in the first quarter of 2007.

Snapshot from the Single-Payer Support Monitor --- The graphical results and the numbers are below. The graph was copied from the second graph of the following web page, where a higher resolution copy can be viewed:
http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Graphs_of_Progress


Current Support Level from the U.S. Congress and U.S. Presidential Candidates

• U.S. Representatives: 84 now, up from 82 three months ago; these are the number of cosponsors of U.S. House Resolution H.R. 676
• U.S. Senators: zero
• U.S. Presidential candidate front-runners: zero
  

Needed Support Levels from U.S. Congress -- The above actual number of cosponsors compare to the following needs:

• U.S. Representatives --- 100 is the minimum required starting point: 100 cosponsors are necessary to have the resolution debated on the floor of the U.S. House
• U.S. Representatives --- 292 compared to the current 84 ... to pass legislation
  --- 292 votes in favor of the legislation are necessary to get the resolution passed without a supportive U.S. President, since no front-runner candidate supports single-payer national health insurance
• U.S. Senators --- 67 compared to the current number of zero ... endorsers of H.R. 676 or cosponsors of a Senate version

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YEAR-END STATUS REPORT
... NINE-NINE-OH-NINE! NOTES AND VOTES CAMPAIGN

• The web site was developed with its useful tools, such as the Support Monitor. For some examples of the more recent progress at the web site see the Facelift posting of December 4.
  
• The 535 members of the U.S. Congress were informed with a hand-delivered notice to their offices in mid-June.
• The 84 supporters of the U.S. Congress were informed of the status with a hand-delivered notice to their offices in early November.
  
• National organizations were informed.
  
• Status: a firestorm of Notes and Votes activity now very much needs your participation.

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PLANNED NOTES AND VOTES ACTIVITIES BY CITIZENS

• The Power of the People via Notes and Votes

Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! Notes and Votes Campaign can be one of the major contributors to the Health Care for All movement. Why? It has activities that are directly between the members of the U.S. Congress and their individual constituents:

• Writing of personally composed notes in Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec
  ... plus the start-up month of January '08
• Incumbents and candidates making public statements, press releases and web site postings so that they then get documented in the Support Monitor
• Citizen monitoring of the Single-Payer Support Monitor to know who supports the Will of the People---- both those in office and those opposing candidates who might be taking their places!
• Voting on November 8, 2008 with consideration of who supports single-payer.

Let's proceed to make a dramatic jump in progress in 2008!

References: See the Single-Payer Support Monitor, especially the Supporters by State.

Start-up Dec '07-Feb-'08

The start-up of the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! "Notes and Votes" campaign occurs during three initial months of note-writing: December 2007 through February 2008.

December is one of the 4 months during the year when we write and send notes.

However, this first time period for sending notes goes through February 2008 since this activity is just getting started.

It's a great time to spread the word and get many participants.

Handout - updated Dec 29

A small handout is now available. It's size is convenient, consisting of a half-sheet of paper, double-sided. The impact on the environment and on our pocketbooks is minimized.

The impact of the handout is maximized due to its graphical image, which is persuasive.

The handout is available here, along with my description of my interaction with the other person when I present a copy of the handout to them.

Facelift

Our small Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! team has made a key set of changes that I am calling a "Facelift." -- Bob

The Homepage Title is hereby "Health Care for All NOW." This title fits well with the fact that the web site can now be accessed by entering www.healthcareforallnow.org (or www.healthcareforallnow.com or www.99oh9.org).

The Homepage content is now more positive and is more focused on the primary reasons for the web site: U.S. citizens writing notes, spreading the word, using the Support Monitor, voting in the November 4, 2008 election and joining the campaign. The Table of Contents on the left of every web page was updated similarly.

Note-Writing is now the title of the activity rather than letter-writing due to a tip that I received from a fellow single-payer activist in mid-November at the annual national strategy meeting of the Healthcare-Now organization.

After all, the only thing that the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators need is a personally-composed note of short or medium length that states the input from the constituents (us!)

It is much more important that there be thousands of people in each U.S. Congressional District expressing themselves with a note than in worrying about the size of that note.

Read Our Notes! Watch Our Votes! and Our Notes and Our Votes is now seen in the web site pages due to the change to note-writing.

Candidates in U.S. Elections Who are Single-Payer Supporters can now be entered by me as soon as I learn the information about the candidate. That's a feature that the webmaster and I had been looking forward to providing.

As a challenger for a seat in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate announces their candidacy they can communicate their support ( at "Submit Support" ) by providing a reference on the internet where that support is publicly viewable.

I changed the note-writing schedule to a full month to write letters rather than focusing on only the 9th day of the month. The months are March, June, September and December. Send letters either on the 9th of the month or any day during the month.

I am now using the more conservative and more defensible quantity of "over half" to describe the number of Americans who support single-payer national health insurance. We made that change at the web site and added a chart and the associated details that clearly show the degree of support being over half.

A convenient 1/2 page handout is also now available and is reported separately. See the December 10 Latest News.

Time to Spread the Word!

December is the first month of note-writing and also the first month of promoting the web site.

We need to build an initial base of participants, who are each invited to write their note and send it to their U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators during December and January.

As taken from the 99oh9 "Spread the Word" web page
--- tell as many people as you can
--- have (up to) ten people who are interested in single-payer national health insurance becoming law; support and encourage them to join, write & send their note, and spread the word.

Again -- for the start-up: send notes anytime during December or January.

Supporters by State

A New Feature of the Single-Payer Support Monitor

Summary Table --- You get this information in an easy-to-read table format:

• -- How many U.S. Representatives support single-payer
  
• with a percentage for each state that has a support level above 33.3%
• with bolded green numbers when the support level is above 67%
  
• -- How many U.S. Senators support single-payer
• with bolded green numbers when the support level is 2 of 2
  
• -- What State Legislatures have endorsed H.R. 676 with links to the state resolution

Links to the Details

• Select a state and get detailed information about every single-payer supporter from the U.S. Congress for that state
• Note: additional details will be added. The web page of Supporters by State gives more information about the details.

Access this feature by selecting Support Monitor on the left (in the Table of Contents), and then selecting Supporters by State.

Improved Monitoring

On behalf of our very small team of volunteers I announce the following new features of the Single-Payer Support Monitor ...

• New chart!
  
• New set of graphs!
• Highlighting of supporters
• Highlighted in bold and dark green
• Supporters get attention at this web site!
• Now --- incumbents, the people currently in office
• Future --- all candidates for office who are supporters and submit their support
  
• Current example of highlighting: When we get a page of addresses during Step 2 at Write!.
  

In addition, local addresses of U.S. Representatives, U.S. Delegates and U.S. Senators are now available, also as part of Step 2 at Write!.

Let the campaign now begin during the 4th quarter of 2007!
Letters start going out during the second week of October!

A firestorm of letter-writing activity across the country is now needed. Such a firestorm is totally reliant on you as individuals and groups to take action. For more of a description about this point, click here.

-- Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate

Start-Up Notes

Site is "Live": Planned technical changes have been completed.

Loading of some remaining details will continue during September and into October. Examples include the loading of lists of local addresses. Also, I will obtain additional information on more of the single-payer supporters among U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators so that they can be documented for the Single-Payer Support Monitor.

Good Health for All

Nine-Oh-Nine! is starting this month --- and today is exactly two years before 9-9-09! It's an opportunity to look forward to not only Health Care for All but also Good Health for All.

Here is a health challenge for you for the period of 9-7-09 to 9-9-09.

If you should lose weight and gain strength, then do it ...
with a medical professional's guidance.

When you read Dr. Bob LeBow's book Health Care Meltdown, you will see his view that Health Care for All "is only the first step towards a larger goal: good health for all." See page 250.

In the spirit of good health I am committed to getting back to a good body weight and a good level of strength.

I encourage you to make a similar commitment: with a medical professional's guidance, please get to a good weight and good level of strength for optimal health, if you recognize a need in either one of these areas. For myself I find that doing a minimum of 1.5 miles or 30 minutes, whichever comes first, is a good "bare minimum" amount of activity every day.

--- Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate

History of the Campaign

First Quarter 2007. After participating in the Health Care for All movement for three years, I conceived the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! Campaign for Single-Payer National Health Insurance in the first quarter of 2007 and started developing its content.

Second Quarter 2007. A volunteer web developer and I did design and construction of the associated web site during the second quarter of 2007 and contacted national single-payer organizations. I hand-delivered a request for single-payer support, on behalf of the Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine! campaign, to the Washington, D. C., offices of each U.S. Representative and each U.S. Senator in mid-June.

Third Quarter 2007. Now, during the third quarter the web developer is finishing technical details to be done by the end of the 3rd quarter. In parallel I am refining the content as a result of feedback from several people from around the country. We look forward to starting more communications about the campaign during the 4th quarter --- with an initial, small start of the massive letter-writing campaign on December 9.

Take care of yourself!

Bob Haiducek
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate; Midland, Michigan
Member, Physicians for a National Health Program
Member, Healthcare-Now!