Status of Education --
it will happen naturally.
For a long time I thought the need was to educate as many Americans as possible FIRST ... and THEN get those Americans to write letters to their U.S. Representatives.
We've run out of time for that kind of ideal focus. [Although we DO need to try to have answers to questions and know which website is going to have those answers.]
As a brand new activist in Missouri observed to me this week in an e-mail, "... education is great, and will happen naturally (and by always having your great handouts with us!) when we're out talking to people to get names." (The handouts are being developed.)
Status of Contacting Affected Americans --
it must happen now.
Mentally prepare to get your track shoes on. (Get Ready, Get Set ...)
We must move very fast to contact the people who are most affected, which is not the "rich" (those comfortable with their situation, that is) and not the poor. It's the uninsured, the under-insured, the individuals whose costs are skyrocketing the most, the small businesses who hire those individuals and cannot afford to provide benefits. It's the couple in Massachusetts who implemented mandated health insurance and are faced now with a $7,000 per year premium and a $42,000 per year income!
"While the employee of a regional electric utility is complaining about monthly payroll deductions for his family that now exceed $500 or more on a $60,000 annual salary, the longtime employee of a local small electrician is looking at monthly payroll deductions for his family of $1,500 on a $35,000 annual salary. His apprentice is younger, and so is "fortunate" to have monthly deductions for his family of only $900 on a $20,000 annual salary. The electrician's helper making $9/hr can't afford even his half of the premium for just himself." --- as
written by a health insurance agent
That same insurance agent wrote: "It is all of these folks (and there are tens of millions of them), coupled with those who have already been priced out of the market altogether, who will fuel the fire for radical reform."
But, unless we get our track shoes on, we will never contact those people who are suffering the most. Unless we find a handful, and then get referrals to other people, we will never reach them. Ask for their names, then contact them. Just this afternoon a friend called me. Before we finished the chat, I asked for and was given the name and information of an uninsured person in Michigan in another city.
So get mentally ready, because I will be ready to give you some "tools" to use on or before April 1, 2009.
Regards, Bob Haiducek
Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate
