Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee passed the Baucus health care bill.  

What a disappointment. No public health insurance plan. No universal coverage. No real price controls. Billions of taxpayer dollars for insurance companies.

Tell your members of Congress to support the best and simplest reform plan: Medicare for all.

After you take action, please help build the momentum for real health reform by telling 5 friends.

The U.S. health system has left 46 million Americans uninsured. [1]  45,000 people die every year due to lack of insurance. [2]  Insurance companies deny coverage to thousands more when they actually get sick. And insurance is simply too expensive for millions of people and businesses.

The Baucus bill solves none of those problems.  

By contrast, Medicare is so efficient that it could insure all Americans for the same amount of money that we now give to private corporations. [3]

Under such a single-payer system, you still get to choose your doctor… except without a profiteering insurance corporation standing between you and your health care.

Will you ask Congress to support real reform — in terms they can understand?

Yes! I’ll tell my members of Congress that I won’t support them unless they support Medicare for all.

Notes:

(1)  “Income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2008.”  Census Bureau, September 10, 2009.

(2)  “Harvard study finds nearly 45,000 excess deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage.” Physicians for a National Health Program, September 18, 2009.

(3)  “Single payer system cost?” Physicians for a National Health Program.  

On Tuesday Oct. 6th, the U.S. Senate approved the largest military budget bill in the history of our nation: $626 billion. [1]

Next, the bill will be sent to a conference committee and then back to the House and Senate for final passage.

There remains a short window of opportunity to stop this wasteful military madness.

Tell your members of Congress to vote “NO” on the 2010 defense appropriations bill.

It's time to end the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's time to roll back the out-of-control militarism that is bankrupting our nation, morally and financially.

The Pentagon budget bill contains $128 billion to extend the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — bringing total spending on these wars to over $1 trillion.

Enough is enough. 51% of Americans now believe that the Afghan war is not worth fighting. [2]

We should dedicate most of that $626 billlion to meet the needs of Americans hit hard by the economic crisis, facing foreclosures, lack of health insurance, hunger, and lamentable schools.

We need to take action, motivated by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

Yes! I'll tell Congress to vote “NO” on the bloated 2010 military budget.

Notes

(1) Andrew Taylor, “Senate Passes Pentagon Budget, War Funding.”  Associated Press, October 6, 2009.

(2) Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen, “Public Opinion in U.S. Turns Against the War.”  Washington Post, August 20, 2009.