One Care Now Press Release: June 5, 2006
Dear Supporter of HCA and SB 840,
Health Care for All – California is launching a massive, historic grassroots campaign to achieve universal, single-payer health insurance.
And the campaign, called OneCareNow, needs your financial support.
Ten years after its founding, HCA has grown from a small core of committed single- payer activists into a statewide network of 30 chapters with over 10,000 members and supporters, such as you, in nearly 200 cities around the state! We have worked hard to educate Californians about single payer health care coverage, but as we continue to suffer from an ailing, failing health care system, we know there is still much more to do.
This summer, the OneCareNow Campaign and a powerful coalition of organizations will propel this process to a new level – and to inevitable success.
OneCareNow means one plan and one high standard of care for all Californians. It means full care for all, for life, for less. The OneCareNow Campaign is dedicated to building public pressure to demand passage of Senate Bill 840, authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl. The response from other organizations and legislators to the OneCareNow campaign has been swift and enthusiastic. But to succeed, we’ll also need your help now!
OneCareNow activities are already underway: a one million-signature petition drive for SB 840, a OneCareNow Campaign educational film production, a new OneCareNow.org website, and, most importantly, mobilizing a 365-city/365-day campaign of public education and activism.
The 365-city campaign, which starts on August 12, 2006, is bold and simple. There will be at least one “event” every day for a year, each in a different city, beginning with less populated cities and towns in California and ending with the largest, Los Angeles. Throughout the year, we will be educating people about SB 840. A week after the Los Angeles event, on August 19, 2007, supporters from the 365 cities—and elsewhere in the state—will hold a mammoth rally in Sacramento for universal, single payer health insurance.
The coalition helping us organize the 365 cities includes the League of Women Voters of California, the California Alliance for Retired Americans, and Health Access. But, as we know, massive public education and mobilization requires equally massive financial support!
Right now, we are producing Phase I campaign materials that HCA chapters and partners will use throughout the campaign (e.g., 1000 tabling banner sets and petitioning kits, 1000 press packets, 500 newspaper ad kits, and 500 spot radio CD’s). We are also enhancing our OneCareNow.org website to be an effective educational tool for supporters throughout the state.
Help us build this grassroots movement to pass SB 840 and make single payer health care in California a reality. Go to www.OneCareNow.org, sign the petition and get involved.
To volunteer go to www.OneCareNow.org/volunteer.html
Then help us with a generous financial contribution to the OneCareNow Campaign.
We ask you to make a tax-deductible contribution of $100* to this historic campaign today . . . more if you can afford it . . . less if you cannot. Above all, please give to this exciting OneCareNow Campaign. Contributors of $100 or more will receive a gold OneCareNow Campaign pin.
We also ask you to forward this message to your family and friends to let them know about the OneCareNow Campaign and what they can do to help.
To contribute, click on http://www.onecarenow.org/donate.html. Please consider making a monthly reoccuring donation.
Thank you again for your energy, commitment, and support.
Together, we can make quality health care a reality for all Californians.
Sincerely,
Dan Hodges, HCA-CA Chair
Andrew McGuire, Director, OneCareNow Campaign
