Yesterday the Boston Globe wrote a factually inaccurate editorial titled “Mass bashers take note: Health reform is working,” and we need you to write a letter to the editor asking the Globe to correct their mistake and take the sustainability of health reform seriously:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/08/05/mass_bashers_take_note_health_reform_is_working/ (more…)
Click here to download this letter as a Word document.
Click here to view the current Democratic State Platform on the Mass Dems web-site.
Click here to download the current Democratic State Platform as a Word file.
Click here to download the newly proposed draft Platform as a Word file.
Email info@masscare.org with your name, city or town, and organizational affiliation to sign this letter.
Dear Massachusetts Democratic Party Delegates,
This year the Party’s Platform Committee has proposed a dramatic rewrite of the state Platform, eliminating almost all references to particular policies, replacing them instead with references to broad goals and values. We write to you as fellow delegates, as city and town committee activists, as members of advocacy organizations, and as concerned Democrats who are working to make these values a reality on the ground, to urge that you oppose watering down the platform at the upcoming State Convention.
The current Platform references support for existing and proposed policies that are deeply embedded in social movements. The proposed new Platform obliterates acknowledgement of the Party’s roots in these grassroots efforts, and instead enumerates a bland list of values and goals that would significantly erode its ability to connect with broader community movements, and even to distinguish the Democratic Platform from other parties -who share most of these broad end-goals, but interpret them differently.
For its stance on education, the newly proposed Platform eliminates reference to caps on charter schools, opposition to high-stakes testing, METCO funding and commitment to desegregation, and opposing the casualization of teaching through the growth of part-time and adjunct staff. Instead, it offers a bland paragraph supporting “high-quality educational opportunities” for everyone, and a list of broad goals to be supported such as closing achievement gaps and college affordability.
The new platform drops an entire section on housing that included support for portable, public housing subsidies, fair housing laws, and legislation that prevents red-lining. Virtually all that is left is a line that the Party will support “[a]ffordable housing and rental assistance.” For health care, the new draft removes single payer reform, a constitutional guarantee of access to health care, and safe provider staffing in favor of extremely broad goals such as high quality health care and “full implementation of health care reform.”
The word “immigrant” has been expunged from the newly proposed document, and along with it support for immigrants’ right to organize into unions, equal rights for undocumented workers, prevailing wage policies, indexing the minimum wage to inflation, and no public funds for union busting. The new platform also drops any reference to national war spending, opposition to the Patriot Act, affirmative action, American Indian tribal sovereignty, stem-cell research and the embodiment of marriage equality in the constitution.
The Democratic Platform needs to stand for both principles and the programs that bring those principles to fruition. If the Platform doesn’t support programs that delegates believe in, our legislators will not be held accountable to a Party base. Moreover, it is in the realm of real policy that the Party is able to connect with the broader social movements that have brought us our most human social and economic reforms and that will continue to move our history along the arc of humanity.
TIME: Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 2PM to 5PM
PLACE: Ryles Jazz Club, 212 Hampshire St, Cambridge, MA 02139 (click here for directions)
TICKETS: $35 standard admission, $10 for students - please donate what you can!
Join Mass-Care and the Universal Health Care Education Fund on April 4 for:
Click here to take out an ad in our event program book!
Click here to download a pdf flyer for the event!
Click here to download an invitation to the event!
Our annual fundraising gala for Mass-Care and the Universal Health Care Education Fund is coming up on April 4, from 2 to 5PM at the Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge! President Obama and Congress have promised national health reform this year, and with all eyes on Massachusetts our voice is more important than ever.
Mass-Care and UHCEF recently helped to organize a Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC about whether the Massachusetts health reform is an adequate model for the nation. We helped to organize petitions signed by around 500 physicians and over 40 labor leaders explaining to Congress that fundamental reform is needed. With each month we are building the grassroots movement in the state, and trying to have an impact on national health reform.
We need your help to do this! This is an extremely difficult year for non-profits to survive. Mass-Care does not accept money from the health care industry, and we rely almost exclusively on support from individuals and member organizations. Please support Mass-Care’s efforts by placing an ad in our annual event program booklet, by listing your name as a supporter, or by purchasing your tickets now. Download the ad form below, and write your check out to Mass-Care to support our political work, or make a tax-deductible contribution to the Universal Health Care Education Fund to support our educational work.
Thank you so much for your continuing support. We hope to see you on April 4th at the Ryles Jazz Club for inspiration and fun!
Click here to take out an ad in our event program book!
Click here to download an invitation to the event!
National Lessons from State Health Reform: The Massachusetts Case Study from New Words on Vimeo.
Date and Time: 02/25/2009 2:00pm - 4:00pm (EST)
Where: 2226 Rayburn House Office Building.
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Coming up on Wednesday February 25, from 2PM - 4PM in Washington, DC Mass-Care is helping to host an important briefing to Congress on whether the Massachusetts health reform is an adequate model for the nation. The forum includes testimony from David Himmelstein, MD, Sandy Eaton, RN, State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Peter Knowlton, Mary Ford, Robert Gaw, and Arthur MacEwan, MD.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP! Ask your Congressperson and his or her health care aide to attend this important forum. Members of Congress can join the committee, chaired by Congressman Eric Massa from New York, which will ask questions of the witnesses. Below is an open invitation to the briefing, along with a letter to Members of Congress asking them to join the panel committee. Give your Congressperson’s D.C. office a call and ask them to learn more about what lessons state reform has to offer for the nation!
Announcement of the Forum:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/announ.pdf
Invite your Representative to Attend
http://www.healthcare-now.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/inv.pdf
Yesterday around 500 Massachusetts physicians signed an open letter asking Congress not to use the Massachusetts health reform as a model for the nation, and calling for single payer health reform. On the same day a letter signed by over 40 labor leaders in Massachusetts said the same thing: Massachusetts reform is not working for working people, and we need effective relief from rising health care costs and eroding benefits. If that wasn’t enough, Public Citizen and Physicians for a National Health Program released a detailed analysis of the Massachusetts reform in practice, showing that it has had a modest impact on residents’ access to care, and that it is costly and will be unsustainable for the state in the long-run.
All of these documents are available from the Public Citizen web-site here:
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=28
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP! The largest circulation papers in Massachusetts have not covered this story, or have only covered it online.
Send the Public Citizen press release to your local papers, or write an op-ed yourself! Please cc us at info@masscare.org so we can follow all the great work you’re doing.
Mass-Care is reintroducing an updated single payer bill to the legislature at 10AM on January 13. Can you join us at the State House and ask your legislator to become a cosponsor? Or could you call in from home or work that day? Please let us know by sending an email to info@masscare.org or calling the offices at 617-723-7001! (more…)
Mass-Care will post action alerts such as these in the future, which will appear on our front page below our calendar. Prepare for some action!
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