The current crisis and chaos in U.S. health care provide both the motivation and the opportunity for Americans to develop a national health care system that meets the needs of all the people. The health care system is full of inefficiencies, inequities, waste, fraud, and abuse created by our having allowed health care -- a fundamental human right -- to be converted into a mere commodity in the marketplace. So we are witnessing an undignified, anarchical squabbling over services, profits, and position among warring vested-interest groups that include workers, employers, labor unions, doctors groups, HMOs, insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry. The United States holds the singular position of being the major industrial nation in the world not taking care of the health of its own people. It is timely for the people to insist that the government take control of health care delivery in this country.

The current disorganized, commodified approach to health care is a national disgrace. It costs us a whopping 15% of our GDP, yet has resulted in an unjust distribution of health care, with 45 million uninsured people, plus millions of underinsured people, and millions of insured people to whom health care insurance is becoming an increasing financial burden. The total number of people in these categories, augmented by all the compassionate people who deplore this social inequality, could well add up to some 100 million Americans.

We can probably rely upon the following trends to give us plenty of ammunition: the growing number of uninsured, the continuing failure of the HMO system to provide adequate care to those it does serve, the rising cost of health care and pharmaceuticals, the growing number of bankruptcies among hospitals, clinics, insurance companies and doctor's groups, abd the embarrassing surplus in government tax collections while these conditions prevail. On the positive side we can point to the success of Medicare providing for the elderly and the organizational campaign can proceed with the confidence that many of the people forming this movement are personally motivated by their strong need to ensure adequate health care for themselves and their children.

It is clear that the aforementioned 100 million Americans share a personal interest in the pressing issue of achieving an equitable system of universal health care in this country. Based on this common interest, a significant percentage of them can be mobilized into a powerful movement to realize that goal -- a political movement so strong that it can prevail against the well-organized and well-financed vested interests with their Harry-and-Louise ads. To mobilize the disparate members of this broad constituency we will need to identify them, locate them through their natural cohort groups, reach out to them in a personal way at those locations where they meet or seek help, and enlist their help in our mutual effort.

Can the process of mobilizing this constituency profit from the lessons learned in mobilizing the millions of people who participated in the monumental and successful civil rights movement, the women's movement, the environmental movement and the peace movement? Indeed, the existing supporters of these movements may constitute a recruiting field for the volunteers we will need as well as provide us with ideas for our organizational structure. In addition we must build upon the growing discontent which permeates the health care system itself including the patients, the doctors, the employers and the general public. Each of these groups can be motivated to become our activist volunteers and the rank and file of a "health care for All" movement.

Those so mobilized will begin realizing how corporate power has dominated not only health care but also the media, the Congress, the presidency, and so many other aspects of our society. One this occurs the mobilized people will constitute the entering wedge toward forming a massive U.S. populist movement that can reclaim our democracy.

In order to simplify matters, this proposal works on three assumptions 1) you don't need to know the words "universal health care" to be for universal health care-- all you really have to support is the idea of "health"; 2) a wide range of people/organizations are interested in health and will volunteer for this effort if the actions are kept simple; and 3) this is a plan which will eventually meet the needs of everyone, a truly "universal" plan.

The national effort to achieve universal health care currently involves literally hundreds of organizations working independently. The mobilization of a mass movement toward achieving universal health care will depend upon forming a coalition with existing advocacy groups. To that end Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) has been invited to the convention as one of the major speakers, and representatives of the following organizations have been invited to attend our health care sessions on July 15: Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN!), Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO) of California, Washington State's Health Care 2000, the California Nurses Association, the Labor Party's Just Healthcare, American Mental Health Alliance, League of Women Voters of California, American public Health Association, Vermont Health Care for All, American Academy of Family Physicians, Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care, California's

4) THE ELEMENTS OF THE LONG-TERM STRATEGY

(2) Diverse. Identify populations which are most under served: i.e. children without wealthy parents, the poor, the sick and disabled, the families of the sick, the mentally ill, minorities and the otherwise uninsured. Organize these groups into a coalition, together with doctors and nurses who genuinely care, and service and advocacy organizations which support universal health care.

(3) Create a public presence. -in the streets with rallies, -in the media with creative actions., -on the Internet with a web site and e-mail lists, -- in the legislature with signs and protests, -- civil disobedience in creative ways as appropriate (e.g. sit-ins in for-profit hospitals' .lobbies and doctor's offices, not necessarily disruptive, just to show the extent of apartheid in health care), -- lectures at service clubs and community organizations, -- press conferences, letters to the editor and op-ed pieces. These will spread the truth about the ineffectiveness of the U S. health care system and about actions occurring every day to oppose injustice in that system.

(4) PUBLIC. -All meeting and activities will be out in the open.

(5) Politically progressive. Insist on health care as a right, all-inclusive, no one left out. All who are able will contribute to support the system. In addition our campaign must be linked to another objective of the Alliance for Democracy -- Campaign finance reform. The political climate must be changed together with the law. If our allies and our constituents will back political candidates who are not in the pockets of the corporations and the wealthy they will also be candidates who will likely support our cause.

(6) Combat apathy. "Yes of course I support health, but it's not politically feasible because of the insurance companies." We hear this all the time. To counter it we must have a realistic, multi-year action plan with a time frame with concrete goals, and simple actions people and organizations can take to participate in their piece of the plan (e.g. go door to door in their neighborhood distributing informational fliers). Put out a call for volunteers on the web site, in all materials, and set up a volunteer headquarters so everyone who wants to can participate.

1) Secure hundreds of co-sponsors among national and local independent organizations. Secure thousands of individual supporters who are members of these cosponsoring organizations. At the same time reach out to independent caring individuals and ultimate beneficiaries of universal health care: the poor, the sick and disabled, the families of the sick, the mentally ill, minorities and the otherwise uninsured. Build up and maintain a database of all supporters.

2) Prepare a budget for this mobilization which will include necessary staff, overhead support, office expense for supplies, telephone, travel, printing and mailing.

3) Submit applications describing this plan and budget to appropriate foundations to obtain first year set up and operations coverage. Begin implementation under a subsequent grant.

4) Develop a "Universal Health Care Action Kit" to provide voluntary recruiters with materials needed to broaden the support base.

5) Obtain commitment from hundreds of voluntary recruiters from the existing database and provide them with the "Universal Health Care Action Kit" with instructions on how to mobilize supporters from other organizations, caring individuals and ultimate beneficiaries.

6) Maintain and finance the existing web page at http://afd-online.net/uhc to provide an Internet linkage between the administration and supporters of the program.

Respectfully submitted,

Calvin Simons, Chair,  (707)527-7191, chsimons@aol.com

Robert Cohen,  r.cohen@ieee.org

Peter Mott, interconnect-mott@juno.com

John Shearer, docdoc@mail.metro.net

ReginaTaylor, reggie227@earthlink.net