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How to Talk About Single How to Talk About Single PayerPayer

“Fear the status quo, not change!”

Rose Roach Field Director

CA School Employees Association

“You Can’t Cross a Chasm in Small Steps” David Lloyd George, British Chancellor and Reformer , Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922

Framework for Health CareFramework for Health CareLead with moral basis of universal careList desired features (use prototypes)List failures of current systemTweaking won’t helpContinually compare universal coverage with other plans (emphasize prosperity for all)

•Everyone should be treated by a doctor if they are ill.•Medical care should be returned to the hands of doctors, not insurance company accountants.•No one should profit from people’s suffering.

•Pricing for hospitals and doctors should not be a secret. We need public disclosure.

•“You” deserve health care just as much as Bill Gates deserves it.

Start with agreeing on a Start with agreeing on a common set of values and common set of values and

economic principalseconomic principals

Health is a process, not a Health is a process, not a “thing”“thing”

Tell a StoryTell a Story 52 year old divorced woman, twin 18 year old

sons, has family health insurance through her job as a store clerk. She’s bored and wants to start her own business.

Becomes a real estate agent (no job benefits). Uses COBRA to buy an interim policy. Income $60,000 per year.

Develops breast cancer while on COBRA. Receives potentially curative surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. COBRA expires.

Shops for individual policy. Insurers either refuse to sell her a policy or offer an outrageously expensive one ($ 2,300 per month with a $5,000 per year deductible).

She becomes uninsured. Unable to afford daily drug to prevent breast cancer recurrence and so takes it only every 3rd day.

“I don’t believe there’s any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is,that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can’t completely ignore.”

George Carlin

Use Humor….Use Humor….

GROWTH IN HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM RELATIVE TO WAGE

BASE, 2004 - 2014

$0

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

$20,000

$25,000

$30,000

$35,000

$40,000

$45,000

2004 '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 2014

WAGE BASE PREMIUM @ 8% GROWTH PREMIUM @ 10% GROWTH

Have figured out that they can’t keep their own health care benefits without everyone having health care.

By advocating for all, they keep health care for themselves.

Unions in Unions in other other countries...countries...

SOLIDARITY!

Single Payer for “Skeptics”Single Payer for “Skeptics”

• It’s socialism – a government takeover!– Yes, but so is Medicare and everybody

loves it.– We also socialize education, highways,

police and fire services, the military, and we need to add one more to the list – health insurance.

• It’s bad for the insurance industry, one sixth of the economy.– Yes, but it’s great for almost all other

businesses, large and small– Less money spent on health insurance

makes American products more competitive.

• Why should I pay for the people who are too lazy to work or pay for their own health insurance?– Keeping the work force healthy means

fewer sick days, greater productivity, greater earnings, greater profit, etc.

• It will limit patient choice, benefits and send death squads to kill grandma!

– Let’s just extend this deeply beloved plan to all Americans.

• We can’t afford to insure everybody!– Single payer is the ONLY way to really save

money. It’s the only fiscally responsible solution.

– It cuts out most administrative overhead, marketing, executive bonuses and shareholder profit.

– Negotiated rates with health care players will not kill pharmaceutical R+D. (latest study out of Europe)

– With all the money we save we can reduce the deficit, save future generations from debt.

Five step campaign plan

Member education/resolution campaign

Member awareness surveys

DVD’s and flyersTalking pointsFAQ’s

Ten health care “myths”

News clippings Order form:◦Buttons; T-shirts; placards

Samples:◦Speeches◦Employer resolution◦Letters to the editor◦Press release

Visuals that help with the Visuals that help with the messagemessage

CSEA’s “Tool Kit”CSEA’s “Tool Kit”

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win”!

Gandhi