Organizing for Health Care Reform

In March of this year, I went to Washington, DC, for a national lobby effort with PICO, a major national faith-based community organizing network, which was entitled: "Faith and Families: Economic Recovery Summit." The focus of the Summit was threefold: Jobs, Foreclosures and Health Care Reform. About 300 or so PICO leaders from various local organizing committees attended, representing about 20 states, from California to Massachusetts, New Orleans to Michigan. I am part of the clergy caucus group in PICO, and represent Essex County Community Organization (ECCO), a North of Boston faith-based community organizing affiliate.

As part of our lobby efforts on health care, PICO has developed some principles around reform that we shared with our political representatives. The PICO principles are that comprehensive health care reform must: be affordable, cover all, be financially sustainable, be passed in 2009, and be focused on benefitting low and moderate-income citizens. After having our own brainstorm sessions, PICO representatives went to Capital Hill and organized a major press conference with a number of congresspeople. Afterwards, we took our message to congressional offices. Leading up to this Summit, PICO had been a major player on SCHIP legislation, concerning health care for children, and also particpated in a major summit with President Obama at the White House. PICO is also a major organizer for this week's national conference call with the President. At the moment, this is clearly PICO's major legislative push for 2009.

At a recent clergy caucus for the Northeast region of PICO affiliates, we discussed some of these issues and I raised with the national PICO leadership whether or not we shouldn't be advocating for single payer. It was a lively discussion, with differing points of view, though the leadership staff of PICO suggested they had determined single payer as not feasible in the current political climate. For this reason, they decided to stick with a set of clear principles and let Congress determine how to reach these. Though the position is understandable, many of us have still lobbied our legislators to support the Kucinich bill that encourages states to implement a single payer system. Our own congressperson on the North Shore of Boston, John Tierney, is one of the co-sponsors of this bill along with about 80 others.

As the news emerges concerning the possibility of the White House backing away from the public option as part of the health care reform initiative, it seems a good time to lobby congress once again that if single payer is not currently feasible, a public option in competition with the health insurance industry would seem vitally important. Also, our local PICO afiliate, ECCO, last week helped to organize a rally outside of the office of Rep. Tierney in Peabody, MA., to counter a planned demonstration by some local anti-healthcare reform advocates. We wanted to show support for Tierney's strong reform position. Fortunately, we outnumbered the protesters 3 to 1 (300-100). It was a good effort.

Rev. Art McDonald, PhD, Minister, First UU church of Essex, MA.

Editor's Note: The UUA invites you to be on a phone call with President Barack Obama in an urgent faith conversation about health care reform on Wednesday, August 19.

President Obama will be on a forty minute, nationwide phone call with the UUA and other national religious denominations, along with PICO, Gamaliel and other groups on Wednesday, August 19 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern / 4:00 p.m. Central / 3:00 p.m. Mountain / 2:00 p.m. Pacific. The goal of the call is to connect and energize the millions of people of faith across the country who are concerned about health care and who want to be part of the solution. Join us Wednesday, August 19th, to hear from faith leaders across the country and President Barack Obama!

To listen in on the nationwide phone call, log on to www.faithforhealth.org/uua at the time of the call.