Because of the experiences of my individual family, I pretty much have a 360-degree view on health care.
I am a cancer survivor with no insurance and NO health care with NO community clinic or other help available. I am out in the cold.
My brother is dead. He died while his insurance company "considered" whether he could have a test or not. I never, ever want to hear the fear rhetoric about federal bureaucrats coming between a patient and their doctor. My brother's ashes are at sea thanks to his insurance company.
My 95-year old mom is on medicare and carries a supplemental insurance policy. She has NEVER been told no for anything. I know. I am right in the middle of "everything mom" as her only surviving family member. The federal Medicare "bureaucracy" with the 2% overhead works great for my mom.
So, yeah, I have a dog in this fight which is why my personal history bends me to work so hard on health care.
Take your telephone over the fold with me.
My 360-degree view means when I call my state reps on the Energy and Commerce Committee I have a lot to say and a lot of answers to get.
I want to share what has worked for me in the hopes it may work for you.
Right now, I am following Slink's excellent updates on calls which need to be made, and I make them dutifully. ALL of them, every day.
Then, when I am done, I go back to the Energy and Commerce Committee list and make more calls.
Background, Compliments, Humor and Being Prepared
One of the ways you can get good material for conversations with your Congressional member (or others) on the Energy and Commerce Committee is to watch the hearings and participate in the live blogging on them here at dKos.
As those who watched the VERY long Monday hearing well know, there were moments that just deserved a phone call right then and there (which I did, incidentally, make and none of them were to my state reps).
For instance, when NY Rep. Weiner took a member of the GOP to task in the hearings in no uncertain terms, I called his office and said, "I'm watching the En Com committee hearings right now and I just had to stop and call you. Please tell Rep. Weiner I am REALLY proud of him today for his statements at this hearing. Please tell him we're watching and we're with him! Please tell him to keep it up (actually I said to keep kicking their butts with the truth). Don't let the GOP get away with their lies and innuendo. He's doing just great!"
The staffer was laughing with me on the phone and was in quite the jovial mood which allowed me to have a GREAT conversation with him where I injected everything I needed to during the call and which ALSO gave me an opportunity to search and rescue his positions. AND it was a fun call!
So when you watch the upcoming hearings, be prepared by putting one of the toll free numbers to the congressional switchboard into your cell (what? it's not there already?!) and keep it charged and ready to go! One of them is in my sig line.
Before you watch the next En Comm committee mark up hearings (this would be good to do tonight as there is a possibility the Energy Comm mark up hearings will start again tomorrow), get the numbers to the state offices of your Energy Comm committee members on the off chance that you might have to call them in your time zone instead. Find the members here. You can then go here to get the link to your congress critter's local office information.
I have the state office numbers for all the Energy and Comm committee members. I also have a separate list for the Blue Cross Dogs on the Energy Comm committe who are:
Rep. John Barrow (D-GA)
Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN)
Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN)
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)
Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA)
Rep. Zachary Space (D-OH)
Don't be afraid to call these Blue Cross Dogs during the hearings or after. Let them know WHAT YOU want them to do, but you can still use the live blogging experience to help you. Let them know you and others are watching and talking! Let them know when they screw up.
The second thing I have done is, when watching the hearings, noting a a quote of interest on a topic of interest. When you call your rep--or as in the case when I called Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado today who is NOT one of my state reps--I told them I thought she did a stellar job (which she did) in addressing science-based evidence when discussing the Waxman-1 Amendment introduced by CA Rep. Lois Capps on Monday. The issue aside--abstinence only and/or evidence based pregnancy and STD prevention through education grants--DeGette did a wonderful job of addressing the issue.
I told them how much I appreciated her participation and also that I SO appreciated her support of the public option and was wondering how she felt about co-ops and triggers which scare me to death.
When I started hearing a little blah blah from her office, I cheerfully suggested that they pop into their Chief of Staff's office real quick to get her position on co-ops, triggers and the public option in the bill because these were so important to me and that I would hold.
That got me switched to another who did answer my questions. I again reiterated when they came on the line my appreciation for her actions in committee and had a great chat.
Organizing Around Your State's Reps on the Energy and Commerce Committee
Many states have progressive blogs. These are GREAT places to get the info 'out there'. You can get all the tel numbers, quotes and subject information together quickly, post them, and ask others to make the calls and to share the information with others in their family etc.
Many of you may belong to local, regional or state dem or progressive clubs or organizations. Many of you may be part of the medical/healing industry and have contacts within these groups. You may even have church or civic organizations where you have the ability to organize.
The thing is, almost ALL of us have the ability or organize in our own state on this issue even if it is only through the intertubes!
One of the things I was told today when talking to a CA Congresswoman's office is that they are not really getting much feedback from those SUPPORTING the public option or people calling to support them in doing so.
That HAS to change.
My list is nowhere near exhaustive and I know many of you have ideas which may be wonderful for others so I hope you will share yours!
Thanks, everyone, for everything you are doing on this.
NOTE: Any updates thus far have been to correct spelling and/or grammar.