Organizing for Health Care Reform at the State Level The Vermont Way

How to Begin Find your allies Get to know the political landscape Get referrals- who are the powerful?

Political Reform Educational phase -Build your base Political phase

The 80/20 rule Who are the influential folks ? Business Health professionals The religious community School board and other town officials Labor Retirees The 80/20 rule is use 20% of your effort to get 80% of the result. Example- influencing those who can influence others. Rotary clubs are a perfect use of the 80/20 rule. You need not have to plan or organize the event and the folks in the audience have a lot of influence with their legislators.

How to talk to business It’s costing them big bucks and they need to know why Lack of a system and ability to control costs It’s not because of individuals “abusing” healthcare We are already paying the whole bill Affects their competitiveness It’s not going to get any better Keep in mind - they don’t trust the govt.

Approach to these folks One on one is best Ask for other contacts Ask for advice Give factual information and know your stuff Keep an open mind- we can learn from others

Medical Community They are fed up They will have more freedom under a universal health care system We don’t need to give up our “freedom of prescription” Patients can have choice They need to know it isn’t going to get better without radical change

Labor Appeal to their self interest-they don’t want to give up benefits or increase their cost sharing so that others can have health care (truth is, they already are) The rest of the discussion is the same as for business Emphasize, it will only get worse for them

Other opportunities Medical conferences Rotaries Town meetings School board meetings House parties Use the 80/20 rule-go to meetings that are already organized

The Message Appeal to people’s self interest Avoid the moral high ground being your only approach Common ground: funding the health care services and then giving everyone access to them This is not just an issue of coverage- it is also one of cost containment and limits We need a health care system

Essential Features of a Universal Health Care System Everyone Included Public Financing Public Stewardship Global Budget Public Accountability The investment model- a true health care system has five common features. They cover everyone, pay for care with public financing, within a global budget which I will explain later. They have a govt. agency that oversees the budgeting process and ensures that care is paid for and the agency is publicly accountable when things go wrong.

Presentations Different groups need different emphasis but keep 3-4 prevailing concepts in each Most of health care is a shared service with mostly fixed costs (the sick keep the bed warm for you) It is expensive and used by very few at any one time If we want it there for ourselves we have to pay for those using it now by spreading the cost We are already paying the whole bill one way or another anyway(business, employees, taxpayers and individuals) *Things will only get worse without radical reform

What I have learned Know the political landscape All politics is local Sign people up every chance you get Use the 80/20 rule as much as possible Keep your friends but court your enemies Passion , persistence and a willingness to change will rule the day In the end you still need luck The 80/20 rule is use 20% of your effort to get 80% of the result. Example- influencing those who can influence others. Rotary clubs are a perfect use of the 80/20 rule. You need not have to plan or organize the event and the folks in the audience have a lot of influence with their legislators.

Text