HCAC Annual Meeting - July 28, 2008

HCAC Annual Meeting

"Wow," HCAC President Dick Gingery said, as he opened the HCAC annual meeting in June at the Tivoli in Denver. Dick began by reviewing the progress HCAC made in a breakthrough year of growth and grassroots action. This year, our group has made significant progress in educating the Legislature. We fought to bring the message of single-payer to the rest of the state, despite the 208 Commission's recommendations to the contrary. The state Legislature began to sit up and take notice of HCAC through the unstinting work of our volunteer lobbyists and support from members across the state. We nearly had a Senate resolution supporting a single payer health care system, but at the end it was brought down by legislators with other agendas.

Rocky White on DemocracyNow!  
Rocky White, M.D., board member and author of the update to Dr. Bob LeBow's book,
Health Care Meltdown

HCAC brought nearly 300 people to the steps of the capitol in January to rally for health care reform. We have solidified our alliances with groups across the state. Dave Bean said that there are triple the number of people in the data base. HCAC Vice President Barry Keene told the crowd that this year he wants 1,000 people on the steps of the capitol and 10,000 the year after. "This year we have made a huge transition," Barry said. "The transition is: we are now at the table."

Barry said Sen. Brandon Shaffer will once again carry the banner of single payer when he re-introduces the resolution supporting single-payer in the next legislative session. After the introductory remarks, the annual meeting split into two workshop sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon. One morning workshop, facilitated by Elinor Christiansen, Tom Bost, and Nathan Wilkes, focused on the facts about single-payer health care, information about international health care systems, pharmaceutical costs, and business data.

Barry Keene and Irene Aguilar led another morning workshop in a discussion of how to talk to your legislator and other legislative action steps. The workshop gave practical advice on learning to write pointed letters and emails, arranging meetings with and talking to policymakers, and giving testimony to the legislature. Eliza Carney and Linda Mahan presented an afternoon session on "Building and Broadening the Single-Payer Movement in your Community and Having Fun in the Process." These two Northern Colorado chapter members helped people to understand how to organize, get more people involved in HCAC, and how to get a group going and keep it going. Dick Gingery, Lyn Gullette, and Tom Stermitz presented a session on "How to Talk to People about Single Payer." The workshop started with the premise that a single-payer system would be better than what we have now. The workshop discussed ways to identify your audience and how you should present arguments on behalf of health care reform.