With Labor Day just around the corner and only six days left of Congressional recess, Locals across the country are gearing up for a busy weekend. But, amidst the upcoming celebrations, SEIU members are still working hard for health care reform.

OHIO: SEIU nurse Barb Montgomery joined the Organizing for America Health Insurance Reform Now bus tour during its stop in Columbus, OH on Monday, where over 2,000 activists rallied and paid tribute to Senator Kennedy's legacy on health care reform. At the event, Montgomery shared both her own story and that of family members and friends, further illustrating why Americans need health insurance reform.

RHODE ISLAND: Rep. Jim Langevin joined doctors, nurses and health care workers at Rhode Island's Women and Infants Hospital (the only maternity hospital in the state!) as they signed scrubs with their message to Congress: we need health insurance for all Americans. The event was covered on a variety of blogs, including a great post on Rhode Island's Future.

MAINE: At an an event organized by SEIU Maine Change that Works, AFSCME, the Maine People's Alliance and Organizing for America, a passionate group of healthcare activists delivered more than 35,000 letters, postcards, emails, and online petitions from all over the state to urge Senator Olympia Snowe to stand up for quality, affordable healthcare for every man, woman and child. Senator Snowe was not the only one who heard our message--the front page of the Bangor Daily News the next day featured a front page story with pictures of our activists and the headline "Health care reform fans blitz Snowe with 35,000 messages." Read more.

FLORIDA: More than 1,200 people from across Florida gathered on Saturday to help jump-start the reform debate. "There's a Washington debate, but now people in Orlando can get involved," said SEIU Healthcare Florida president Monica Russo. Community members, people of faith, retirees, union members and healthcare workers arrived in buses and cars from Tallahassee, Tampa Bay, Miami, Broward County, Jacksonville and Palm Beach to pack a gym in downtown Orlando sending a message to Congress: healthcare reform can't wait! Central Florida's 7th, 8th, 24th congressional districts together have 403,000 people without health insurance. Watch video.

CALIFORNIA: In Los Angeles, SEIU United Long-Term Care Workers (ULTCW) has scheduled a free screening of Michael Moore's movie Sicko, followed by a panel discussion with health care professionals and special guests. After the event, attendees will also be able to engage in a variety of actions, like calling elected officials and taping their own personal health care story, in support of health care reform. More details here.

On a related note....don't forget to vote for your favorite video of Congress members at town hall meetings debunking the lies and refocusing discussions about healthcare reform. Vote here.

MoveOn along with co-sponsors DFA, TrueMajority, Center for Community Change, Doctors for America, HCAN and the SEIU hosted over 350 candle light vigils last night to remind legislators that the country cannot wait for reform. Overwhelming the nation is in favor of reform and the local vigil I attended in Hollywood provided further evidence to support the campaign.

As the Organizing for America Health Insurance Reform Bus Tour rolled through Des Moines, they were greeted by a welcome sight: hundreds of Iowans with "Thank You" signs waiting to greet those driving the bus for health insurance reform. With around 500 people in attendance, including members of SEIU Local 199, our activists proved their dedication by showing up to support the cause.

Watch the Health Insurance Reform NOW bus roll into Des Moines:

President Obama has said that in order to keep insurance companies "honest" and reduce costs, we must provide Americans with the option of a public health insurance plan. On Thursday, he reaffirmed his support for offering a public insurance option.

"I continue to support a public option; I think it is important," said President Obama during last week's national healthcare forum, which was viewed online by thousands of SEIU members and millions of concerned Americans from across the country.

Standing in front of a banner that read "Health Insurance Reform Now," President Obama asked supporters of reform to help "cut through the noise and misinformation." He described the public option as setting a benchmark for private insurers, who would then respond by shaping their own plans to be competitive.

Check out the full video here:

Next Saturday, June 20, volunteers from across the state will participate in a massive door-to-door campaign to mobilize support for health care reform, and they need your help to succeed.

Organizing for America, working in partnership with our organization and supporters from all over the state, is in the process of organizing canvass efforts in 14 cities that stretch all the way from Scottsbluff to Omaha. Their efforts will no doubt go a long way towards mobilizing the support necessary to pass real health care reform. But they just can't do this one alone.

Barack Obama's job didn't end on Election Day, and neither did ours. It's critical that our Congressmen and our Senators understand just how important this issue is to the voters in their state. That means identifying new supporters and activating new volunteers. That means talking to our neighbors, and letting them know the truth about the current health care debate.

Whether you live in Omaha or Lincoln, South Sioux or McCook or anywhere in between, there is bound to be a canvass in your area that needs your help to succeed. For more details and to RSVP, please check in at our Facebook events page and stay tuned here for more updates as we get closer to the date.

After holding its Health Care Organizing Kickoff this weekend with thousands of house parties across the country, Organizing for America unveiled its "Health Care Action Center" today.

Check it out: http://my.barackobama.com/HealthCare

Organizing for America kickoff event recaps: SEIU's Change that Works campaign joined with OFA and thousands of volunteers in hosting health care organizing kickoffs in their communities. SEIU bloggers Jamiah Adams and Rafael Noboa Rivera have scenes from kickoff meetings held this weekend in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Denver.

This past Saturday, Organizing for America asked that Americans around the country meet to discuss what they believe health care reform should look like. President Obama's organization put out a video that organizers could show their group and use to solicit support for reform and encourage participants to share their stories dealing with the broken health care system. Change that Works California is committed to working with OFA to support the President and make health care available to all Californians.

This past weekend, hundreds of meetings took place in California with thousands of participants around the state. I attended two OFA meetings in the Los Angeles area. On June 6, Mayor Abbe Land, Council member Lindsey Horvath and Deputy to the Mayor, Corri Planck held an OFA meeting at the West Hollywood City Hall. Approximately forty people were in attendance from in and around the city of West Hollywood. Participants watched the President's video; wrote their health care stories and talked about they wanted health reform to look like. Many community members stressed an emphasis on choice, echoing one of the three principals of health reform the President has stressed. Community members also wanted health care reform to encourage preventive treatment.

The second OFA meeting took place at Pasquale's Café in Los Angeles. About 25 folks squeezed into the café and dined on Pizza Michelle (created in honor of the First Lady by Chef Tonino) as they listened to several speakers, including Jack d'Annibale; Ronald Norby, Regional Director of the Veteran's Administration Desert Pacific Health Care Network and Mike Petrold, CA State Field Director for Organizing for America. Community members asked questions about the federal employees health plan and discussed their concerns about health reform. Health care stories were collected and the meeting concluded with a mini phone bank organized by Obama campaign workers from Nevada.

These kick-off meetings along with many others, are the precursors to the June 27 day of action-- check for listings of many of the OFA events around California on this site.

Tennessee Change that Works campaign joined together with President Obama's Organizing for America and Tennesseans from around the state to hold house meetings to discuss what we want health care reform to look like. Meeting in libraries, homes, community centers and coffee shops, Tennesseans from Nashville, Jackson, Hermitage, Hendersonville, Gallatin and Murfreesboro shared their stories about the broken health care system.

Congressman Jim Cooper attended the Organizing for America house meeting at the Tennessee Democratic Party Headquarters in Nashville-- and one of our Change that Works field organizers captured his support of the public option.

In the upcoming weeks, stay tuned to the Tennessee Change that Works website for exciting events in support of health care reform, including the OFA day of action on June 27.

On Saturday, SEIU's Change that Works campaign joined with Organizing for America and thousands of volunteers to host Health Care Organizing Kickoff events in their communities.

This was the video recorded and played at these events all across the country. Watch it now:

"At dozens of meet-ups, people shared stories of their experiences with a broken health care system--from small business owners unable to provide expensive insurance to working families being forced to make the unimaginable choices between paying the mortgage and paying for health care," writes SEIU's Jamiah Adams, reporting on June 6 meetings held throughout the state of Louisiana. "Echoing similar calls from all across the country, the message from Shreveport to New Orleans, Lake Charles to Baton Rouge was clear: it is time to take action and demand the change we need." Read the entire post.

Stayed tuned for details in the coming weeks on how you can take part in the national day of action on June 27. Join the Change That Works campaign here.

This weekend, inspired by Chris Dodd & the hardworking volunteers in Organizing for America, I set out to document what ideas people had for reforming health care in America.

If you weren't aware, Organizing for America held canvasses this weekend to encourage people to get fired up for the health care reform push coming this summer. There were canvass events all over the Denver area this weekend - and there are even more events taking place this week, all the way into next weekend.

After stopping by and checking out one of the canvasses (in Denver's Wash Park neighborhood), I headed over the Capitol Hill People's Fair. The fair's an annual event that's been held for over three decades.

While I was there, I took the opportunity to visit with people in the various booths and get their ideas on how to reform health care in America. Amanda's idea, told by her in the video above, is but one of many I collected this weekend. Others included:

• extending access to low-income, fully-employed individuals;
• making certain people in chronic health distress had access to regular health care; and
  
• equality of treatment, regardless of income

It's your turn. What's your idea for how to reform health care? What are you going to do? Leave a response in the comments section, and I'll feature some of them in my next post.

On Saturday, June 6, Change that Works organizers joined as dozens of activists from Organizing for America answered the President's call to meet and discuss health care reform. In house meetings across the state, Louisianans watched the President's health care reform message; shared their health care stories and found out how they could further participate in the health care reform discussion.

At dozens of meet-ups, people shared stories of their experiences with a broken health care system--from small business owners unable to provide expensive insurance to working families being forced to make the unimaginable choices between paying the mortgage and paying for health care. The story was achingly the same, the time for real reform is now.

Plans were made for helping to spread the word and lay the groundwork for the national day of action on June 27. Echoing similar calls from all across the country, the message from Shreveport to New Orleans, Lake Charles to Baton Rouge was clear: it is time to take action and demand the change we need. Join SEIU's Change That Works campaign and stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details on the national day of action.

President Obama indicated this week that he wants a health care bill that provides quality, affordability, and accessibility--and that the key to achieving all three of those goals is the public health insurance option. In a letter sent to Sen. Max Baucus (D-MO) and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), President Obama declared:

I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.

Let's be clear - this is big news for health care reform. It means that the President himself thinks no legislation is complete without first providing Americans the option of a public health insurance plan.

The public health insurance option is important because it does three things:

• Lowers costs for individuals and families by competing side-by-side with private insurance plans
  
• Sets high standards for quality and accessibility that other plans will strive to meet
  
• Gives Americans more choice in their coverage by offering an affordable alternative to over-priced plans

"This year, we must do more than discuss. We must act."
President Obama stresses the urgency of reform in his letter to Baucus and Kennedy, calling health care reform a "necessity we cannot defer:"

We simply cannot afford to postpone health care reform any longer. This recognition has led an unprecedented coalition to emerge on behalf of reform -- hospitals, physicians, and health insurers, labor and business, Democrats and Republicans. These groups, adversaries in past efforts, are now standing as partners on the same side of this debate.

Americans cannot wait for the health care crisis to get worse before they see real change. And after 80 years, we finally have the solution to this health care crisis in our sights. Getting there is going to require an all-out sprint to the finish line that starts right now, and thanks to the support of the administration and remarks by the President this week, we've got the wind at our backs.

SEIU's Change that Works campaign is joining with Organizing for America and thousands of volunteers in hosting health care organizing kickoffs in their communities. Join us in beginning the last big push to fix America's broken health care system starting this Saturday.

Will you take part on June 6th? Click here to get involved: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/june6

(Read the President's letter to Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Baucus here)

Leonard Edloe has been running Edloe's Professional Pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia for 39 years--this African American owned business was opened by his father in 1947. As a small business owner, Mr. Edloe knows that when his customers thrive, his business thrives and that is part and parcel why he supports health care reform. Mr. Edloe credits the working people of Richmond for the subsistence of his business. In an article for the Public News Service, Mr. Edloe speaks directly about his support of health care reform:

And I felt like it was necessary for me to support them, because without the money or health coverage, then my business ceases to exist.

The Value of Health Care Report Virginia cited a few statistics about the fiscal impact of health care reform-- and specifically how twenty percent of America's gross national product will be spent on health care. Mr. Edloe knows that we cannot continue with that trajectory:

No country can exist doing that. We spend too much, we spend twice as much as any other country. If we looked at it really in a critical way and didn't get the emotion and then what all the people are trying to do to protect their profit, we would have changed this a long time ago.

Read the full report on the fiscal impact of health care reform in Virginia and the nation as a whole. Come to a health care meeting in your community work to pass health care reform now.

More than 1,000 progressive leaders and activists have been in Washington, DC at the Omni Shoreham Hotel for the yearly America's Future Now! Conference, organized by Campaign for America's Future (CAF).

During Monday's opening conference, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Change to Win Chair Anna Burger appeared in a late morning panel with Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart and Center for American Progress president John Podesta, to discuss the progressive movement in the Age of Obama. Anna remarked on the change this country has experienced in the year since CAF's 2008 annual conference:

"It was just a year ago we came here to take back America, and we did it... We have saved our capital and our country and have our leader in the White House."

Anna stressed that pragmatism and the left working with one another played a big role in progressives winning out. "We've learned to work together to get out of our silos," Burger said, also adding that pragmatism might mean that working together might not get "perfect" results, but that it would move the country in the desired direction. Watch Anna's full presentation at CAF here and here.

The main 'event' of CAF's 2009 conference has been the launching of an $82 million campaign for healthcare reform, a collective effort involving more than 1,000 organizations that are part of Health Care for America Now behind President Obama's health care plan. The groups supporting the massive push for health care reform along with SEIU and Health Care for America Now include Change to Win, the AFL-CIO, the Children's Defense Fund, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, Rock the Vote, National Women's Law Center, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Democracy for America. A post by Jason Rosenbaum on HCAN's website does a great job detailing the root of the coalition's strength and why this effort will pay off:

The collective effort involves...over 30 million members committed to winning a guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all this year. It is the largest national progressive issue campaign in history, one that was lacking when President Clinton's health care proposals were defeated by the health care industry and conservative groups more than a decade ago. The money will be used for grassroots organizing (troops are already on the ground in 46 states) and a targeted advertising campaign.

Yesterday President Obama and the White House Council of Economic Advisers issued a report entitled "The Economic Case for Health Care Reform," explaining in the greatest depth to date why health reform is vital for the future of the American economy. Read the report here.

Watch days 1 and 2 of the America's Future Now! conference on CSPAN here.

On Sunday, a group of DC residents delivered all 68,000 of your petitions to the NBC studios in Washington, demanding Rick Scott's phony infomercial be pulled. You should have seen the look on the producer's face when she saw the boxes of signatures waiting for her in the lobby.


Despite the objections from thousands of viewers, NBC went ahead and aired Rick Scott's 30-minute attack ad against health care reform. And, just as we had warned, it was filled with shameful and misleading distortions. (Check out Media Matters Factcheck on the CPR infomercial here)

It's going to be up to us to push back on Rick Scott with the truth about President Obama's plan to fix health care. This Saturday, thousands of Americans will be hosting health care organizing kickoffs in their communities.

Will you take part? This is a critical opportunity to tell the real story of President Obama's plan for health care reform: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/june6signups

After 80 years, we finally have the solution to this health care crisis in our sights. Getting there is going to require an all-out sprint to the finish line that starts right now. Let's show opponents like Rick Scott that no amount of expensive television ads can stop us from winning quality, affordable health care for every American.

On June 6th, thousands of people just like you are beginning to organize for healthcare reform by hosting or attending a Healthcare for Organizing Kickoff with Organizing for America.

This moment is critical. This summer, President Obama will be working to pass healthcare reform that reduces cost, guarantees choice and ensures all Americans have quality, affordable healthcare--and he can't do it alone.

This is something Obama has been planning for since before the election, with the aim to continue the grassroots advocacy that the former Illinois Senator began in his presidential campaign. In a call to members of Organizing for America, Obama said, "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," adding, "I think the status quo is unacceptable and that we've got to get it done this year."

No experience is needed to host or attend - you'll get everything you need to make it a success. At these Organizing for America kickoffs, you'll watch a special message from the President, meet like-minded supporters in your neighborhood, make plans for reaching out in your community--and start to put those plans in action.

We can win healthcare reform in the same way we won the election: building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time. Please join us by signing up today: http://action.seiu.org/June6

Download the event flyer [PDF] here.