Why have House Parties for Health Care Reform?

Over the next 4 years, the door may open to cover everyone. Guaranteeing health insurance for all children will most likely be the first effort. Very shortly thereafter, the focus willl turn to adults, 19 to 64 years of age. Reform will not come easy. It will take work, lots of work and lots of voluntees plugging away every day. By the end of our next president's first term, we hope to achieve significant reform or we will fail one more time.

How do we get there and win reform? It will take a lot of dedicated people. People who believe:

1. That people who work for a living outght to be able to take their kids to a doctor, and people who are retired, ill, or temporarily out of work shouldn't risk losing their life savings because of one illness. We’re not just talking about poor people. We’re talking about middle class Americans who are getting squeezed. Too many people have to think twice before switching jobs or starting a business because they’re worried they won’t be able to get insurance. We need comprehensive reform, not a band-aid. That means putting government to work for taxpayers again, not for special interests, by requiring insurance companies to put more money into patient care and less into efforts to deny it. It means preventing insurance companies from excluding patients because of “pre-existing conditions” and overriding doctors’ decisions about what their patients need. It means giving us choices among plans so we can decide what’s best for our own families, including the choice to keep our current doctor. It means limiting the amount anyone has to spend out of pocket, so no one loses their life’s savings because of a sick child or a hospital bill. And it means giving small businesses tax breaks to offset the costs of covering their employees, and requiring big businesses to offer coverage to their employees instead of sticking middle class taxpayers with the tab.

The Tennessee Health Care Campaign believes that it has to build a broad base of volunteers who are dedicated to reform. We feel that this can best be done through house parties that will be a unique mixture of:

1. How five other capitalistic democracies covers everyone: Frontline's Sick Around the World; and
2. Discussing the health care positions between John McCain and Barack Obama.

When folks leave the house parties, they will have a sense that reform is possible with an American solution. They will also leave understanding the presidential candidates positions and what needs to be done.

THCC's goal is to have 100 plus house parties, have 1,000 plus people view Sick Around the World and discuss the presidential positions, and raise $40,000 so that this broad based reform effort can expand to another 1,000 or so people.

Do you believe what we believe? If you do, join this movement. You can start hosting a house party or by attending a house party in your area. Below are the tools that you will need to do this:

1. Tool Kit
2. How to plan a House Party
3. Invitation Sample
4. Sign-in Sheet
5. Non partisan Presidential Summary by Kaiser Family Foundation
6. How five other capitalistic domocratic countires did it?
7. Who the Tennessee Health Care Campaign is & the work it does?
8. RSVP reply slips
9. I want to host a house party
10. Call to action