Democrats Abroad UK - Policy Action Networks

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Contribute to the campaign for health care reform

Phone or Write to Your Congressional Representatives

Almost all Democratic Party (and Republican) Senators and Representatives have created websites specifically devoted to health care reform.  Many of these sites have forums or other  tools that you can use to make your views heard.  Need ideas for your letter?  Go here for tips for and samples of letters our members have sent. New and Urgent

Use  this Democratic Party site to find your representatives and get information on the topic.

Use this Organizing for America site if you want to phone your Congressional representatives.

Use this site to respond to the President's latest call to write our representatives to support his plan.

 Use Project Vote Smart or Govtrack.us to find and track your representatives' record.

 Write letters to editors of your local newspapers

Use this tool on the Organizing for America site to find the relevant newspapers. If you already have an account at Organizing for America, it fills in all of the details and tells you which newspapers are in the area for your United States address

Use this Media Contact List produced by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) to contact the US national media.  

Write letters to your American Christmas list or email discussion group

and then send a copy to us at healthcareteam@daukpan.org.uk and we will consider them for publication on the website. 

Follow and comment on threads in social networking media

Search, follow and comment on twitter or facebook.

Share your stories about your health care experiences and suggestions for reform

 with the world:  send any personal stories about your experiences with healthcare in the US or UK    that you are willing to share and post on this website to the healthcareteam@daukpan.org.uk for consideration.

with the DAUK community: post comments or stories in the Health Care Forum. In order to do so, you need to open an account.

with people back home: via President Obama's Health Reform site  which asks you to share your stories and ideas about why we need health reform this year

Link up with other Democrats Abroad

Go to the Democrats Abroad website,  especially the Health Care Insurance Reform Group,   for useful information and to find updates on Democrats Abroad actions.  

Check  the projects undertaken by DA country groups, for example, Japan DA - Health Care Project: Americans Abroad Know about National Health Care, Canada DA's website   - Health Care Reform and the Democrats Abroad Mexico website.

Join in campaigns and activities with organizations, such as

Organizing for America, especially the  Health Care Action Center.  To find out more about Organizing for America events,  visit the On the Ground website.  

Health Care for America Now

Stand Up for Health Care: a project of Families USA

If you are particularly interested in the inclusion of a public option, the following sites are organizing on that issue

• Stand with Dr Howard Dean  
• The Citizens for Real Health Care Reform and a Public Option.  The site for the petition created by Senators Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, and Chuck Schumer

Please send us information on other campaigning groups within the Democratic Party to ensure that we fully represent the range of views within the Democratic Party.

Think about how to frame your discussion of health care reform

Watch George Lakoff, professor of linguistics and author, discuss why he thinks we - Democrats - are not framing the discussion in an effective way to combat the conservative communication machine. Watch it here.

Other suggestions very welcome

Disclaimer: The information provided here   is intended for educational use and offered as a public service. Any views expressed should not be understood as representing or reflecting  the views of Democrats Abroad UK, Democrats Abroad  or the Democratic Party of the United States. Links to other organizations or publications imply neither endorsement of their policies nor any association with the Democratic Party or Democrats Abroad - UK.

Produced by E Capizzi, with thanks to Barbara Young and Bill Rubin for contributions of ideas and research.

updated August 25