Campaign Resources

Local win-win campaigns are easy to organize. Download the seven steps to follow.

Some campaigns are already underway. If folks are already organizing in your town, join them!

Piscataway – Catherine Hunt
Jersey City – Bill Armbruster
Camden County – Tim O’Neill
Ocean City – Steve Fenichel
Cape May County - Richard Neill
Rutherford – Ray Stever
Brick Township – Elizabeth Arnone
Plainfield – Joan Hervey
Fort Lee – Paula Friedman

Resolutions have already been passed in Camden, Hudson County, Bergen County, Hoboken, and Englewood. In June of 2009, The NJ State Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizen Committee endorsed Medicare for All (Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Resolutions 47 and 100).

We’ve got a generic resolution you can customize and ask local officials to pass. It endorses both federal Medicare for All (HR 676) and state level legislation (bills are being drafted).

We have a power point that shows how win-win campaigns work, and which demonstrates savings for the State of NJ and many local governments.

This flyer documents savings Medicare for All could win for the State of NJ — $2.2 billion per year, plus an end to the State’s debt of $51 billion related to health benefits for state employees that have already retired.

Thanks to Tim O’Neill, we’ve got a spreadsheet showing how much most NJ counties could save with Medicare for All.

The US Conference of Mayors endorsed HR 676 because of the burden it would lift from cities and towns all over America.

Here’s a great one-page flyer about the Win-Win Campaign.

Watch the CBS 60 Minutes segment called “State Budgets: Day of Reckoning” on the precarious financial conditions many states are facing and what they’re doing about it.

The 2011 Strategy

Get New Jersey cities, towns, townships, school boards and counties to endorse:
(1) Federal legislation (such as HR 676) that would expand Medicare to cover everyone; and
(2) State legislation that would create a state-level health care system that would guarantee comprehensive health care for every NJ resident

Why the focus on local government?
Local governments are facing the worst fiscal crisis in decades. The recession has caused revenues to drop. Meanwhile, health care costs for local government employees have skyrocketed faster than any other local expense. Most NJ local governments are paying 15-25% of their budget for employee health benefits, and under the new health care reform law, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. State and local government employees will get hit with higher co-pays and deductibles.

You can help us change this grim picture. Organize where you live to win support for a publicly funded, privately delivered health care system. It would do more than any other single measure to reduce local deficits and prevent layoffs, furloughs and reduced local services. And, it will guarantee basic health coverage for every NJ resident at a price they can afford.

NJOPON is prepared to help you plan and execute a local campaign to get your local elected officials to understand why solving the health care crisis is critical to ensure fiscal stability. We can help you in the following ways.

1. Health policy basics. Understanding what’s wrong with our health care system, why the reform bill passed in March won’t fix it, and why we need publicly funded and privately delivered health care. NJOPON is affiliated with Healthcare-NOW, and its website is loaded with information: www.healthcare-now.org.

The NJ Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP-NJ) is also part of the NJOPON coalition, and the PNHP website is also a great resource.

2. Resources for local win-win campaigns. The column to the right provides links to various helpful resources. Check them out!

3. Technical Assistance. We have people working on this campaign who can come and meet with residents in your town that want to get a campaign underway. They can help you calculate the savings your town could realize under a national or state-wide single payer system. They can troubleshoot problems as they arise in your campaign. Contact Tom Knoche at knocheberg@aol.com for technical assistance.