Some Tips for Running a Successful “Right to Health Care” Campaign In Your City

Last fall 120,000 Seattle voters said yes to advisory ballot measure #1. It stated clearly that “Everybody in America has a right to health care of equal high quality,” and that “Congress should immediately pass the necessary laws to implement this right.” We hoped that passage of the measure in Seattle would lead to interest in similar ballot activities in other American cities.Now, a number of people have expressed interest in placing such a statement on the ballots in their own towns, and we have established a Washington State “Right to Heralth Care” committee as part of Health Care For All-WA. It is the intent of this paper to offer ideas, gained from our experience in Seattle, to our sister cities that want to join in the “Right to Health Care” movement. Here is what we suggest:

1.Call together a group of people in your city who have expressed an interest in working for health care reform. Explain to this group that it is possible to give average people in your town a voice in the health care reform debate by placing an advisory item on your ballot in favor of a right to health care. Ask the group to commit itself to calling on their friends and neighbors to sign a petition in favor of the idea being placed on the ballot. Also, ask members of the group to commit themselves to asking people in public places, like shopping centers and community festivals, to sign the petition.

2. Decide on wording for the petition. This is a crucial step, since having a number of cities pass ballot items with the same or almost the same wording will be very powerfull. On the other hand, if cities pass ballot items with different wording from each other, the effectivness of the campaign will be reduced. The wording of the petition in Seattle was as follows:

Quality Health Care: It’s Everybody’s Right!

The undersigned Seattle residents petition the Seattle City Council to place the following measure on the November 8, 2005, city ballot for a vote of the people:
"Every person should have the right to health care of equal high quality. The Congress should immediately enact legislation to implement this right."

3. Decide on whether to file as an initiative campaign, or to petition (ask) your city council to place the item on the ballot for you. In Seattle, we petitioned the city council to place the item on the ballot. Doing it that way meant that we needed strong allies on the council, but it gave us much more flexibility in the number of signatures needed and the time allowed to gather them. An Initiative campaign would give your group more control over the eventual wording of the ballot measure, and it wouldn’t require a vote of your city council. If we had gone that route in Seattle, we would have needed 18,000 signatures and had only a couple of months in which to gather them. We wound up with 11,500 signatures and we took about 8 months.

4. It is very helpful if an existing community group or two take up this campaign as their own. There may be organizations in your city already working on the health care issue. Perhaps, the successful example from Seattle can serve as a point in favor of them adopting this idea.

5. Next, build a coalition of endorsers. This will consist of: labor unions, churches, Democratic Party groups and other business and community organizations. Leaders from these groups can be asked to “show up” at crucial times like city council meetings, and lend their public support. Op-Eds in your local paper from prominent members of these groups are very helpful.

6. A good source of help for gathering petition signatures can be student interns. It may be possible to arrange for course credit to be awarded to students who put in a bloc of time over a period of months helping with your campaign. There are many other projects the interns can work on to make a successful effort, such as organizing fundraisers and research on health care issues in your community (number of local uninsured, financial burdens on public health care facilities, etc.). Uplift International, a non-profit, Seattle based group that supports our effort, is working on organizing an intern program for cities that take up “Right to Health Care” campaigns.

7. Before you start to gather names on a petition, hold a half day training session on a weekend day. Use this time to bring together members of the campaign committee, interns, and other coalition members to learn about campaigning in public. A question/answer (talking points) sheet will be useful for this session. Also, role playing is extremely valuable to help petitioners build confidence. A brief panel session on concepts of the health care crisis with local professionals making presentations would be helpful for this session.

Offer a simple, nice lunch. This will allow time for unscripted conversations and building solidarity among campaigners

8. Circulate petitions!

A. Go out in pairs/groups
B. Send out petitions in friendly newsletters and newspapers accompanied by an article about the campaign. In the article, ask people to circulate the petition and return to an address printed on each petition.
C. Set a goal for number of signatures and keep campaigners aware of progress toward goal. Involve city council allies in decision on the number of signatures needed.

9. Cultivate ties with city council members and include them in strategy planning sessions. No amount of lobbying is too much! Bring an influential endorser or representative of a community organization to meetings with individual city council people. Your relationships with city council members will help to determine how well the ballot language reflects the petition language. Measure #1 in Seattle began with the words:

Advisory ballot measure No. 1 concerns the right to health care.

If approved, the measure would advise the mayor and the city council that every person in the US should have an equal right to quality health care, and that Congress should implement that right. The measure would advise the city to take steps to secure that right, including: requesting legislation, supporting education and advocacy, publishing a report on local health care access, and convening an expert panel to advise the City and private employers on improving insurance coverage for Seattle residents.
Should this advisory measure be approved?

Yes....    No......

10. Consider a conference. Health care is a big, important issue, and, as your campaign gathers momentum, a local, public conference on the health care crisis can put the campaign on the municipal front burner. Our conference in Seattle drew 150 people. Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.(D-Illinois) was our keynote speaker. Topics included health crisis in US, racial disparities in health care, single payer insurance, and more.

11. Cultivate ties with print and broadcast media folks. Newspaper coverage was critical in Seattle. One of our major dailies (P-I) supported us and ran a wonderful article by columnist Susan Paynter. KUOW had us on for a 15 minute interview right before the election.

12. When the advisory item is scheduled for the ballot, run as much of a campaign as you can. The more people who hear about right to health care before they vote, the better you will do. Our campaign for measure #1 was almost nonexistent, and we still got 70% Yes! Could have been 80% with a decent campaign, I figure.

13. Draw up a strategic plan/calendar of events at an early date. It won’t be possible to strictly adhere to the plan, but it will help guide you as the campaign proceeds.

14. Have fun!

For more information:
Brian King
Seattle
206-526-8169
bpjking@healthcareforallwa.org