HCFA-WA Annual Meeting Minutes 11-9-08

 

Attendees:  Larry Kalb, Dorene Carrel, Ruth Knagenhjelm, Don Mitchell, Barbara Fithian, Bob fithian, Joan Bethel, Bill Robertson, Fred Cox, Sarah Weinberg, Marian Glover, Bobbie Fletcher, Reba McGear, Tania Hernandez, Anne Thureson, Martha Koester, Kathleen Myers, Susan Eidenschink, Dick Pelz, Catherine Jurosz, Richard Glass, David Loud, Paul Pruitt, Mary Margaret Pruitt, and Chuck Richards.

 

Meeting was called to order by President, Larry Kalb, at 1:20 pm.

Larry welcomed everyone and gave information on the facility.

 

Agenda revision:  Add Congress McDermott health care aide after the financial report.

Revised agenda was approved.

 

Approval of the Minutes of last year’s annual meeting was moved, seconded and approved.

 

Financial Report:  Dana Iorio was unable to attend, but sent in the Financial Report.

Contributions for the year were $10,695.67.  Expenditures for the year were $10.300.26. Most of the expenses were for the printing and mailing of the newsletter, $4,090.74 and $3,764.57 respectively.  Currently we have a balance of $3,165.43 in the HCFAWA account and $1,116.06 in the HCFA 501©3 account.

A motion was made to accept the treasurer’s report, seconded, and it was approved.

 

David Loud, Representative Jim McDermott’s health care aide gave us information on the prospects for legislation on the national level.  Rep. McDermott has been a long time supporter of single payer health care and has introduced and reintroduced legislation for a single payer health care plan in Congress, HR 1200.  David brought two handouts written by Rep. McDermott.  David said that costs and access to health care have gotten to be more critical, which may mean that there is more of an opportunity to get health care reform.  Everyone is feeling the pain, we are in an economic crisis, states have been struggling to reform health care, and coalitions and advocacy campaigns have blossomed during this time.  In Congress there is a lot of work being done on policy issues dealing with health care, bringing together several of the people and organizations that will need to come together on this issue.  The first big push will probably be expanding S-CHIP.  Democrats in Congress also believe that a more comprehensive program is needed and seem to be coalescing behind a mixed private and public plan, such as Obama has suggested.  This may be the best way politically to transition towards a universal public plan.  The cost of health care that includes private insurance companies, may lead consumers and employers towards the public plan option.  Also, in ten years the number of people on Medicare will double.  Insurance companies will try to block public plan options.  Health care costs are a very big factor in the economic instability everyone is facing, and this economic crisis may lead to the realization that we cannot afford not to fix the health care crisis.  A question was asked about the organization Healthcare for America Now, which is the most broad based coalition working for health care reform.  David said that this new coalition is mobilizing many organizations with a united message.  Their website is www.healthcareforamericanow.org.

 

Reports from the Board

 

Larry Kalb, President, reported on several events and changes that happened this past year.

1.  HCFA-WA Retreat – May 24, 2008 – Board members reviewed HCFA-WA’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.  We determined that the core drive for our organization must be to have “clout.”  In order to reach our objective, we decided to hold conferences, develop relationships with businesses, women organizations and the media and mobilize our base to change direction in Olympia.

2.     Weekly Perspectives – Twenty-eight electronic newsletters have been sent out so far to health care advocates around the state since the end of April.  These newsletters are intended to give us a perspective into what is happening in the “reform” world not only in the state of Washington but around the country.

3.     HCFA-WA Website Revised – Dave Ihnen re-established visibility for HCFA-WA by redesigning the website to make it more informational, interactive, maneuverable, and personal.

4.     Healthy Washington Coalition Forums – These forums were well attended and people from Spokane to Everett through Seattle to Vancouver stood up to voice their stances passionately to keep insurance companies out of health care reform.

5.     SB 6333:  Mathmatica Contracted to Analyze Five Plans – This analytical report on the five proposed health care plans before the legislature is due the middle of December 2008.  HCFA-WA expects that the single-payer plan will be one of the top two plans recommended.

6.     Snohomish County Chapter – The Snohomish County Chapter of HCFA-WA sponsored four forums this year, including one passionate forum in Everett with the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County.

Whidbey Island forum - cancelled because of Obama speech.

Camano Island Forum – A health care presentation was given to the Camano Island Democrats on Wednesday, Sept. 10^th.  Thirty attendees asked a plethora of questions and the sense was that they were ready for a complete overhaul of the health care system.

7.     Proposal WHST Legislation – Dr. Robert Fithian with the help of Dr. Sherry Weinberg, brought forth an updated and revised version of the WHST bill that HCFA-WA intends to put before the legislature in Olympia for consideration.  Several legislators have already offered to be the prime sponsor.

8.     Endorsement Policy – HCFA-WA now has an endorsement policy to evaluate and potentially endorse candidates.  This vital tool is needed to influence the direction of health care reform in Olympia and make our voice heard and count.

 

Moving Forward into 2009

 

Developing Strategic Guidelines

During the ‘30’s and ‘40’s Eleanor Roosevelt would often approach her husband, president Franklin Roosevelt, to enact certain social justice legislation for the benefit of all Americans and during one frustrating conversation, Franklin told Eleanor, “If you want me to sign new legislation into law, then you need to get your friends organized and make me do it.”  This story serves two purposes:

1.     This narrative inspires our friends to organize within their respective communities, and

2.     Our friends will make our state representatives do the right thing, thus we influence legislation.

Based on Roosevelt’s advice, HCFA-WA will develop strategic initiative guidelines to initiate meetings around the state to get LD’s organized in support of the WHST by doing the following:

1.     Core Principles

         Using one Set of Principles as Reference/Talking Points

Establishing, developing and promoting no more than four or five unique principles or “Rules of Thumb” germane to the WHST to be used as a point of reference to determine what is a good health care plan.

         Defining HCFA-WA/WHST Strengths

HCFA-WA will define WHST strengths and deficiencies of the other plans using our core principles or rules of thumb.  HCFA-WA needs to structure principled narratives to be proactive in nature, maximizing the effectiveness of salient talking points.

         Maintaining Message Discipline

Maintaining constant MESSAGE DISCIPLINE throughout the State over the next couple of years within each HCFA-WA Chapter is essential to building a solid base of support.  Deviations from our core message will fragment the base.  Repetition of our message will establish our brand of health care reform.

         Replicating Our Message

Once a new Chapter has been established, HCFA-WA can train others to promote our message within their local communities.

2.     Targeting Demographics

Targeting specific demographics and Legislative Districts is necessary to use time, money and other resources effectively and efficiently.

         Identifying Legislative Committee Members

Identifying State House and Senate representatives assigned to committees such as Health and Long Term Care, Ways and Means, and organizing HCFA-WA groups according to the representative’s LD will have significant impact on voting behavior within the legislature and within the LD by their constituents.

         Researching Legislative Districts

Every County Auditor’s Office maintains voter databases.  These databases contain voting behavior over a certain period of time as well as the voter’s age and place of residency.  HCFA-WA can purchase this data at a very reasonable cost for the purpose of locating potential supporters of our legislation within each LD.  This data can also be used for fundraising campaigns using our core message to solicit funds.

3.     Establishing a LD-Specific Endorsement Panel

Participatory citizenry involvement in screening candidates (incumbents as well as first-timers) for State Office can be done by setting up guidelines as a 501©4 organization for the promotion of health care reform.

         Creating three levels of endorsement support and policy.

         Written questions uniform throughout the HCFA-WA community of Chapters will be used as a guideline to measure a candidate’s commitment to HCFA-WA principles.  Endorsed candidates will be held accountable to our principles.

 

Mary Margaret Pruitt – Legislative Report

            Our goals for the past legislative session were:

1.     Continue a visible active presence advocating for adopting the Washington health Security Trust in the state of Washington.

2.     Support legislation that works toward our ultimate goal of quality health care for all residents.

3.     Advocate for an actuarial study of plans for health care reform in this state.

4.     Advocate for a single payer plan to be one of the plans studied in the actuarial study.

We worked with some successes on each goal.  Various members made trips to Olympia, attending some hearings and spoke with legislators.

 

In the 2008 short session, we did not expect either Senator Rosa Franklin or Representative Sherry Appleton to reintroduce the WHST bills they had prime sponsored in the 2007 session.  We supported measures working toward covering all children in the state by 2010.  We generated telephone calls promoting the actuarial study and for including a single-payer plan among the five to be studied.

 

Our goals in planning for the 2009 session include:

1. Learn what agendas Speaker Frank Chopp, Senator Karen Keiser, and Representative Eileen Cody have for promoting universal health care coverage in the coming session, and
2. Explore possibilities for reintroducing the Washington Health Security Trust bill next year and secure leadership.

 

In interviews and correspondence, we have been encouraged to continue our promotion of the WHST by these leaders.  Senator Rosa Franklin and Representative Sherry Appleton have again agreed to be the prime sponsors.  Because of the effortful revision of the WHST by Bob Fithian and others, the document we hope to have submitted may be able to move through hearings to legislative floor action.

 

We have an appointment with Insurance Commissioner Mike Kriedler on Wednesday, Nov. 12^th at 9:30 am.  Mary Margaret invited anyone who is able to attend.

 

Bob Fithian mentioned that the Legislative Committee met with Majken Ryherd of Rep. Chopp’s office on 09/15/2008.  Ms. Ryherd discussed numerous burdens, delays, and costs that I-960 has placed on introduction of any legislation that incurs taxes or fees since I-960 was adopted 11/06/2007.  Those burdens did NOT apply to HB1886/SB5756, which we introduced before I-960 took effect; however, we WILL face them if or when we re-introduce the WHST in a new session.  Some of those burdens, delays, and costs are caused by:  1. requirement for 2/3 majority votes in both houses to pass any bill raising a tax or fee; 2. requirement for referendum or advisory vote of the people; 3. requirement that the Office of Financial Management complete a fiscal report with 10 year cost projections before any tax or fee bill can be introduced; 4. the complex fiscal report must be done again for every change in committee hearings.  Sen. Lisa Brown has sued to overturn I-960. The decision is now pending in the state supreme court.  Observers say the court seem reluctant to intervene in a “legislative matter”.

 

Chuck Richards & Ruth – Outreach/Membership Report

 

Healthy Washington Coalition

HCFA-WA joined with the Healthy Washington Coalition during the year in their objective to advance “quality, affordable health care for all Washingtonians”.

 

They sponsored a Lobby Day in Olympia in January, 2008 attended by over 150 people from 27 legislative districts who met with their legislators about how the health care crisis is affecting them and the steps being taken to advance the Healthy WA legislative agenda. 

 

The Coalition rallied on the steps of the Insurance Building along with dozens of members of the American Cancer Society about health care reform and heard from Insurance Commissioner Kreidler, Representatives Eileen Cody & Tami Green. 

 

Members of various labor unions and other organizations wore various T-shirts to demonstrate their presence.  It was important for those participating to not give legislators separate messages, but only use the speaking points provided by HW Coalition.

 

The other effort of the HW Coalition this summer was to hold seven Public Forums around the state of Washington.  We were invited to recruit our members to participate even though the Forums were designed to not advocate for any bill, such as the WHST.  Nor were advocacy groups allowed to have tables inside the lobby, but we did have a couple of members at nearly all of the Forums passing out flyers promoting the WHST.  Our members also testified in many of the Forums, telling their own stories as permitted.

 

Action Teams

·      A HCFA-WA group held forums in the 2^nd CD in 2008.  Other single-payer advocates are organized in Clallam/Jefferson Co.  They also hold forums, and are willing to work with us.  A group of folks in the Spokane area are interested in affiliating as well.

·      This fall Action Teams are being organized in the King Co. area to organize our supporters to effectively advocate for the Washington Health Security Trust in the coming legislature: North Seattle (Sept 14), South Seattle (Sep 28), South King County (Nov. 23), Eastside (TBD) and Shoreline/Edmonds -1^st CD (TBD).  A second round of meetings will be schedule during the legislative session to prepare for a Lobby Day, or constituency meetings.

 

·      A list of six questions was developed to be used by our supporters whenever they engage their legislators in discussions about health care reform.

1.      How could you help us not sacrifice our children’s education for the sake of insurance companies’ putting their financial interests first?

2.      Will you support a state health plan, available to everyone, which offers comprehensive coverage to all consumers at affordable rates regardless of employment or financial status?

3.     Will you support a state health plan, available to everyone, that keeps down costs by using community-wide risk pools to prevent private insurance companies from profiting on covering only the young and healthy, while having the taxpayers cover all those sick and elderly? 

4.     Will you support a state health plan, available to everyone, that provides free choice for consumers among all licensed health care professionals in the state?

5.     Will you support a state health plan, available to everyone, that reduces cost by eliminating bureaucratic red tape of private insurance companies trying to reject pre-existing conditions, designing wasteful product advertising, and processing hundreds of alternative benefit plans?

6.     Are you willing to co-sponsor the single-payer Washington Health Security Trust legislation in Olympia in 2009? If so, why, and if not, why not?

 

Newsletter Report – Sherry Weinberg

Sherry reported that during the past year four newsletters were sent out to more than 2200 people.  The only national health care plan written up this year was the Cuban health care plan.  Sherry requested information of other national health care systems that haven’t already been written about in our newsletter.  Many organizations have changed to website newsletters, but we know that many people do not have access to the web, and we still receive donations from the distribution of our newsletter to pay for that distribution.  Richard Bard does all of the layout for the newsletter and has written several articles.  Susan Eidenschink sends the mailing list to the mailing service and Dana Iorio makes sure there is money in our meter mail post office account.

 

Elections

 

The slate of officers included Larry Kalb – President, Sherry Weinberg – Vice President, Open – Secretary, Dana Iorio – Treasurer.  The committee chairs included Mary Margaret – Political Action Committee, Ruth Knagenhjelm – Membership Committee, and Richard Bard – Communication and Publicity Committee.

 

Richard Glass, Ann Brand, Martha Koester, Tania Hernandez, and Barbara Fithian were added to the at large board slate.  The HCFA-WA Board includes these new members plus the following board members:  Richard Bard, Bob Fithian, Susan Eidenschink, Dave Ihnen, Ruth Knagenhjelm, Paul Pruitt, Mary Margaret Pruitt, Chuck Richards, and Bill Robertson.  The HCFA-WA Advisory Council includes the following members:  Brian King, Paula King, David Loud, Peter McGough, Eleanor Owen, George Schneider, June Schumacher, Hal Stockbridge, Anne Thureson, and Lori Whittaker.

 

A person to serve as secretary was requested.  

 

A motion was made to approve the new slate of board members, which was seconded and approved.

 

Program – Developing an Effective Message – Dr. David Domke

 

Dr. David Domke, Professor of Mass Communication at the University of Washington, studies political  elites and news media, individual values and cognition, and social change, with particular interest in the dynamics of post 9/11 America.  Dr Domke has a new book out entitled The God Strategy:  How religion became a political weapon in America.  Another book Dr. Domke wrote is entitled God Willing?  Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the “WAR of Terror,” and the Echoing Press.

 

Dr. Domke guided us on the use of message maps to develop talking points to deliver to our audiences throughout the health care reform community and beyond.  Dr. Domke stressed the need to use values in our communication that are personal, simple and visceral.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 3:40 pm

                                                            Submitted by Susan Eidenschink