Do six things in six day to defeat ObamaCare

Activism for Reason, Rights, Reality
1

Obama is pushing Congress to have a bill out by July 28th–only 6 days from now! We need to push back and push back hard.

What can we do at this point?

I encourage everyone to DO SIX THINGS IN SIX DAYS to protect individual rights against the onslaught of statism:

  1. Compose a message that reflects your position on the importance of protecting the rights of doctors and patients, freedom of choice, and fiscal responsibility in healthcare reform, in general, and objections to specific proposals, in particular, including the public option, mandates that force individuals to buy insurance coverage, mandates that force employers to provide insurance coverage, surcharges that force some groups to pay for the healthcare of other groups, mandates that force doctors to participate in public plans (examples of messages of varying length are provided at http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/samplemessages.html))

  2. Call or email or fax your legislators to communicate your message by using Project Vote Smart to get the contact information on your legislators (projectvotesmart.html’>http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/projectvotesmart.html)

  3. Call or email the the leadership or individual members of the Blue Dog Coalition (an influential group of fiscally conservative democrats who may have the power to defeat ObamaCare) whose contact information is provided here (bluedogcoalition.html’>http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/bluedogcoalition.html).

  4. Sign these three online petitions (you can find others on the web):

Protect Doctor-Patient Rights (petitiontoprotectdoctor-patientrights.html’>http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/petitiontoprotectdoctor-patientrights.html)

Patients First (patientsfirst.html’>http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/patientsfirst.html)

Free Our Health Care Now (http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/ freeourhealthcare.html).

  1. Make a YouTube video of yourself reciting “The Trader’s Oath” that I included in the Doctors Declaration of Independence:

“I swear by my life, and my love of it, that as a doctor, as a patient, as a human being, I will forever defend the right of every doctor, every patient, every human being to be treated as a trader among traders, not a slave under masters, nor a master over slaves.”

  1. Get as many of your friends, family, and acquaintances to do these same things.

Our website (www.doctorsonstrike.com) provides resources to help you do these things.

2

DrGreg, thanks for posting this.

I’d like to post a link to this on my Twitter page for my business to get the word out more.

I am afraid though that if I link to this page it would draw a lot of trolls to this website (I own an izakaya and while most of my regulars are pdx’s few fiscal conservatives alas, many liberals like my food too).

Does this info exist on another page so I can link to it without drawing trolls down on OOF?

3

Beware of this guy! :lol:

http://www.solopassion.com/node/6539#comment-74231

He’s obviously uninformed about FIRM and the highly unprofessional (and down right childish) approach he took in insulting others in the O’ist community left a really bad taste in my mouth.

4

Thanks for taking the time to do this Dr. Greg. We need to have more physicians wake up and recognize that these national healthcare proposals will end up enslaving doctors while the rest of us are destined to suffer from the inevitable decrease in quality of care.

5

DrGreg, thanks for posting this.

I’d like to post a link to this on my Twitter page for my business to get the word out more.

I am afraid though that if I link to this page it would draw a lot of trolls to this website (I own an izakaya and while most of my regulars are pdx’s few fiscal conservatives alas, many liberals like my food too).

Does this info exist on another page so I can link to it without drawing trolls down on OOF?

I just created a new page for you (and others) at the Doctors on Strike website: http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/dosixthingsinsixdays.html

I added this: Oh, and here is a seventh thing you can do for extra self-esteem credit: Communicate your message to the media (op-eds, blogs, comments at the end of online articles, discussion forums).

6

One quick thing you can do today is “sign” the Petition to Protect Doctor-Patient Rights at http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/petitiontop…ientrights.html

Here are the results so far:

Signatures (First and Last Names)

Total number 32

Total number today 10

Total number within last week 32

Answers to questions

Should doctors “go on strike” by refusing to participate in any new government-run healthcare plan? 32

Yes: 31 (96.9%) No 1 (3.1%)

If ObamaCare is approved, should doctors “go on strike” by stopping their participation in other government-run healthcare plans? 31

Yes: 30 (96.8%) No:1 (3.2)%

Please take a minute, go to this website, “sign” the petition, and email your family and friends to get them to participate in this campaign to tell Congress to reform healthcare without violating the rights of doctors and patients to make private healthcare decisions.

7

An Open Letter to The Blue Dog Coalition

Dear Honorable Leaders and Members of The Blue Dog Coalition:

As a healthcare professional and the leader of a national campaign to protect the rights of doctors and patients, I urge you to vote against HR3200: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

On July 4, 2009, I founded a new organization, Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine to take on the mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting freedom in healthcare. We simultaneously issued a Declaration of Independence for Doctors and declared a philosophical and political war against more governmental intrusion into healthcare.

Doctors on Strike is establishing a rapidly growing national audience through our internet presence at www.doctorsonstrike.com, where we supply doctors and patients with the philosophical and political ammunition to fight for their rights. Launched three weeks ago, our website has been visited by people from 756 cities in 40 countries around the world, including all 50 states in America. Our message is getting through to people interested in protecting individual rights in healthcare.

We hope this communication will get our message through to each member of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.

Doctors on Strike is based on the principles that:

• Doctors and patients have the same inalienable individual rights that all human beings have — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;

• The purpose of government is to secure these rights, not violate them;

• Rights impose limitations on government;

• Government intrusion into healthcare violates these rights;

• HR3200 would violate these rights, be fiscally irresponsible, and gravely threaten the viability of the healthcare system; and

• Doctors, patients, and elected officials need to act — now — to preserve, protect, and promote individual rights and freedom in medicine.

Our most pressing goal for 2009 is to help defeat HR3200 and other statist healthcare reform proposals now circulating in Washington. To this end, Doctors on Strike is actively encouraging doctors and patients to put intense political pressure on legislators during your deliberations on healthcare reform.  We supply our national audience with the intellectual and political ammunition to do this.

We provide links to the contact information on every senator and representative.  You should know that we just added a special website page devoted to the 51 members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which provides the names, pictures, and contact information on each Blue Dog.  We are encouraging doctors and patients to urge the Blue Dogs to reform healthcare in a fiscally responsible manner and with due respect for the right of doctors and patients. 

As the 2010 election cycle approaches, we will identify and publicly support those candidates for elected offices at the state and federal level who champion individual rights in healthcare.  We hope you will be one of them.

We will also unhesitatingly identify and publicly target for defeat any candidates who support legislation that violates individual rights. We just created a page on our website, “Targeted for Defeat in 2010,” with this goal in mind.

We recently created a Petition to Protect Doctor-Patient Rights, which will be submitted to Congress and calls on legislators to oppose legislation that provides for any:

• Public plan option,

• Mandates that force individuals to buy insurance coverage,

• Mandates that force employers to provide insurance coverage,

• Surcharges that force some groups to pay for the healthcare of other groups, and

• Mandates that force doctors to participate in public plans.

We are also encouraging doctors to prepare themselves to go on strike against government-run healthcare programs.  We want doctors to let the country know now that, if the President signs legislation to establish a new government healthcare plan, they will refuse to participate in any such plan and will also stop participating in all other government healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and SCHIP.

Our blog, Doctors on Strike, regularly posts news and opinions on healthcare reform.  This week we posted the news that the House Ways and Means Committee, marking up the Health bill:

• Rejected 25-15 an amendment from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would have eliminated the public plan option;

• Rejected 22-19 amendment from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) that would have prevented providers from being forced to participate in the public plan;

• Rejected 21-18 an amendment from Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) that would have required members of Congress and their dependents to enroll in the public plan option;

• Rejected 21-19 an amendment from Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) that would have based payment rates on the private market, rather than on Medicare;

• Rejected 26-15 an amendment by Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) that would have prevented comparative effectiveness research from being used to deny care based on cost.

(Source: John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog)

This information made it absolutely clear to our audience that those Democrats in Congress who support HR3200 are poised to inject a massive, lethal dose of statism into the brain of our healthcare system–the independent practice of medicine–a long-established, well-tested tradition in which doctors and patients exercise their right to make personal and private healthcare decisions that are informed by the professional training and experience of the doctor and tailored to the unique needs of the patient–without the forceful intrusion of government bureaucrats. We fear that this massive dose of statism will induce a wave of “seizures” in the healthcare economy — inflation, price controls, doctor shortages, waiting periods, and rationing. This is clearly the wrong medicine at the wrong time for the faltering economy, in general, and the over-regulated healthcare sector, in particular.

In your deliberations on healthcare reform, we respectfully ask you to demonstrate your respect for the rights of doctors and patients by opposing any government option, mandates for individual insurance coverage, mandates for employer coverage, tax surcharges, and requirement for doctors to participate in a public option. These provisions are immoral, unconstitutional violations of our rights as doctors and patients. These provisions are also fiscally irresponsible.

We urge you instead to support and vote for legislation to decrease the federal regulation of the entire healthcare industry. The burdens of federal and state control are stifling competition and innovation among insurance companies and other healthcare providers. They are a major cause of inflation in healthcare goods and services.

We understand that many of you are considering running for reelection. If your vote(s) reflect fiscal responsibility and respect the rights of doctors and patients, we will openly and vigorously support your reelection. If your vote(s) are fiscally irresponsible and violate the rights and doctors and patients, we may have no choice but to support your opponent.

We hope you make the right choice for freedom in America.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Respectfully,

Dr. Gregory L. Garamoni

Founder & Executive Director, Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine

2304 Sawgrass Village Drive

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

904-631-3939

www.doctorsonstrike.com

[email protected]

July 25, 2009

8

I’ve totally redone the homepage for “Doctors on Strike” (http://www.doctorsonstrike.com).

I hope that all you cats, however impossible you are to herd, will take a peak, be inspirationally inspired, and take some time now out of your precious time (only a few minutes!) to act in your own self-interest!

Please check it out, all you dudes and dudettes of “OO.”

Positive feedback is welcome, negative . . . at your own risk!

DrGreg

9

Thanks for posting.

Am sharing this info with my customers & peers.

10

The Blue Dog Democrats are the key to this battle right now and they deserve our support and encouragement. Another important figure is Chuck Grassley, the Republican from Iowa. He has been hoping to make a deal with the Democrats on healthcare and if that happens, it could mean big trouble for freedom in America. Grassley should be on the list of wavering politicians who we need to write and call to express our opposition.

11

The Blue Dog Democrats are the key to this battle right now and they deserve our support and encouragement. Another important figure is Chuck Grassley, the Republican from Iowa. He has been hoping to make a deal with the Democrats on healthcare and if that happens, it could mean big trouble for freedom in America. Grassley should be on the list of wavering politicians who we need to write and call to express our opposition.

Thanks, I’ll sic my son on him tomorrow. He faxed a copy of my open letter to all the Blue Dogs today.

Here is a reasonable response I got from one of the Blue Dogs ( a former physician) today:

Dear Dr. Garamoni:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your concerns. As your representative, I value maintaining an open dialogue with my constituents, especially on issues as important as health care.

As you know, the question of how to improve our health care system has divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. As a physician who spent 30 years treating patients from across North Alabama, I have a different perspective on this issue than others in Congress. I am concerned that the current health care legislation falls short of meeting its goals of reducing costs, increasing access, and protecting a patient’s right to choose. Because this piece of legislation would have such a large and lasting impact on our nation, I want to make my position on this issue clear.

Our first priority is to make sure that we do nothing to harm our current system. We have the best health care system in the world, but we must reduce costs and increase access to the system. To meet these challenges, we must encourage greater competition in the health care market. One of the best ways to do this is by allowing individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines and by requiring providers to cover pre-existing conditions. While I believe it is necessary to increase competition in the health care market, I do not favor a government-sponsored health care option. I believe that a public option would result in less consumer choice and too much government involvement in health care.

Along with increasing competition in the health care market, any effective and sustainable reform must also be carried out in a fiscally responsible manner. As a fiscally conservative member of the Blue Dog Coalition, I am committed to supporting reform that takes into account our growing deficit. Expanding access to health care is vital, but we must not do so at the expense of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

One of my main priorities during the health care debate is to encourage Congress to take a thoughtful and bipartisan approach to reform. Wide-sweeping reform cannot be passed overnight. All our options must be carefully considered before finally settling on a package that is in our nation’s best interest. To encourage this type of approach, I recently introduced legislation, H. Res. 643, which requires any major reform bill to be available to the public and Members of Congress at least a week prior to the final vote on the bill.

As the debate over health care reform continues, the key for Congress and the American people is to remain focused on health care reform’s primary goal: improving our current system of care while also saving families, small businesses and the government much-needed money. Again, I appreciate your input on this issue. For more information on the health care debate, I encourage you to visit my website at http://griffith.house.gov where you can view daily news updates regarding health care reform as well as read my health care principles and correspondence with other constituents on this issue.

Sincerely,

Parker Griffith

Member of Congress The office of Representative Parker Griffith of the 5th District of Alabama is not responsible for any electronic transmissions that are not sent from the [email protected] email address.

Please sign our petition at http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/petitiontop…ientrights.html