I think these people are committed to being a grassroots group but as with all non-profits in Maryland please watch to be sure they are not being co-opted at the top.  We know that Maryland Health Care for All was a co-opted group that kept public option out of Maryland and we do not want strong grassroots programs taken over by people working for corporate interests

Healthcare is a Human Right - Maryland


We are a new and exciting statewide, grassroots, effort focused on obtaining Universal Health Care for ALL Marylanders
and our basic Human Rights!

Description

We are a new state-wide effort that’s in the very early stages of development. Our aim is simple, but daunting: To achieve universal health care in Maryland by building community empowerment throughout the state. In partnership with United Workers, Health Care Now, Physicians for a National Health Program, and individual citizens from throughout Maryland, we have already begun to develop autonomous organizing groups in several counties including Carroll, Howard, Frederick, Montgomery, Baltimore, and Calvert.

The inspiration for our effort is based on a few obvious points:
1. Human life is sacred. Apart from the several UN and international government documents arguing that affordable, universal access to health care is a human right, all of us know this truth intimately. Even under the incoming Affordable Care Act (ACA), nearly 30 million people will still be uninsured, including over 300k Marylanders. In addition, the ACA will not stop the rising costs of health care, but will actually increase the cost and lower overall health treatment as private industry will only increase their oligopoly under this legislation.

2. It’s achievable. Every other industrial nation in the world has universal health care, usually as a “single-payer” system (publicly funded, privately provided). Those living in these nations tend to live longer, happier lives, with a wider range of choice and freedom. Our country is the richest in the world, and we already have proof that universal health care is feasible in the US thanks to the inspiring work of our allies in Vermont who in May 2011 were able to pass a statewide single-payer bill through a nearly all-volunteer grassroots effort.

3. Inequality is worsening. The health gap between the rich and poor in this country only continues to escalate, and in the US is currently at its widest recorded level. The reasons are obvious. Such health inequality further exacerbates income and general inequality as more and more of us are forced into debt (medical debt makes up most bankruptcies in Maryland) and forced into unhealthy, shorter lives since many of us cannot afford preventative care.

4. We already have what it takes. Each other. History has demonstrated that when concerned community members recognize their individual and collective power, nothing is impossible. Our families are suffering under the current for-profit health care system, and since the system has been corrupted so severely over the past decades, the only way to achieve the care we need is by building our own power throughout the state.