©1999 Howard Saunders

Just Health Care Radio, the Labor Party–sponsored live two-hour national call-in radio show, went on the air as scheduled on Sunday, June 6. Nearly 30 radio stations aired the program, thanks to the organizing efforts of Labor Party local organizations and affiliates. (A full listing of stations airing the program is below.)

The show was hosted by Pacifica Radio’s Amy Goodman and featured a stellar panel: LP co-chair and California Nurses Association president Kit Costello; David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program; Kathleen Connors, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions; author and physician Claudia Fegan; Quentin Young, past president of the American Public Health Association; and LP Organizer Tony Mazzocchi.

Reviews have been extremely positive. Together the panel set out a clear critique of our current health care system and argued articulately for thoroughgoing reform along the lines of the Labor Party’s Just Health Care plan. In the program’s second hour, the panelists took a series of calls from listeners around the country. Lines were jammed and many callers were unable to get through. New York City’s WBAI let the program run an additional half hour to accommodate more callers. The Labor Party’s toll-free number, which was repeated several times during the show, was also clogged with callers requesting information about the Labor Party and our campaign.

Around the country, many Labor Party local organizations and union affiliates organized listening parties of various kinds. The radio broadcast served as the official kick-off of the Labor Party’s Just Health Care Campaign.

Rebroadcast!

Just Health Care Radio is not over: LP organizations and affiliates are encouraged to lobby their local radio stations to broadcast or rebroadcast the program in the coming months. Many stations that declined to air the program live may be more open to the show now, after listening to the tape. What’s more, now that the program can be acquired on tape rather than via satellite, more radio stations can get access to it — not only Pacifica and National Public Radio stations, but also other independent, community radio stations.

Local stations may be more interested in rebroadcasting the radio program if local activists offer to organize a local call-in segment with local health care professionals to replace the second hour of the broadcast. (For more information on this option, please call LP organizer Ed Bruno in Boston: 617-531-0901.)

Tapes of Just Health Care Radio are available by calling the Pacifica Archives at 800-735-0230. A Just Health Care Radio organizing packet with a list of NPR and Pacifica stations, promotional flyers, and suggestions for approaching radio stations is available by calling 202-234-5190 or 888-44LABOR.

What’s Next?

It’s now time to launch local Committee of a Million for Just Health Care campaigns. The goal of the campaign is to educate the public about the need for national health insurance and the Labor Party’s plan; and to demonstrate to politicians and the media that there is broad public support for a national health insurance plan.

A good way to launch the Committee of a Million in your area is to combine it with radio station lobbying. Use the committee of a Million to help make the case for a broadcast of Just Health Care Radio at local stations.

• See also: Just Health Care Headed for the Ballot in a Third Community

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September, 1999
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Just Health Care Headed for Ballot in a Third Community

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