The Future of Obamacare: Repeal, Repair, or Replace?

Now that you have heard all of the perspectives and viewpoints represented in the Teach-Out, and had a chance to reflect on your own values, we invite you to define a plan of action for yourself. To help guide your action plan, we have reposted Jenifer Martin’s Five Elements of Effective Advocacy and included some of Marianne Udow-Phillips’s advice for influencing health care legislation

Define Your Action Plan

• What future do you want for health care in your country? What policies do you want to see preserved, repealed, or enacted?
• Using the Five Elements of Effective Advocacy as a guide, what actions are you going to take to realize that change?

In the time since our Teach-Out launched, the urgency of the conversation around health care reform has only intensified. In our Call to Action, we prompted you to clarify your own goals for health care legislation, and develop a plan to enact those goals. The House bill (H.R 1628) currently awaits a response from the Senate, so the potential impact of your own direct citizen action is considerable. We wanted to follow up with you to check how your efforts are progressing, and continue the conversation around your values and actions as citizens and international observers.

A number of you have already outlined your plan of action, but we invite everyone to reflect on action you’ve taken since the Teach-Out, or action you plan on taking. Please respond to one or more of the following:

• What actions have you taken since the Teach-Out? 
• Have you identified any coalitions to join? 
• Have you met some/all of your stated goals? What kind of support or resources do you think could help you achieve your goals?

FIVE ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY

1. The most important step in any advocacy strategy is clarifying your goal.
2. Who are the key decision makers? As it pertains to current health care legislation, your Congressional representatives are among the key decision makers. In the lead up to the coming Senate consideration of the AHCA, your Senators are particularly important decision makers.  Click here to identify your Senators, and click here to identify your Representatives. 
3. Can you identify a champion? This is a person who is inside the process, and who will advance your goal internally.
4. Can you build out a coalition? Who are the other individuals or organizations that share your goal?
5. What is your message? How will you communicate it?