Vermont House Parties for Health Care

Released: May 11, 2005 5:12 PM

Features Conference Call with Rep. Gaye Symington and Sen. Peter Welch

BURLINGTON, VT - Tomorrow, twenty-two "House Parties for Health Care" will take place throughout the Green Mountain state. They will feature a conference call with Rep. Gaye Symington, Speaker of the House, and Sen. Peter Welch, President Pro Tempore, to discuss what is happening with the various health care reform bills and proposals, and how local activists can get involved. The house parties are co-hosted by Democracy for America (DFA), TrueMajorityACTION, VPIRG and the Vermont Labor Council. For more information, visit: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/housecall/.

Rep. Symington and Sen. Welch will conduct the conference call live from a house party in Montpelier, VT, located at 4 Pinewood Road. The house party will start at 8:00pm and the conference call at 8:30pm.

"Access to quality health care is a right, not a privilege," said Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America. "The DFA community supports the legislators of Vermont who are fighting to reform the state's health care system to be both fiscally responsible and socially progressive because we believe that every man, woman and child is entitled to a healthy life."

"Our members want everyone to have access to the same high quality health care," said Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajorityACTION. "And we're working to make that happen beginning right here in Vermont." TrueMajorityACTION is a national online activist group started by Ben & Jerry's ice cream co-founder Ben Cohen. Along with its sister group, TrueMajority, the progressive organization counts 600,000 members nationwide.

"Thousands of Vermonters lack basic health care coverage or are in jeopardy of losing their insurance. While some politicians have responded to this by putting blinders on, others are demonstrating real vision by supporting a plan to solve the problem. These house parties are one more way for the citizens of the state to encourage bold leadership at a time when it is critically important," said Paul Burns, Executive Director of VPIRG. VPIRG is the largest non-partisan consumer and environmental advocacy organization in Vermont with approximately 20,000 members

Democracy for America is a political action committee dedicated to building a grassroots network of fiscally responsible and socially progressive activists and candidates running for all levels of office. Through the use of grassroots tactics, coalition building strategies, activist trainings and on-line support, DFA is giving ordinary people the power to reform their own political system.