Hello Healthcare Justice Activists —
Since our last update, we have been hard at work finishing the campaign for I-1471 while forging ahead with the new legislative session.
Finishing 2022 and I-1471
So what was our final count? Well according to our data dashboard, we collected 87,557!
Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who signed, gathered, entered data, marched, sat in meetings, and joined us on Slack.
You are the spark of the healthcare justice movement and we need your feedback.
Please fill out the Volunteer Engagement survey below:
Click here to fill out the Volunteer survey
Over the course of this campaign, we introduced the best version yet of the Washington Health Trust, we attended events all over Washington state, we nearly doubled the size of our mailing list, our social media following has grown by the thousands, we received endorsements and media coverage from critical organizations who previously had not acknowledged our existence. Our movement is bigger than ever, but there are still many obstacles on the road ahead.
While this was unfortunately short of the 325,000 required signatures to make the ballot, we delivered them to Olympia anyway showing them what we are made of. We are organized. We have the best policy. We have the support of the public. And we are determined to win. As always, our pact with the legislature remains that if they fail to deliver universal healthcare, we will take it to the ballot.
Senate Bill 5335, 2023, and beyond
So what’s next? Well, we went ahead and worked with the sponsor of our previous bills Senator Hasegawa to introduce The Washington Health Trust into the state Senate as SB.5335! With a bill in the legislature, we ask that you leave a public comment in support of the bill and ask that it be given a hearing in the Senate Healthcare Committee.
Click here to leave a public comment in support of SB.5335
Our work has already gained attention in Olympia! Whole Washington was invited to meet with Senator Annette Cleveland, chair of the Senate Healthcare Committee, along with Senator Hasegawa, and two representatives from Health Care for All Washington. While we did not get a commitment to the Senate hearing we asked for, we are working with both Senators and Health Care for All Washington to have the Washington State Universal Healthcare Commission look at our plan and allow us to present at a meeting. We believe this is a critical step towards building further support in the Senate.
We are working hard to continue this push forward while also giving ourselves a moment to recover from a very long and very involved initiative campaign. We continue to discuss our plans for 2023 in our Volunteer meetings and on Slack and will be taking feedback collected through the Volunteer Engagement Survey into account moving forward.
We hope that you will continue to organize with us on healthcare justice. There are many steps on the path ahead, but in good company, it may not feel so long.
Solidarity,
