HEADS UP!  Tuesday April 25 is the close of regular voter registration for the Special Election. You must complete, sign, and mail your Montana Voter Registration form and have it postmarked by this date. The form has a check box for absentee ballot.  After Tuesday you will have to go to your county elections site to register.

IMPORTANT: For the Special Election, completed absentee ballots must be RECEIVED at the Elections Office before 8 pm on May 25.
If you are already registered to vote at your polling place, you can apply for an absentee ballot by completing and signing the Application for Absentee Ballot form. To allow for mail time, do this right away.
*Link for Montana election forms: http://sos.mt.gov/elections/forms
* To verify your current voting status, click "My Voter Page" below.

My Voter Page   The Montana Secretary of State's voter information service.

• Missoula 4/2

Special Election Forum:  Join Missoula community members, the Missoula Resistance Collective, Missoula Rises, IndivisibleMT, Montana Women Vote, Forward Montana, and more for a Special Election Action Forum in which you will learn how to have effective conversations and take action on the issues that matter most to you and your family.

Topics include Healthcare and the ACA, Public Education, LGBTQ rights, Public Lands and Conservation, and Immigration. 

Don't lose more sleep on account of politics. Join us!  Food and on-site childcare provided!
 
Sunday, April 2
Sunday at 4 PM - 6 PM
UCC of Missoula,  405 University Ave, Missoula, Montana 59801
https://www.facebook.com/events/1662506440724327/
 

• Bozeman 4/4

GPAN Grassroots Training #5:  Gallatin Progressive Action Network (GPAN) is hosting a Grassroots Organizing Training Series led by fellow GPANer and activist Elizabeth Marum. We will be hosting a training workshop every two weeks for the next few months. The remaining training dates are 4/4, and 4/18. Please join us to gain the tools to be an effective activist, advocate, or defender of human rights. You do not need to have attended a previous training as each of these workshops have a theme independent of the others. We will be meeting in the fellowship room, downstairs in the First Baptist Church on Grand Ave.
 
Tuesday, April 4 at 6 PM
First Baptist Church Bozeman, 120 S Grand Ave, Bozeman, Montana 59715
 https://www.facebook.com/events/1893482154227587/
 

• Helena 4/6

 ​
Story of Self Training/Medicaid Cut Updates:  Please join us to learn how to tell your Story of Self. This skill will enable you to give effective testimony to your elected officials as well as teach you a lifelong communication and advocacy skill that can be used in many ways. 

We will also have policy updates on proposed cuts to nutritional programs like Meals on Wheels and SNAP. We will have the latest in regard to Medicaid Cuts. Learn the advocacy training and you will have another tool in your toolkit to fight back.  Please join us to become part of the national campaign to fight back on cuts to the Safety Net that lifts so many of us out of poverty and helps us life our lives with dignity.

Please click here to register for the training. I will need a headcount for materials as well as lunch that is being provided

 Thursday, April 6 at 8 AM - 3:30 PM
Montana Council on Developmental Disabilities, 2714 Billings Ave, Helena, Montana 59601
https://www.facebook.com/events/1438833532824976/

An update from the post below -  We are having great success using Amplify to coordinate and track our daily actions.  We now have a user guide for Amplify!  Click Here.

If you have not yet taken the plunge, here are the details:

If you have an iOS device, here’s the app in iTunes.

If you have an Android device, here’s the app in Google Play.

It is hard to find in the App Store of on Google Play.  You may be able to find it by searching Civic Tools Amplify, but you will be able to find it if you click on the links above.

Once loaded, you will need a code to join a team.  The IndivisibleMT code is 289-029-004.  If you don’t have that handy, email IndivisibleMT@gmail.com for an invite.

PS If you are from another Indivisible group and want info on Amplify, including a handy Admin guide, shoot us an email.  We'll hook you up.  #Resist.

Put the Daily Actions in your pocket with Amplify, a team tool for peaceful grassroots activism.

It contains only our group's latest calls to action -- no news or noise. When you complete an action, mark it "complete" so you can track your progress as a group. See the actions other members have taken, and cheer them on. Yes, you can cheer people on, and see how many people are taking action.

IndivisibleMT is working directly with the Indivisible SF and developer. When you complete an action it disappears, so we are re-loading the actions nightly.  Stay tuned for enhancements that just reset repeating actions, and actions color coded by priority.

If you have an iOS device, here’s the app in iTunes.

If you have an Android device, here’s the app in Google Play.

Once loaded, you will need a code to join a team.  The IndivisibleMT code is 289-029-004.  If you don’t have that handy, email IndivisibleMT@gmail.com for an invite.

We have 18 days to save the ACA.
This is a health care emergency.  Every day of delay is a win.
 ​
THE PLAN

Congressional Stakeouts to Save Health Care (Moveon.org/Stakeout)

Starting this week:  Members of Congress return home for a scheduled “district work period”  Thursday & Friday, 3/16 and 3/17

We will gather outside the district offices of select members of Congress—nine Republican Senators and 23 Republican Representatives who hold the decisive votes—for peaceful “Stakeouts to Save Our Health Care” from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on both days. By holding vigil all day at their offices, we’ll make sure that anyone coming in or out of the office—staff, visitors, the members of Congress themselves—have to come face to face with us, their constituents, and our health care stories our signs, our songs, our hopes, our anger, and our cheer.

The theme is health care emergency—so bring crutches, slings, stethoscopes, anything you've got that signifies health care. (And snacks, coffee, hand-warmers, and lawn chairs!)

Have a GOP Senator or Representative? Sign up for 1-hour shifts & captain roles.

Anywhere else? Sign up to recruit staker-outers

Details here:  Moveon.org/Stakeout

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Right now, today, the number of uninsured Americans is at an all-time low.  The numbers as of Q1 2016 (according to census data):

• Total Uninsured Rate: 8.6% (exceeded 10%)
• 18-64 Only: 11.9% (nearing 10%)
• 0-17 Only: 5.0%
• Over 65: Not typically counted in ACA-related studies, it’s near 100% according to this study.

Trump and the GOP ran on ending this.  He promised repeal and replace on Day 1.
That hasn’t happened.  Faced with opposition on Day 1 (the Women’s March, protests at Congressional offices, rowdy town halls, hundreds of thousands of phone calls), the GOP has encountered a lot of speed bumps.  They are afraid that if they can’t get repeal done now they will lose momentum.  We have three weeks to stop them.

WHAT is the GOP/Trump plan?

• It costs more, and covers less.
  • Cost for an average person is $1,542 higher in year one
  • People 55-64 years old will see an average cost increase of $6,971 per year by 2020
  • Over 15 million people will lose coverage completely

• It ends Medicaid as we know it
  • Block grants to the states
  • No longer guaranteed
  • Hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts
  • Millions lose coverage
• Defunds Planned Parenthood

 
WHY is the GOP so set on this?

• Huge tax cut for the wealthy
  • Richest 400 Americans get an average $7 million tax cut per year
• Special tax breaks for rich insurance company CEOs
  • Insurance CEOs making $500,000+ per year get their own tax cut
• Middle class gets nothing
  • Average tax cut for a family making less than $200,000 year is $0

WHEN do they plan to pass this?

• GOP plans to jam this through in March.
• House has already voted in two committees
• Full House vote expected the week of March 20
• Senate plans to vote the week of March 27 on the exact House bill

 
The GOP is doing this under the rules of budget reconciliation, so there is no Senate filibuster to save us.  They only need 51 votes to pass the GOP/Trump bill.

This is a health care emergency.  Every day of delay is a win.

So HOW do we stop it?

We stop it by flipping 22 Representatives, or 3 Senators. 

WHO can we flip?

There are 22 GOP Representatives from districts that Clinton won.

1. FL-27             Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
2. FL-26             Carlos Curbelo
3. CA-21            David Valadao
4. VA-10            Barbara Comstock
5. MN-3            Eric Paulsen
6. CO-6             Mike Coffman
7. CA-39            Ed Royce
8. CA-49            Darrell Issa
9. IL-6                Peter Roskam
10. CA-25            Steve Knight
11. CA-45            Mimi Walters
12. AZ-2              Marth McSally
13. NY-24           John Katko
14. TX-23            Will Hurd
15. WA-8            Dave Reichert
16. CA-10            Jeff Denham
17. PA-7              Pat Meehan
18. Tx-32            Pete Sessions
19. CA-48           Dana Rohrbacher
20. TX-7              John Culberson
21. KS-3             Kevin Yoder
22. NJ-7              Leonard Lance
23. PA-6             Ryan Costello

There are 9 Senators that we think are movable.

1. AK   Linda Murkowski
2. AR   Tom Cotton
3. AZ   Jeff Flake
4. ME  Susan Collins
5. NV  Dean Heller
6. OH  Rob Portman
7. WV Shelley Moore Capito
8. LA   Bill Cassidy
9. CO  Cory Gardner

 
NOTE:  Every member of Congress, Republican and Democrat, needs to hear from their constituents to stop this bill, so that they don't just vote but lead the effort to stop this bill in Washington.
 
We have 18 days to save the ACA.
This is a health care emergency.  Every day of delay is a win.
 ​
THE PLAN

Congressional Stakeouts to Save Health Care (Moveon.org/Stakeout)

The Missoula Health Care Town Hall was held in solidarity with multiple events held around the state and hundreds of events nationwide.  The event was sponsored by progressive organizations Missoula Rises; March On, Montana; Montana Women Vote; Planned Parenthood; the Democratic Socialists of America, and Blue Mountain Clinic, and included speakers from various local organizations.

Data Points:

• 20 percent of Montanans were uninsured in 2012
• 6 percent of Montanans are uninsured in 2017
• 100,000 Montanans are covered because of the ACA
• 50 percent of Montana's population is covered by the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Cost of Repealing the Affordable Care Act

• 142,000 Montanans would lose their health insurance
• 10,000 Montanans would lose their jobs

Montana Sen. Steve Daines declined to comment for the forum.
Montana Sen. John Tester provided a letter that was read aloud. Tester wrote that a vote to repeal the ACA is a vote to return to the same broken system of the past, when "families couldn't afford to get sick." 

Missoulian article:  http://bit.ly/2lHN18d

Event sponsored by the Gallatin Progressive Action Network (GPAN)

Many Montanans struggle to afford healthcare while the shareholders and CEOs of for-profit health care corporations make millions of dollars every year. Join other Montanans in sending a message to Senator Daines that if he wants to change the ACA, he should propose legislation that requires all health care corporations to be nonprofit. Montana already has nonprofit health insurance companies and passing legislation that requires them all to be nonprofit will level the playing field and reduce health care costs by eliminating the financial incentive to deny claims. Tell Senator Daines to put people over profit: protect health care and Montanans!

The rural health care crisis is not an alternative fact. One of the things that would be eliminated from a total repeal of the ACA is considerable federal funding of rural health care system.

Event details here:   http://billingshumanists.org/index.php/events/

This is a good site with good resources.
https://www.ruralhealthweb.org/
​
This is the article that started our conversation.
http://wapo.st/2kfoi7z

##FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE##
 
Concerned Montana Citizens to Hold Town Hall Meeting to Save Our Healthcare 
 
In solidarity with nationwide rallies in support of the Affordable Care Act, several organizations are coming together in Missoula this weekend to sponsor a Town Hall Meeting to save our healthcare.   The event will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 25, 2017 at the Senior Center, 705 South Higgins.  
 
In the face of GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), roll back expanded Medicaid, and diminish access to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), citizens are gathering to get up-to-the minute information on policy proposals and challenges, and get involved in efforts to defend their health insurance.  
 
Sponsored by Missoula Rises, March On, Montana (formerly, the Women’s March on Montana), Montana Women Vote, Planned Parenthood, the Democratic Socialists of America and Blue Mountain Clinic, the event will include both an educational and an organizational component.  
 
To provide information about how alternative Administration proposals will affect Montanans, the event will include the following speakers: Denver Henderson, organizer for SEIU Local 755, Sarah Howell of Montana Women Vote, Anna Whiting Sorrell, Director of Operations, Policy and Planning at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Health Department and Vicky Byrd, Executive Director of the Montana Nurses Association.  The event will also include two speakers who will share their personal stories on the role that new access to health insurance has played in their lives. 

Senator Tester is unable to join us, but will provide a written statement.  Senator Daines has been invited.  
 
The event will also provide ways for people to get involved in efforts to defend their access to health care.  It will include tables for people to share their personal storieswith healthcare advocates, training and practice in mobilizing personal stories for policy change, space to call Montana’s Congressional Delegation and advocate for continued healthcare access.  It will also provide written information about organizations and unions involved in health care and health care worker advocacy.  

https://www.facebook.com/events/1092830774176965/

Rachel Maddow spent the first 30 minutes tonight talking about Montana.

• Montana voters want a town hall with Senator Daines, and he is hiding from us.
• Montana state GOP wants to suppress the vote.
• Interview with Governor Bullock, who said "Every Montanan is exactly equal" and "We sure shouldn't spend more money to get fewer people voting."

Watch the episode and see your friends on tv!

​THANK YOU to so many people!  Phone calls. Rallies.  More rallies. Airport visits. Posters.  This is a shared achievement by thousands of regular Montanans who care enough to show up and do what they can.  Montana.  Together.