Beyond Coverage: Putting People First in Pennsylvania’s Healthcare System

This report, Beyond Coverage: Putting People First in Pennsylvania’s Healthcare System, tells the story of Pennsylvania’s healthcare system from the perspective of the people of the state. Through surveys of over 300 people in 43 counties and stories from five courageous individuals, Beyond Coverage reveals the critical ways in which the state’s private, for-profit insurance system is failing to […]

What Is a Human Rights Narrative and How Can It Help Create Change?

This fact sheet describes the components of a human rights narrative and how it can be used to counter dominant narratives that deny people’s rights and maintain systems of oppression. A human rights narrative reflects shared values that unify people around a positive vision for transformative change.

Spokesperson Training

This training presentation prepares participants for talking to the media, with the goal of developing them into effective spokespeople for the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign.

Quick Guide for Planning an HCHR Media Spectacle

This short guide sets out 5 steps, along with a checklist of criteria, for planning a campaign action in a way that generates media coverage.

A People’s Budget: Our Voice, Our Needs, Our Rights

This short video, produced by NESRI in collaboration with the Vermont Workers’ Center and their People’s Budget Campaign, explains how public budgets work now, and how they can and should work based on people’s voices, needs and rights. The People’s Budget Campaign won a law requiring Vermont to develop a budget that addresses needs, advances […]

Stories Project – Guide to Getting Video Testimonies

This guide, produced by the Vermont Workers’ Center, provides best practices for collecting Healthcare Is a Human Right video testimonials that speak to both personal struggles with the current health care system as well as visions for a universal health care system.

Letters to the Editor Writeathon

This online Letter to the Editor form, featured on the Vermont Workers’ Center’s website, offers useful tips for writing letters to the editor and the ability to submit letters directly to Vermont media outlets.

Letters to the Editor Worksheet

This worksheet, produced by the Vermont Workers’ Center, provides an easy to use template for writing a Healthcare Is a Human Right letter to the editor. The Vermont Workers’ Center’s website also features an online Letter to the Editor form that offers useful tips for writing letters to the editor and the ability to submit […]

The People’s Media Project: Media and Communications in the Movement

This article describes the Vermont Workers’ Center’s approach to media and communications. Amongst the many themes it addresses are how the VWC thinks about making media, the role movement media plays in shifting public discourse and creating a shared vision based on human rights principles, and how media makers are also organizers.

Healthcare is a Human Right Rally – Audio Slideshow May Day 2009, Vermont

This video features photos from the Vermont Workers’ Center’s 2009 May Day rally for the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, paired with audio from interviews and speeches at the rally.

Picture Healthcare as a Human Right: Every Face Has a Story

This video features people from around the state holding Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign signs in a show of solidarity.

Voices of Maryland’s Healthcare Crisis and the Rising Human Rights Movement

This report from HCHR-MD and NESRI documents Maryland’s healthcare crisis and highlights the HCHR campaign. The report draws on HCHR-MD’s survey and the stories of several Maryland residents.

Video of Healthcare Is a Human Right Leaders in Frederick County, Maryland

In this 5-minute video, residents of rural Frederick County, Maryland, talk about why they’ve joined Healthcare Is a Human Right – Maryland.

Policy Background and Templates for Letters to the Editor on Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Expansion

This tool was designed to help Pennsylvania residents write letters to the editor about Governor Tom Corbett’s harmful Healthy PA proposal in 2014, which sought to expand Medicaid in Pennsylvania, but through through privatization. The tool includes tips on and templates for writing letters to the editor and policy background on Medicaid expansion under the […]

Toward Justice in Health Care Video

This video from the Southern Maine Workers’ Center highlights the Workers’ Center’s Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign. The video features footage from a public event co-sponsored with co-sponsored with the Portland NAACP “Toward Justice in Health Care: A Community Dialogue on Human Rights, Health Care, and the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

Growing the Healthcare Is a Human Right Movement, One State After Another

At the 2013 Left Forum in New York City, leaders from the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaigns in Vermont, Maine and Maryland presented their organizing model for achieving universal, publicly financed health care in their states. Moderated by NESRI, panelists discussed their collaboration, lessons learned, and how to expand this movement to other states.

Campaigns for the Human Right to Healthcare: Stories from Struggles

At the US Social Forum (Detroit in June 2010), Rishi Manchanda from the South Los Angeles Coalition for Health and Human Rights, Kim Abbott from the Montana Human Rights Network, Peg Franzen from the Vermont Workers’ Center, and Anja Rudiger from NESRI discuss approaches, challenges, victories, and lessons learned in their struggles for human right […]

Peg Franzen Tribute Video

NESRI and the Poverty Initiative held an event at the Church Center of the United Nations in honor of Peg Franzen, a community leader who made an incalculable contribution to growing the movement for health care as a human right.

Healthcare Is a Human Right Roundtable Discussion Video – Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2013

On Human Rights Day, December 10th, 2013, NESRI and the Poverty Initiative held an event at the Church Center of the United Nations in honor of Peg Franzen, a community leader who made an incalculable contribution to growing the movement for health care as a human right. At the event Laura Flanders of GRITtv facilitated […]

The Time Is Now! Equitable Healthcare Financing for Vermont, Explained in Under 3 Minutes!

This short video gives a concise explanation of the Vermont Campaign’s equitable financing plan for universal healthcare.

Healthcare Is a Human Right MayDay Rally

On May 1st, 2009, the Vermont Workers’ Center brought the human right to health care to the nation’s attention with its first large Mayday rally at the Statehouse in Montpelier. The Healthcare is a Human Right rally was endorsed by over 100 organizations, including NESRI, faith and labor leaders, and other national and state-based organizations. […]

Vermont Workers’ Center Video Submission to the UN’s Universal Periodic Review

This 1 minute video clip was prepared by the Vermont Workers’ Center for the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, to see why Vermont’s health care system does not meet human rights standards.

Vermonters Stand Up Against Insurance Profiteering

This short video presents some of the ways in which for-profit insurance companies take advantage of people and encourages watchers to join the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign.

Fighting for Universal Healthcare at the State Level: Vermont Workers’ Center Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign

Because the federal health reform package fails to make health care truly universal and equitable, human right to health care advocates across the country are pushing their state legislatures to implement more effective and comprehensive measures at the state level. In Vermont, for example, the Vermont Workers’ Center’s Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign has […]

Vermonters Demand an Equitable Health System

As a universal, equitable health care system is within reach for Vermonters, the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign (run by the Vermont Workers’ Center) has released this short video of Vermonters demanding an equitable health care system. The Vermont legislature is considering a bill for a roadmap to a single-payer system in Vermont.

A People’s Struggle for Universal Healthcare

A universal health care system that’s accountable to the people is now within Vermonters’ reach. The Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign (run by the Vermont Workers’ Center) has released this short video of Vermonters demanding an accountable health care system. The video is part of a series, all featuring Vermonters calling for a new […]

Vermont Workers’ Center: How we Won Healthcare for All

Vermont Workers’ Center organizers Mary Gerisch, Kate Kanelstein and Sarah Weintraub visit Oregon and talk about the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign and how the campaign succeeded in bringing universal health care to their state.

VT Breakthrough! How the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign Is Winning a Healthcare System that Puts People First

This video tells the story of a successful grassroots campaign organizing for our human rights. This video is co-produced by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and the Vermont Workers’ Center, with thanks to Media Mobilizing Project, Nate Adams and Mindi Mumaw. Music provided by: “Shovel Ready” by Flat Top Trio, Jeremy Sicely […]

Economists Throw Weight Behind Universal Health Care in Vermont

This article in Common Dreams reprints the open letter from economists to Vermont legislature calling for universal, publicly financed healthcare. The article concludes that “Thursday’s letter indicates that the grassroots movement has not lost momentum.”

Can’t Afford Not to Act

In this op-ed, a Vermont nurse speaks out about how the current healthcare system fails to meet her patients’ needs.

29 Arrested After Statehouse Protest

The Burlington Free Press covers the Vermont State House sit-in. The article highlights legislators’ perspectives on the protests as well as Vermont Workers’ Center President James Haslam’s comments.

‘We Won’t Back Down’ — Vermonters Launch Sit-In At Statehouse Demanding Universal Health Care ‘Now!’

Common Dreams covers the Vermont State House sit-in demanding universal healthcare. The article highlights the protests in response to Gov. Shumlin’s abandonment of the universal healthcare agenda and gives background on the Healthcare Is a Human Right movement.

29 Arrested as Single-Payer Advocates Disrupt Vermont Gov. Shumlin’s Inauguration

Democracy Now speaks with Vermont Workers’ Center President James Haslam in their coverage of the Vermont State House sit-in demanding single-payer universal healthcare.

Vermont Workers’ Center at the Fore of Health Care Advocacy

This article provides coverage of the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign and specifically of the Vermont State House.

Sitting In for Healthcare

This op-ed was written by one of the 29 members of the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign who staged a sit-in in the Vermont State House and were arrested as a result. The author tells how he was personally affected by a healthcare system that doesn’t meet human rights standards, and calls on legislature […]

National Open Letter in Support of Universal, Publicly Financed Healthcare in Vermont

This open letter, signed by 70 organizations, urges Gov. Shumlin not to give up on universal, equitably financed healhtcare and calls on the Vermont legislature redouble their efforts to develop and agree on a public financing plan that advances equity and realizes Vermonters’ right to healthcare.

Statement on Governor’s Failure to Act on Universal Healthcare

This statement from the Vermont Workers’ Center responds to Gov. Shumlin’s failure to act on universal healthcare.

Moving Forward with Healthcare

In this op-ed Vermont Workers’ Center President James Haslam responds to Gov. Shumlin’s decision to abandon his commitment to single-payer universal healthcare.

Open Letter from Economists for Universal, Publicly Financed Healthcare

This letter, signed and submitted by over 100 economists, states that universal, publicly financed healthcare is not only economically feasible but highly preferable to a fragmented market-based insurance system.

Despite Setbacks, Vermont Grassroots Campaign Pushes for First-in-Nation Single Payer Health Care System

Between the Lines interviews Anja Rudiger, NESRI Director of Programs, about the equitable financing proposal released by the Vermont Healthcare Is a Human Right Campain.

Why Universal Health Care Is Essential for a More Equitable Society

This article explains why the current healthcare system is exacerbating inequality in our society and how public healthcare financing can help change this. It uses the equitable healthcare financing plan introduced by Vermont’s Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign to illustrate why healthcare is a matter of equality.

Healthcare Is a Human Right: Lessons from the Vermont Model

In this 2014 Left Forum presentation, NESRI’s Anja Rudiger sums up the strategic lessons from Vernont’s Healthcare Is a Human Right movement and explains the domino strategy of health care wins across the country.

Grassroots Campaigns for Universal Health Care Are Changing What’s Politically Possible

This In These Times article covers the movements for universal, single-payer healthcare in Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

The Fight for Health Care Justice Moves to States

LaborNotes reports on the groundswell of state-by-state organizing for universal, publicly financed healthcare, citing the leadership of the Vermont Workers’ Center in building a winning model.

Op-Ed: New Solution for Universal Healthcare

This article examines how the Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) creates an opportunity to reevaluate healthcare reform — and explains how Vermont’s human rights model for healthcare reform meets people’s fundamental needs in a way that the ACA’s market-based model cannot.

The Medicine for America’s Healthcare Headache Lies in Vermont

This Alternet article tracks the history of the movement for single-payer, universal healthcare in Vermont.

Bernie Sanders: Healthcare is a Right Not a Privilege

In this article, Senator Bernie Sanders affirms healthcare as a right and states that “at the end of the day, as difficult as it may be, the fight for a national health care program will prevail. Like the civil rights movement, the struggle for women’s rights and other grass-roots efforts, justice in this country is […]

Huff Post: Health Reform Law Fails to Meet Human Rights

Amidst the celebrations of a ‘historical moment,’ a healthy dose of realism seems in order as we assess the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the related reconciliation measures.

The Battle of the Story Matrix – Healthcare Is a Human Right

This chart uses the Battle of the Story framework to analyze the issue of healthcare and reframe the narrative around the idea that healthcare is a human right.

The Battle of the Story Worksheet

This exercise, created by the Center for Story-Based Strategy, is intended to help grassroots activists analyze the current narrative climate around an issue and create more compelling narratives to communicate their campaigns. The Vermont Workers’ Center used this exercise in developing their narrative strategy in the lead up to their universal health care victory in […]

The People’s Media Project: Media and Communications in the Movement

This article provides an introduction to the Vermont Worker’s Center’s approach to media and communications.

Voices of Vermont’s Economic Crisis: The Challenge to Put People First

This report details the unmet needs of Vermonters, describes how current systems are violating their human rights, and presents a vision for moving towards a more democratic and accountable government that prioritizes the needs and rights of the people.

Voices of the Vermont Healthcare Crisis: The Human Right to Healthcare

This report introduces the concept of healthcare as a human right and documents human rights abuses in the Vermont healthcare system.

Frequent Messaging Mistakes

This document explains common mistakes in campaign messaging and provides more effective alternatives.