Health Care Reform: Join the War Room Fight Now and Beat the Tea Baggers

(Left: Robert Williams joined the 'Rally Against Insurance Corporations' on Sept. 22, 2009 in Miami, FL. Photo credit: Joe Raedle, Getty Images. )

Updated Nov. 8, 2009: Yesterday the House of Representatives voted 220-215 in favor of passing a health care reform bill. However, a similar measure in the Senate faces an uphill battle. Find out below how you can still help get health care reform passed in Congress. The hotline mentioned below will still be in operation.

Despite pessimism by some leaders in Congress, health care reform still has a chance to pass before the year is out. That's why the tea-baggers have been making so much noise this week at the Capitol, where the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a health care reform bill as early as Saturday, Nov. 7. They want to kill the legislation and end any chance of universal health care.

So how about you? Are you willing to let that happen, despite the fact that black people are less likely to have health insurance and on average spend a higher percentage of their income on health care? "Most African Americans and others know someone who has died unnecessarily due to our broken health care system," says NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Jealous. "We need heath care reform that provides access to affordable comprehensive health insurance coverage for all Americans, and that can't be done without a strong public option."

If you agree you can make your voice heard on health care reform without heading down to D.C. -- in fact, without leaving your home. The NAACP has joined forces with the National Urban League, National Council of Black Mayors, National Coalition for Black Civic Participation, and others under the banner of the Black Leadership Forum, to create a telephone hot line that will connect you directly with your elected official's office. Call 1-866-783-2462 this weekend, and follow the instructions to be connected with your lawmaker's office. Then tell them that you want health care reform with a public option passed before year's end. If you'd rather do it online, visit the NAACP's 880 Campaign web site.

The black organizations have also created a "war room" on K Street in Washington, DC, with phone banks to get the word out about the hotline and the need to speak out now. Among those in the war room this week were Rep. Barbara Lee (D, California).

"Grass roots mobilization helped elect the first African American to the presidency of the United States of America," says Lee. "Grass roots activism will help...ensure that America has, as our policy, that health care is a basic civil right and not a privilege." Hear more of what Lee had to say above, in a video provided to Black Voices by the NAACP.

In the video below, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus, shares why he's in the war room.