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Friday, July 31, 2009

Health The Stamp Act

Posted by Eli Sanders on Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 9:34 AM

This morning, NPR aired a great piece on how Jody Hall, owner of Seattle's Cupcake Royale, is fighting for national health care reform that includes a strong public option. Readers of The Stranger already know a bit about that, but this morning's piece brings up something else I've been meaning to mention. From a press release sent out today by a local small business group advocating for the public option:

This week, Hall began stamping each of her coffee cups with a toll-free number to Congress (1-877-264-4226) urging her customers to call Congress in support of health reform this year.

Her idea inspired other coffee shops and small business owners to join in promoting health reform to their customers. Coffee shops across the country have begun stamping their cups with the call Congress stamp designed for Hall’s store. Businesses who would like a free “Call Congress for Health Care” stamp can contact the WA Small Business for Secure Health Care Coalition at info@smallbusiness4health.org.

Photo of Jody Hall by Kelly O, and photo of cups via Joshua Welter.

Comments (14) RSS

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Um... Maybe the best "Health Care Reform" would be for people to eat fewer cup cakes...

Do cigarette manufactures and alcohol distillers intend to follow suite?

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me on July 31, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Don't eat so many damn cupcakes and you won't need as much healthcare.

Posted by DK on July 31, 2009 at 10:01 AM

Ever since the Renaissance, revolutions, political, artistic, or otherwise, have often been born in the presence of caffeine.

This is a welcome twist on the coffee-house-copycats-coffee-house trend.

Posted by Ackham on July 31, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Her idea inspired other coffee shops and small business owners to join in promoting health reform to their customers.

I wonder what kind of health care these shops offer their (probably) part-time employees? If any, this is a good way to shift the costs somewhere else. Also, I'm sure that if this passes, all the money they were paying in health care costs will be added into the barista's salary, right?

Posted by Banna

on July 31, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Jesus Christ Banana could you be more of a douche! Most small business owners, or at least most of the ones I have ever met, desperately want to offer their employees health care!

Unfortunately the cost of insurance are so out of hand they can afford either no or very very very very limited coverage.

Jody is doing all she can to try to improve the lives of her employees and honestly people all over the country and all you can do is shit on her. What have you done?

Posted by Chef Thunder on July 31, 2009 at 10:24 AM

Right on, Jody!

Posted by Eliza

on July 31, 2009 at 10:29 AM

@4 - She pays for all of her employees health care, which is completely awesome.

But you're right, all small business owners have a huge incentive to drop their coverage once a public option becomes available.

Posted by JF on July 31, 2009 at 10:29 AM

@5: I wasn't targeting this business in particular, what I'm saying is that this is a way to take the burden OFF of small businesses, so it's no surprise that they're for it. My only question was, for those who can currently afford to pay for health care, will the proceeds of shifting that cost off of their bottom line be shared with the employees via higher wages? What's so douchy about that?

Posted by Banna

on July 31, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Employer provided healthcare is a dead end.

Posted by dwight moody on July 31, 2009 at 10:57 AM

It's great that Ms. Hall offers health care to her employees. She's in the minority among businesses that small. But even small business owners who don't currently pay for health insurance for their employees have a dog in this fight. In many cases, THEY can't get health insurance or have to pay through the nose to get it.

Posted by keshmeshi on July 31, 2009 at 11:03 AM

I like to wait for when the anti-American unpatriotic neocons like the Club for Growth post their toll-free number and use that to phone Congress and ask them to vote against what the neocons want.

Then they pay the dime for my call and it works against them.

Oh, and single payer national health care as the public option for the win. We're all wusses here, anyway, so none of us deserve the win, can't even be bothered to picket our Senators who wuss out on us at the picnics and public events.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on July 31, 2009 at 12:23 PM

If we had a public option many of us locked into shitty jobs with health insurance could bounce to a job more to our liking without loosing access to affordable health care.

Posted by Summerisle

on July 31, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Doesn't the java jacket thing cover up the stamp?

Just sayin'.

Posted by The Great Tuna on July 31, 2009 at 2:54 PM

She can probably hire any barista or baker in the city because of it. It's a benefit: a reason to work there instead of somewhere else, and a way to hire folks who will create a better Cupcake Royale.

The real question is why commenters won't pay $0.25 more (her own cost estimate) for a cupcake made by a staff with health insurance (and probably more skilled staff, although just the former is probably reason enough).

This shouldn't be a collective cost, it should be a differentiator. I'd pay the difference and I suspect most people would. How about a "Our prices are $0.25 higher, and that goes straight to health insurance" sign?

Posted by troy on July 31, 2009 at 5:20 PM