If you are not familiar with this phrase, you probably have not been checking your Facebook and Twitter accounts today.
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status for the rest of the day.
Call it a victory for electronic chain activism. (Even Zach Braff is on board.) But where did it all come from?
I’m not sure the first poster, but the language is not hard to track. For weeks, Obama has been using the phrase about going broke for getting sick. “Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or lifetime, and we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses – because no one in America should go broke just because they get sick,” Obama said on August 14, in his weekly radio/Youtube address.
So who started it? Not clear. Groups like MoveOn.org–when not distancing itself from protest finger biting–are clearly pushing it forward. But then that’s the thing with this sort of viral marketing. Once it gets going, it doesn’t really matter where it began.
In the meantime, we can look forward to more. Something about Van Jones, perhaps? Pass it on.
UPDATE: Via Jonathan Singer at MyDD, those who want to watch the activism virus spread can go here.