Let’s strike while the iron’s hot, Wise Women.

Up until this point of the healthcare debate, I have kept quiet and remained on the comfortable sidelines, even though I support reform. My excuse? Not enough time and clearly insufficient passion.

Unfortunately, the people who most need increased access to healthcare are also relatively quiet. But, the reason for their silence is much more compelling: they are caught up in day-to-day efforts to keep their heads above water and deal with their own and their children’s health problems.

The result? The vocal opposition commands the airways with their distortions and scare tactics about healthcare reform. Ladies, it’s time to flex our muscles and make our opinions known.

Think you have no time? You can spend 30 minutes or less and have an impact. Think you don’t know enough? Do you think the people screaming about ‘death panels’ are uber-educated about the issues?!? No, way! They just care enough to voice their opinions.

YOU can influence one of the greatest policy issues of this decade with only a few minutes of your time. Here are some ways:

2 minutes or less: Stay on top of the healthcare debate and join the Health Action Network sponsored by Families USA, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing health care for all consumers. You’ll become educated and the number of  network participants will grow, demonstrating public interest in reform.

5 minutes or less: Click on the administration’s site dedicated to healthcare reform, HealthReform.gov, and express your support online.

10 minutes or less: Write your congressional representative via the House of Representatives site. You enter in your state/zip code and up pops a web form to contact your representative. Your message can be short and sweet – “Pass healthcare reform legislation now!”

20 minutes or less: Write your congressional representative or senator and make a more detailed plea for healthcare reform. Share a personal anecdote about how the current healthcare system has had an adverse impact on you, family or friends. Or, reference policies you would like to see in the final bill (”end pre-existing exclusions”). Don’t think you have to sound like an expert to be convincing. Congressional offices are bombarded with advocacy alerts from national organizations citing statistic after statistic; the only message you need to communicate is that healthcare reform is very important to you as a constituent.

25 minutes or less: Craft similar messages as above, print them out, and spend an extra 5 minutes finding envelopes and stamps to send via snail-mail. Old-fashioned letters have the “Hallmark” touch – they show you cared to send the very best. You can find the addresses of your legislators here.

** Bonus Points**: If you live in Maine, contact Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a key vote being lobbied by both sides of the aisle, and request her support for healthcare reform. Or, if you know someone from The Pine Tree State, consider asking them to reach out to Sen. Snowe; you can include the link to Sen. Snowe’s site to make it easier for them.

Finally, if you want to get fired up about healthcare reform, watch the video of PBS’s Bill Moyers talking with a former insurance company exec about the industry’s morally bankrupt practices. (Thanks to Wise Woman Stacy for sharing the link with us.)