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  1. Lynn Bakken

    Nurse Practitioners must be included and at the forefront of the change in America's Health Care program.  NPs can and do bring affordable primary and speciality health care to millions in this country. We are an integral part of the present safety net and must be included as we move forward to affordable health care for every American.
    Funding for NP education is a must as is equal pay for equal work. The AMA has held the governmet's forward motion on this hostage for too long. We can be and are a key to the answer.

    Suggested by Lynn Bakken on 01/18/2009 @ 03:33PM PT

  2. Gerard Lefevre

    We need a TV advertisement campaign to educate the misinformed folks that think single payer health care is socialized medicine and will result in long waits for care.  The commercials should include the following themes:

    1) show the horrors of our current health scare system with the facts to how many deaths and bankruptcies it is causing annually.

    2) several commercials with citizens from different countries praising their single payer health care systems and including negative comments about the US "for-profit" sytem.

    3) then we need commercials showing the benefits of HR 676 "Americare" (good suggestion Audrey Wyatt) single payer health care.  How big businesses, like the auto companies, would benefit from the reduced overhead of providing expensive health insurance to their current union emplyees and retirees.

    At the end of each commercial should be the web address to the "Americare" information web site and a plea to contact your representative and ask him/her to support HR 676.

    Suggested by Gerard Lefevre on 01/18/2009 @ 02:57PM PT

  3. susan braito

    In order to really pull off health care for all Americans there has to be inclusion of nursing home & in-home care.  The former usually requires the patient to use up all their own resources before getting any help with the bills and the latter is so much cheaper it's incredibly shortsighted to not include it. 

    Suggested by susan braito on 01/18/2009 @ 10:27AM PT

  4. Audrey Wyatt

    AMERICARE FOR AMERICANS!

    We've learned a lot from the Bush Administration and one important lesson learned is -- names matter.  I've been pushing the idea of using the name AMERICARE for single-payer healthcare, rather than Medicare for All as has been proposed.  This may seem minor but it is, indeed, very important.

    People can rally around the slogan "AMERICARE FOR AMERICANS" or "AMERICARE FOR AMERICA" and behind a slogan you can grow a movement.  An excellent example of this fact is the success of President-elect Obama and how his slogans rallied a movement behind him.  Of course, you must have substance.  And, like the President-elect, AMERICARE has substance.

    Please consider shifting the President-elect's healthcare plan to a single-payer plan.  It's the only thing that will really provide healthcare.  It's the only healthcare plan that will actually help the economy.  And it should be called AMERICARE because, as Americans, we care for all.

    Suggested by Audrey Wyatt on 01/18/2009 @ 09:23AM PT

  5. Mike Sauber

    I am strongly in favor of universal health care for all Americans. As a primary care physician for the past 31 years, my chief concern is that this health-care system allow me to care for my patients WITHOUT making me feel like the Russian worker I once heard years ago, who stated, "The government pretends to pay us and we pretend to work." I wish to continue caring for my patients with as little unnecessary government intervention as possible. Even now medicare is promoting activities that make Congress look good but make physicians do things that have little to do with actual health-care; not too different than the infamous unfunded mandates given to schools.

    Mike_the_doctor

    Suggested by Mike Sauber on 01/18/2009 @ 05:58AM PT

  6. Carl Gant

    We cannot call ourselves compassionate or even civilized until we have non-profit, no strings attached healthcare for all citizens.

    Suggested by Carl Gant on 01/18/2009 @ 02:55AM PT

  7. Lawrence Decoste

    I get free health care well I had to sign up for medicaid and medicare I am on disability I just had a heart Transplant august 28, 2008 and I am lucky to have this coverage. Some are not as fortunate as me however I am grateful. I think everyone deserves healthcare if you work in this country or for this country you deserve free healthcare or something close to it. I like the idea of  free single payer healthcare if you work you deserve to have a decent health plan given to you for free.

    Suggested by Lawrence Decoste on 01/17/2009 @ 07:22PM PT

  8. Patty McCredie



    Let's not quibble yet about what kinds of medical care will be covered.

    Alternative therapies are valuable, I think, and I use some of them. Good health practices of all kinds are essential for all of us to avoid sickness and keep costs down.

    However, can't we get single payer first and debate all this later? I'm worried that we might be dividing our precious vital fluids if we get into arguing about which alternative therapy should be covered. I'm into chiropractic, yoga, fresh diets, garlic (a lot), swimming, gyms, etc. But a few of the alternative therapies I've heard in this debate sound whacko to me. No offense. My point is if they sound whacko to a progressive Californian, how are they going to sound in Kansas or Wyoming???

    Therapies like chiropractic (often already covered), acupuncture, massage therapy, and any others for which a good case can be made that they produce good results without harm or side effects, should be considered and included right off the bat in the new single-payer system.  These wouldn't be a hard sell--not like the use of flower essences might be.

    I believe "mainstream" medical practices are more dangerous than most people realize. Let the patient (and caring others) beware.

    Suggested by Patty McCredie on 01/17/2009 @ 05:05PM PT

  9. Alan Weisbard

    Zeke Emanuel (M.D., Ph.D., currently head of the ethics program at NIH and about to move to the health care portfolio at OMB, also brother of Rahm) has written a short and accessible paperback on how to get there. The funding mechanism is a dedicated value added tax (akin to a national sales tax). It is worth a look.

    Suggested by Alan Weisbard on 01/17/2009 @ 02:26PM PT

  10. Michael Meiggs

    If we include mental health therapies, massage therapy, chiropractic, accupuncture, herbal medicine, and other healthcare systems that people use with good results, a Medicare system for all citizens would be great. There is more to healing and staying healthy than just drugs and surgery (these have their place in healthcare. but they should not be the only choices which are covered by a universal health plan). To truly be a universal healthcare system, it must include what the AMA likes to call "alternative" therapies (the co-called alternative or complementary therapies are safer and have been around for thousands of years, while the drugs and surgery system they call "traditional medicine" is relatively new and kills thousands of people every year). Thus, I want to see all kinds of healthcare included when we ask everyone to be a part of the Universal Plan. It should be universal in scope as well as participation. 

    Suggested by Michael Meiggs on 01/17/2009 @ 01:58PM PT

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