Single-Payer Actions Planned in over Fifty Cities
Published May 29, 2009 @ 10:56AM PT
Activists of every stripe take to the streets to support single-payer
As the Obama administration calls for health reform to be done this year, people in support of improved Medicare for all, a single-payer national health system, take to the streets in over 50 cities around May 30th. Single-payer advocates support the removal of for-profit insurers from providing basic health care, which would create enough savings, an estimated $400 billion a year, to guarantee health care to all. The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that single-payer is not being considered as an option for reform.
Town hall meetings, protests at insurance companies, rallies in state capitols, and vigils in memory of the 22,000 people who die each year because they lack health insurance will be taking place across the country. Members of Healthcare-NOW!, Progressive Democrats of America, the California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, and the Green Party have largely mobilized around the day of action under the umbrella of the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, a coalition of national organizations supporting national single-payer legislation.
Real News Network: Single-payer advocates protest Senate hearing
Published May 08, 2009 @ 11:20AM PT
The Real News Network put together an amazing video on the eight single-payer advocates who were arrested at the Senate Roundtable on health reform.
Single-Payer Advocates Disrupt Senate Hearing
Published May 05, 2009 @ 11:59AM PT
May 5, 2009 Washington DC –- Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer system--also known as Improved Medicare for All--directly confronted Senators at the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on health reform today.
The single payer advocates wanted to know why single-payer experts were being excluded from the roundtable of fifteen witnesses.
The doctors said that a publicly funded, privately delivered single-payer system is the only solution to the crisis plaguing our nation’s non-system of health care. It covers everyone, and contains costs.
“Why isn’t single-payer at the table today?” they asked.
Despite polling that shows a clear majority of public and physician support for a single-payer system, Senator Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee has stated on multiple occasions that single-payer is “off the table” of health reform.
Today’s round table, the second of three, consists of 15 witnesses with no single-payer advocates.
Doctors and activists representing a coalition of single-payer advocacy organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare-NOW!, Single Payer Action, Private Health Insurance Must Go, the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics, Prosperity Agenda, and Health Care for the Homeless dressed in black in memory of the 22,000 people who die every year due to lack of health insurance.
They spoke out at today’s Senate Finance Committee Hearing one after another during the opening comments of the discussion.
“Health insurance administrators are practicing medicine without a medical license,” said Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Chair of Maryland chapter PNHP. “The result is the suffering and death of thousands of patients for the sake of private profit. The private health insurance industry has a solid grip on patients, providers and legislators. It is time to stand up and declare that health care is a human right.”
Much to the frustration of Chairman Baucus, multiple disruptions demanding single-payer be on the table set the tone for the second of three roundtables on Health Reform by the Senate Finance Committee.
“The current discussion on health reform is political theater at its best. Our elected officials are hosting these events to go through the motions of what developing effective national health policy should look like. There is a big difference between getting health policy experts in the room and the witnesses here today who would profit the most from reform. That difference means our hard earned dollars will go to further insurance industry profits, not to guarantee health care to the American people,” states Katie Robbins, Assistant National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW!, representing thousands of citizens in support of single-payer health care.
“It’s a pretty spectacular display of raw political power,” said Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action. “The health insurance industry demands that not one of the fifteen people who testified today shall be a single payer advocate. And the industry gets what it wants. It’s time for the American people to storm the gates and demand – put single payer on the table.”
Single-payer is successfully implemented in the United States’ own Medicare system providing comprehensive care to the elderly, as well as in many of the best health care systems in the world. A single-payer system as embodied in legislation HR 676 and S 703 would provide guaranteed, quality care to all Americans at the same cost of our current system.
Single-payer advocates will continue to use direct actions and nonviolent civil disobedience to urge the inclusion of a publicly-funded, privately delivered system.
Other methods of communication with elected officials have failed in delivering the demand for single-payer national health care as evidenced by the exclusion of single-payer advocates from official hearings on health reform.
State Legislators Launch Effort to Push HR 676
Published May 04, 2009 @ 02:02PM PT
A group of state legislators has initiated a nationwide effort to publish an Appeal to President Obama and members of the 111th Congress to support HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced in Congress by Representative John Conyers, Jr. and 75 co-sponsors.
Twenty four state legislators, from 16 states, have sent a copy of the Appeal to all 7,500 state legislators in the United States asking them to add their names to The Appeal which will be published in Roll Call, a widely read Capitol Hill publication.
The legislators, in their letter, cite the growing “economic crisis” and “badly strained” state budgets as the reason why they are asking “The U.S. Congress … to heal our hemorrhaging state budgets while bringing comprehensive quality health care to all our people, by passing HR 676….”
Co-conveners of the campaign are State Senator Jim Ferlo of Pittsburgh and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried of New York. Senators and representatives from Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and
Wisconsin also signed the letter.
Kay Tillow, Coordinator of the All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care—HR 676, welcomed the effort by these state legislators and urged everyone to contact their own state senator and representative and ask them to sign the Appeal.
“State legislators,” Tillow said, “are caught in a vice of escalating healthcare costs, driven largely by the for-profit insurance industry and declining revenues. Without a national single payer system, state budgets will continue in crisis and health needs will not be met.”
The ‘Dear Colleague” letter, the ‘Appeal’ and other materials can be found at: http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/state-legislators/
“Dems Have Super-Majority To Demand Single-Payer Universal Health Care”
Published May 01, 2009 @ 11:21AM PT
On The Ed Show, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders talks about the Arlen Specter defection to the Democrats, and how the grassroots now has to rise up and demand single-payer universal health care if they want it.
Make Single-Payer Part of Senate Roundtable Discussions
Published April 28, 2009 @ 10:27AM PT
We need your help getting a single-payer supporter into Senate Finance Committee roundtable discussions on healthcare reform.
The Finance Committee (Led by Sen. Max Baucus - MT) is holding three roundtable discussions on healthcare reform in the coming weeks.
The first discussion, titled "Reforming America's Health Care Delivery System," on April 21st, had thirteen witnesses.
Aetna was there. Blue Cross Blue Shield was there. But not one single-payer supporter was invited.
This is unacceptable. We need to make sure our representatives respond to the demands of the people. Together, let's put the Senate Finance Committee to the test and demand they include single-payer experts at the upcoming Roundtable discussions on health reform.
The next two discussions are on May 5th ("Increasing access to health care coverage") and May 14th ("Financing comprehensive health care reform").
The following Senators are in the Finance Committee. Please, only contact your Senator, and ask them to invite a single-payer supporter to these discussions (sample script and email below). They only want to hear from their constituents.
- Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln - (202)-224-4843 - Email
- Delaware: Thomas Carper - (202) 224-2441 - Email
- Florida: Bill Nelson - (202) 224-5274 - Email
- Massachusetts: John Kerry - (202) 224-2742 - Email
- Michigan: Debbie Stabenow - (202) 224-4822 - Email
- Montana: Sen. Max Baucus - (202) 224-2651 - Email
- New Jersey: Robert Menendez - (202) 224-4744 - Email
- New Mexico: Jeff Bingaman - (202) 224-5521 - Email
- New York: Charles Schumer - (202) 224-6542 - Email
- North Dakota: Kent Conrad - (202) 224-2043 - Email
- Oregon: Ron Wyden - (202) 224-5244 - Email
- Washington: Maria Cantwell - 202-224-3441 - Email
- West Virginia: Jay Rockefeller - (202) 224-6472 - Email
Here is a sample letter or call script:
Dear Senator _______:
I am writing to you concerning the upcoming Senate Finance Committee (of which you are a member) roundtable discussions on healthcare reform being held on May 5th and May 14th.
I think you would agree that is very important these discussions include all healthcare reform points of view. So I was disappointed to see that the first roundtable discussion on April 21st did not include a proponent of national, single-payer healthcare.
National, single-payer healthcare is the only reform option that will both provide universal coverage, and contain skyrocketing healthcare costs. The majority of Americans and physicians support a national health insurance program like improved Medicare for everyone.
So I'm asking that you please invite a representative from Physicians for a National Health Program or the California Nurses Association to the next two roundtable discussions on May 5th and May 14th. You can call PNHP at 312-782-6006 or email them at info@pnhp.org. You can call CNA at 510-273-2200 or email them at govrelations@calnurses.org.
Single-payer experts from these can provide expert testimony to the effects single-payer will have on both access and financing. These voices must be heard.
Thank you for your time and attention on this very important issue.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME HERE]
[CITY, STATE, ZIP]
These campaigns have proven to work. On April 23rd Dr. Himmelstein (PNHP) was invited to testify before the HELP Subcommittee because of public pressure to include single-payer points of view.
May 30th: National Day of Action for Single-Payer Healthcare
Published April 24, 2009 @ 11:24AM PT
Healthcare-NOW!, along with the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care is organizing a national day of action on May 30 to support HR 676 and national, single-payer healthcare.
Single-payer activists will be gathering in over twenty cities around the country to say, "Healthcare, yes; Insurance companies, no," and to show solidarity with demonstrations at the AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans, a private health insurance lobby) conference in San Diego.
For more information, and to see if an action is being planned in your city, visit our May 30th page.
About Free Single Payer Health Care
Health Care is a fundamental human right. No one should have sell their house to pay for their mother's cancer. No one should have to choose between food and medicine.
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