Capt. BJ Honeycutt's for Single-Payer Healthcare
Published April 08, 2009 @ 02:04PM PT
Mike Farrell, star of "M*A*S*H," has recorded five PSAs for single-payer healthcare in order to raise awareness and support Health Justice's fax Congress campaign.
Check out the video, then easily fax Congress.
Your Ass isn't Covered!
Published April 08, 2009 @ 01:53PM PT
This week the Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition (PHIMG), including member organizations Healthcare-NOW!, and Act Up!, launched the "Not Covered" Campaign with overwhelming success.
Putting Bill Maher’s recent words into action, “Health insurance is like a hospital gown, chances are your ass isn’t covered,” bare-bottom protesters wore hospital gowns and dressed as Insurance Executives. The protesters jumped through hoops held by the insurance executives symbolizing the proverbial hoops that doctors, nurses, and patients have to go through in the current corporatized health insurance system.
PHIMG, Healthcare-NOW!, Progressive Democrats of America, and Act Up! marched in lock step on Saturday, April 4th with United for Peace and Justice and Bail Out the People through Wall St. to support strengthening the workforce by urging Congress to pass HR676, expanding Medicare into a single-payer system, to provide true universal health care to all.
On the following Monday, PHIMG brought the Not Covered Campaign to Congressman Charles Rangel’s office, whose 2008 campaign received three times the amount of campaign contributions from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies as his last run in ‘04, while conveniently not cosponsoring HR 676 for single-payer health care, as he has in the past.
The group also had a list of demands including meeting with him, cosponsoring the bill, using his power as the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee to hold single-payer health care hearings, and including single-payer advocates - not just the health insurance corporations in the national health care dialog Obama’s administration is so open to having. Barack Obama also supported single-payer health care before his run for President made his campaign the top recipient of contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry.
The group received confirmation that Rangel does support HR 676, and just hasn't signed on yet. Advocates and constituents look forward to a long sought meeting with Rangel's staff next week.
The Not Covered Campaign will be in full swing all summer long calling out the Congresspersons that let campaign contributions stand in the way of providing all citizens with single-payer health care - one by one. It’s critical that citizens act now and push Congress to pass HR 676 before inadequate reform maintaining corporate interests over patients passes. Join the fight for single-payer health care now!
Thanks to Josh Starcher for writing this report.
Your Ass Isn't Covered! April 6, 2009 from TakePart With Ideas for Change on Vimeo.
Photo by Kat Starcher.
"National Lessons for Health Reform: An Examination of US Health Insurance"
Published March 23, 2009 @ 12:38PM PT
The Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, along with Healthcare-NOW!, is preparing for the third Congressional briefing in Washington, DC titled “National Lessons for Health Reform: An Examination of US Health Insurance.”
Thanks to the phone calls, faxes, and emails, the last briefing on Feb. 25 had an unprecedented number of healthcare staffers in the room. The turn out was phenomenal.
We need your help again to get calls into your Representatives and urge them to attend the next event. You can find your Representative's phone number here, or you can easily email them here.
Encourage your Members of Congress and their staff to attend the forum on “National Lessons for Health Reform: An Examination of US Health Insurance," April 1st, 2-4pm in 2226 Rayburn House Office Building.
Please circulate this request to your local coalition and organizations.
Here is a link to the invitation. This forum is open to the public, and an RSVP is highly recommended.
Also, thanks to the combined support of activists and supporters in-district and the work being done in Congress, we now have 69 Cosponsors on HR 676 as of today!
Single-Payer Supporters at Vermont Health Forum
Published March 18, 2009 @ 11:06AM PT
We're organizing rallies at all the Presidential Health Forums. The next forums are in Des Moines, Iowa (March 23rd), Greensboro, North Carolina (March 31st), and Los Angeles, California (April 6th).
Yesterday, single-payer advocates rallied at the Presidential Health Forum in Vermont. Over 200 single payer advocates attended a rally initiated by Dr. Deb Richter, PNHP, outside of the White House regional forum, hosted by the Governors of Vermont and Massachusetts.
These are some initial press reports:
Hopes, Fears At Vermont Health Care Forum
NPR
Single-payer advocates plan to protest health care forum
Rutland Herald
Douglas, Patrick co-host health care forum
NECN.com
Protesters Rally Outside Health Forum
WCAX-TV
Single-payer health care system touted
Burlington Free Press
Rep. John Conyers Discusses Health Summit, Single-Payer
Published March 12, 2009 @ 02:16PM PT
Last weekend, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) visited Philadelphia, PA to discuss the state of HR 676 (The National Health Care Act, which he authored), single-payer, and his visit to the Presidential Health Summit on March 5th.
Despite being almost left out of the Health Summit, due to an "oversight," Rep. Conyers seems confident that single-payer's time will come.
Here's the full video of his talk. I apologize for it being so shaky at the beginning.
Rep. John Conyers Discusses HR 676 in Philadelphia from TakePart With Ideas for Change on Vimeo.
Single-Payer Groups Protest Health Insurance Lobby
Published March 11, 2009 @ 01:35PM PT
Members of Healthcare-NOW!, California Nurses Association, and PNHP, joined Congressman Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) on Monday to protest the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade group for the health insurance industry, conference at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, DC.
The Huffington Post covered the event, and produced this video.
One small step for single-payer
Published March 06, 2009 @ 12:38PM PT
One giant leap back for universal healthcare
The single-payer movement can claim a minor victory this week.
Last week, one single-payer advocate was invited to yesterday's presidential health summit. But because of an outcry of support, and a threatening demonstration by Physicians for a National Health Program, three (Rep. John Conyers, Penn. Steelworkers Union President Leo Gerard, and PNHP president Dr. Oliver Fein) were eventually invited.
For that we can be proud.
But, as the Health summit events proved, we still have work ahead of us. There wasn't the wide-rage of viewpoints involved that President Obama promised; and why isn't he talking about universal coverage anymore?
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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