Single-Payer Healthcare = One Nation, One Plan

The House of Representatives passed a health care bill (H.R. 3962) a week ago with a tight vote of 220-215. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats called it a victory. Many healthcare reform advocates across the country did not. Fortunately, for those disappointed with H.R. 3962, turning this bill into a law remains uncertain and buys them time to raise their voices during this serious debate.

From left to right: Karen Nezelek with Rebecca Elgie at a Potlucks and Politics group meeting that convenes every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8 p.m. above Autumn Leaves Bookstore on The Commons. Currently the group is working on state-wide senior action, holding discussions about H.R. 3962, and reviewing healthcare videos. All are welcome. The founders of Potlucks and Politics are Stephanie Dvorak (Sheila Dvorak’s sister) and Stephanie Agurkis. For more information: https://groups.google.com/group/potluck-and-politics?pli=1.

“We will not rest until every person who needs health care in America gets it! And the way to get that health care for everyone is Medicare for All!” These words were shouted by the coordinator of a protest on September 29, following the arrest of 17 people who sat on the floor of the interior lobby of the Aetna offices in New York City protesting Ronald A. Williams, the CEO of Aetna, who, this year, activists have stated, made 24 million dollars while people are dying because they can’t receive the treatments they need. [more]

We Asked Speaker Pelosi and President Obama for Universal Healthcare and Instead They Gave Us an Abortion Ban

Passage of HR 3962 is historic change in the wrong direction.

5 commentaries on the passed healthcare legislation.

Single Payer New York recommends a "no" vote on the proposed health care reform bill (HR3962) in the US Congress.

The bill falls far short of making health care a right. Tens of millions of Americans will still be denied adequate access to essential health care services. [more]

New York Now (National Organization For Women) calls for no vote on HR 3962

House Democrats allow Anti-Choice Democrats and Republicans to Use Women's Bodies as a Bargaining Chip in New Health Care Reform Package. For Shame! Tell our US Senators to Stand Strong for Women's Reproductive Rights. Take Action NOW! [more]

Congressman Dennis Kucinich after voting against H.R. 3962 addresses why he voted NO, stating:

"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system." [more]

Marcia Angell on the House Healthcare Bill

Well, the House health reform bill -- known to Republicans as the Government Takeover -- finally passed after one of Congress's longer, less enlightening debates. Two stalwarts of the single-payer movement split their votes; John Conyers voted for it; Dennis Kucinich against. Kucinich was right. [more]

A Response to "The House Public Plan: Yes, It's Worth It"
By Sarah K. Weinberg, MD

Jacob Hacker and Diane Archer ask us to believe that:

…health reform is much more likely to succeed with a public health insurance option, even one with negotiated rates, than if private insurers are left to run the show.

So a public plan that will be available to less than half the population and will attract maybe 2% as enrollees is going to have any effect at all on big insurers? I don't think so, and I'll bet the big insurers and their investors don't think so either. (United Health Group and Wellpoint stock prices are stable this morning.) In a remarkable paragraph, Hacker and Archer claim that private insurance premiums will be lower because sicker people will selectively enroll in the public plan: [more]

NY Rep. Tony Weiner Stands Up for Single Payer

Congressman Tony Weiner (D-NY), who represents NY's 9th District, including parts of Brooklyn and Queens, argues for Single Payer Health Care

Health Care Is a Human Right

Support a Single Payer Medicare for All type Program

Statement of the Faith and Hunger Network of NYS
275 State St., Albany NY 12210 – 518 434-7371 xt 1#
July 31, 2009

As members of the faith community in New York State, we call upon our national and state elected officials to recognize health care as a human right by creating a universal health care system that guarantees all Americans the right to quality health care regardless of their employment status, age, gender, race, wealth, marital status or national origin.

The belief that health care is a human right is supported by many faiths. Health care is a right, not a privilege or a commodity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights holds that every human being has the right to health, including health care.

To date, the "universal" health care proposals being advanced by the White House and Congressional leaders fall far short of making health care a human right. Access to health insurance is far different than guaranteeing health care. These various proposals would leave millions of people without adequate insurance. Meanwhile, even though leaders such as President Obama, Senators Schumer and Kennedy, and Governor Paterson all recognize that single payer would be the "best solution," they have so far refused to include it in the negotiations. This is wrong.

Protecting private insurance companies and their profits is incompatible with the effort to make health care a universal human right. [read more]

Advocates Call on Governor Paterson to Highlight Savings from Single Payer Health Care for All – Projected to Save $20 Billion annually by 2019

Groups Want State Lawmakers to Hold Hearings on Long-Delayed Universal Health Care Study

July 28, 2009
For More Info: Mark Dunlea, 518 434-7371 xt 1#
Dr. Richard Propp, 518 482-0420

(Albany, NY) Universal health care advocates today called upon the State Legislature and the Governor to organize a series of public forums and hearings around the state on the recently released study of the most cost-effective way to provide health care to all New Yorkers.

The groups also called upon the Governor to propose a single payer universal health care system for New York. The Governor was a long time sponsor of single payer as a State Senator.

The long awaited study, released late last Friday, concludes that a single payer Medicare for All type program is the most cost-effective way to provide health care to all New Yorkers. (A copy of the report is at http://www.partnership4coverage.ny.gov/) There will be a rally in DC this Thursday, July 30th, the 44th birthday of Medicare, to call for a national single payer plan. Groups in Albany will rally at 5 PM at 90 State St., the offices of the state insurance lobby group.

"While we believe this report understates the savings from single payer and overstates the benefits from the public-private hybrid models, we are pleased that it finds that single payer is the most cost-effective approach to provide quality health care to all New Yorkers. We hope the Governor will widely publicize its findings to influence the national debate. Unlike the recent studies by the Congressional Budget Office, this report examined the impact of health care proposals on all segments, namely, taxpayers, consumers and employers," said Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network and Co-Chair of Single Payer New York.

Hunger Action Network, along with Rekindling Reform, led the NY Universal Health Care Options Campaign that sought state funding to study the costs associated with various approaches to universal health care.

The report found that savings from single payer substantially increase over time. By 2019, the Urban Institute concludes that single payer would save $20 billion annually based on the report's projected 6% annual increase in baseline health care cost ($130 billion for single payer vs. $150.25 billion for present system). Single payer would cost $28 billion less annually than the public-private hybrid (e.g., expand public programs like Medicaid, a small public option, and a mandate to obtain insurance). The hybrid model had been a favorite of Governor Spitzer and his health care advisors.

Single payer would also cost $19 billion less annually by 2019 than the NY Health Plus proposal by Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried. NY Health Plus would automatically enroll all New Yorkers in Family Health Plus; however, employers could decide to opt out to purchase private insurances and a tax subsidy would be provided. [read more]

Public Option Advocates: Time to Come Home to Single Payer

By Mark Dunlea, Executive Director, Hunger Action Network of NYS
Co-Chair, Single Payer New York, 518 434-7371 xt 1#. dunleamark@aol.com

As the various public option proposals in Congress for national health care reform become weaker every day, there is still time for its proponents to support what they really believe in: a single payer, Medicare for all type program.

The architects of creating a "public option" as part of the push for national universal health care have always admitted that a single payer Medicare for All type programs was the best solution for America. It does the best job in controlling costs by eliminating the waste and bureaucracy of private health insurance while guaranteeing that every American would receive quality health care and have freedom of choice in selecting whom to receive health care services from.

The public option advocates – well-funded public interest groups and unions used to insider political wheeling and dealing – argued that the lesson from the 1993 defeat of the Clinton plan was that insurance companies were too powerful to defeat. Thus they had to abandon the best solution, single payer, to instead craft a proposal that would have a chance of passage by ensuring a continued large role for the present for-profit health insurance industry.

Their solution was to create an "800 pound gorilla" in the form of a public health insurance system that would provide quality and affordable health care coverage to more than one hundred million Americans. It would be large enough to operate efficiently and achieve cost savings. They argued that by setting up a fair fight between a public option and the private for-profit health insurance companies, over time the advantages of the public option – no profit margins, reduced paperwork and administrative costs, less marketing costs – would become clear. The public option would grow stronger, and under the best case scenario, either we would move to a single payer system or private for-profit health insurance would become a boutique industry serving the rich.

Before either House of Congress has adopted a specific plan, the public option 800 pound gorilla has turned into a five pound Chihuahua. And with four months or more of intense negotiations to take place among the nation's power players before a final deal is reached, the public option will only get weaker. [read more]

Health Care Reform: Congress Needs to Protect Americans, Not Insurance Companies

By Mark Dunlea, Executive Director, Hunger Action Network of NYS
Co-Chair, Single Payer New York, 518 434-7371 xt 1#

As Congress negotiates health care reform, Democratic leaders have put the interests of insurance companies ahead of the needs of American citizens.

If Americans want an affordable, quality health care system that enables consumers to choose whom they receive health care services from, private for-profit insurance companies must be eliminated. Michael Moore's movie SICKO correctly highlighted the problems with insurance companies rather than the problem of the uninsured. While the lack of health insurance is estimated to kill 18,000 Americans annually, for-profit insurance companies kill far more with their unreasonable denial and delay in approving treatment as they seek to maximize their profits.

The majority of Americans who file for bankruptcy do so due to high medical bills. Incredibly, 77% had private health insurance. They are shocked to discover that their policy failed to cover the high costs of their medical emergency. Having health insurance is no guarantee that you will receive needed health care – yet many politicians tend to equate the two.

Despite having some of the best doctors, nurses and hospitals in the world and spending twice as much per capita, the US "health care" system is routinely rated the worst among all the industrial countries. The World Health Organization ranks us 37th. We have higher infant mortality rates, lower life expectancy, fewer doctor visits and longer waiting times than the other industrial countries. The fact that fifty million Americans lack health insurance contributes to the poor performance of our health system. The central role of for-profit health insurance companies and their rules, paperwork and bureaucracy is the other major factor.

Some other industrial countries allow for supplemental insurance to cover options beyond core health care. But they do not allow the insurance companies to be for-profit and the firms are strongly regulated as to how they operate. In America, we allow for-profit insurance companies to dictate if and how health care will be delivered and paid for.

Democrats in Washington understand this but for a variety of reasons they have decided to protect the insurance companies. A major factor is the large campaign contributions made by insurance companies. Even Congressional members who don't receive huge payments from insurance companies worry about their significant political clout and decide to cut a deal with the insurance industry, supporting incremental changes, figuring half a loaf is better than nothing. They're wrong. [read more]

A Canadian's Perspective on US Health Care

Single Payer New York set up a table on June 20 and 21 at the Clearwater music festival. Hundreds of people came by to sign postcards to elected officials demanding single payer national health insurance. One of them was Andrea Sadler. She contacted us by email singlepayernewyork@gmail.com

Hello

I was at the Clearwater festival with my husband and was asked to share my experience with health care as a Canadian living in NY as a permanent residence.

Being a Canadian citizen living as a permanent resident, the worst thing about living in the USA is the lack of affordable healthcare. My husband and I are both self employed and we work hard as a professional storyteller/educator and a filmmaker/actress. We make a very decent living but can never see to make enough to pay for health care, let alone disability insurance, save for our retirement, save for a house or our daughter's education. Life in NY is expensive and with a debt that my husband incurred with the birth of his daughter 17 years ago, we never seem to have that $600-$1300 extra for health care. We are trying to pay off our debt and build our business.

I cannot believe the lies that some people are saying about the Canadian health care system to prevent a Single Payer health care. Firstly you do not have to wait for a year to get surgery if it is important for your life or death. Secondly, one will not be denied insurance because one is pregnant or there is a lump on one's throat (considered pre-existing conditions in USA), Thirdly, I will not go bankrupt if I have an accident or a disease develops. Lastly, you do not see people in the subway begging for money so they can live with prosthetics instead of having stumps as arms.

These are just four good reasons for the US to develop a system like Canada for example. These four examples are only 4 of many horror stories but happen to be from my experience here in the US. God forbid I fall ill or have an accident. I'd be happy to pay a percentage of my income for Single Payer Health Care.

I find the current system appalling and inhumane. Obviously it is greed that rules not the health needs of human beings.

Sincerely,

Andrea Sadler

Hold Out for Single Payer

By Nick Skala

The following remarks were presented to the Congressional Progressive Caucus on June 4.

Today the Congressional Progressive Caucus faces a choice. That choice is whether Members should maintain their unflinching support for single-payer, or to accede to intense political pressure to support the plan currently being developed in Congress under the direction of President Obama: a mandate for Americans to purchase an insurance plan from a massive new regulatory "exchange," with one plan potentially being a "public option."

The difference between these choices could not be more stark: single-payer has at its core the elimination of U.S.-style private insurance, using huge administrative savings and inherent cost control mechanisms to provide comprehensive, sustainable universal coverage.

The "public option" preserves all of the systemic defects inherent in reliance on a patchwork of private insurance companies to finance health care, a system which has been a miserable failure both in providing health coverage and controlling costs. [read more]

House Subcommittee Hearing on Single Payer

June 10, 2009

On Wednesday, June 10, the House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee held a hearing titled "Examining the Single Payer Health Care Option" at 10:30 AM in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

Witnesses included Marcia Angell, M.D, Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, Geri Jenkins, R.N., Co-President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H., National Board Advisor Physicians for a National Health Program.

Single-Payer Health Care Legislation, Part One
(1 hour 52 minutes)

Single-Payer Health Care Legislation, Part Two
(30 minutes)

New York State Single Payer Lobby Day Video

June 8, 2009

As part of the national week of action to make healthcare a human right in America, New York State single payer care advocates rally at the state Capitol on May 27.

State Senate Urges Congress to Enact Single Payer Health Care

US Sen. Schumer Urges CBO to Analyze Single Payer System

June 3, 2009

The New York State Senate passed a resolution (J2313 - full text here) today urging Congress to enact a single payer health care system (H.R. 676). Senator Neil Breslin (Albany), chair of the Senate Insurance Committee, was the lead sponsor. The resolution was co-sponsored by Senators Addabbo, Diaz, Duane, Espada, Hassell-Thompson, Onorato, Schneiderman, Stavisky, and Thompson.

The State Assembly last year passed a similar resolution in support of HR 676 sponsored by Assemblymembers Ortiz and Gottfried. New York is the second state after Maine to have both houses of the State legislature pass a resolution in favor of a federal single payer health care program. Several other states have had at least one state legislative chamber pass such a resolution. The California state legislature has twice passed bills to create a state single payer system only to have it vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. [read more]

Groups Urge State and Federal Officials to Make Health Care a Human Right by Adopting A Single Payer Health Care System

May 27, 2009

A hundred single payer universal health care advocates rallied in the rain today at the state Capitol today as part of a national week of action to make healthcare a human right in America.

The groups, in town for a statewide lobby day on single payer health care, called upon the Governor and state legislative leaders to enact a single payer health care system for New York. A majority of state lawmakers, including the Governor and State Comptroller, have sponsored single payer legislation. The Governor long delayed report on universal health care is due to be released in the next few months; the groups want Paterson to recommend a single payer system.

The groups also urged the State Senate to join the State Assembly in passing a resolution introduced by Sen. Neil Breslin urging Congress to adopt HR 676, the federal single payer Medicare for All bill. So far the White House and top Congressional leaders have refused to allow single payer to even be discussed, despite the fact that has more sponsors in Congress than any other universal health care proposal. President Obama, who advocated for single payer as a State Senate, continues to say that single payer would be the best health care system for America "if we were starting from scratch". A single payer option is supported by a majority of doctors, nurses, general public and health care experts.[more]

Albany Times-Union Calls for Single-Payer Healthcare

Put Single-Payer on the Table

Earlier this month, eight courageous doctors, lawyers and other activists interrupted a Senate Finance Committee meeting on health care reform to ask why there wasn't one advocate of a single-payer health care system at the table.
Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, had them arrested.

Shame on Senator Baucus, and shame on Congress if it continues to stifle debate on one of the biggest issues facing this country. To claim, as they have, that 'everything is on the table' except a nationalized health insurance system, similar to what many other modern, industrial Western nations have, is much like saying the Thanksgiving meal is complete, except for the turkey.

The full editorial is available at the Albany Times-Union website.

Bill Moyers' Jounal Looks at Single Payer Healthcare

On the Friday, May 22 installment of Bill Moyers' Journal, Moyers asked why single-payer healthcare is missing from the healthcare reform plans currently under consideration.

Joining Moyers were "Heathcare NOT Warfare" co-chair and legislative advocate for the California Nurses Association, Donna Smith, who will outline the harm our broken system inflicts on average Americans, and physicians Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program, on to discuss the political and logistical feasibility of enacting a single-payer system during difficult economic times, within a legislative process dominated by lobbyists.

Check your local listings for future airdates and broadcast times. The episode is also available online at the Bill Moyers' Journal website.

Health Care for All Is a Moral Imperative

Single Payer New York is a state-wide coaltion of organizations and individuals dedicated to building an unbeatable movement for a single payer public system that would fully fund comprehensive health care, including prescription drugs, for all. We invite all single-payer supporters to join us!

Important Conference

On Sunday, March 29, a Congressional Town Hall Meeting on HR-676 Single Payer "Medicare for All" was held in Albany. Speakers included Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) lead sponsor of HR-676, The US National Health Care Act and co-sponsor Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY).

Details can be found here, with a write up on the conference to follow shortly.

Photos of the conference by Jon Flanders can be found here.

Obama on Single Payer

Before the election . . .

. . . after the election

March 5, 2009

PRESS BRIEFING
BY PRESS SECRETARY ROBERT GIBBS

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

2:55 P.M. EST

Helen (Thomas). Yes, ma'am.

Q In that respect, I want you to reconcile two things.

MR. GIBBS: Okay.

Q In prepared remarks the President said every voice must be heard. He also said, "I want it to be clear at the outset, everyone has a right to take part in the sessions." But you have barred two people who are strongly for single-payer. And Conyers had to beg to come.

MR. GIBBS: Who was barred?

Q You barred Dr. Angell -- Marcia Angell and Dr. Quentin Young, both staunch advocates of single-payer Medicare for all.

MR. GIBBS: Well, I am pretty sure that their -- those viewpoints are represented in that room.

Q Why were they barred?

MR. GIBBS: I will certainly check on -- I told Chip we rented a big room, but we didn't get the Nationals' baseball stadium. There's a lot of people that are involved. There were a limited number of seats, but a lot of different viewpoints. We could have had 535 members of Congress, in addition to all these stakeholders, because I think everybody is going to be involved in this.

I would also say I think this is the first of many discussions and many issues --

Q I think it was quite an insult to Conyers.

MR. GIBBS: Well, I -- look, there were a lot of members of Congress that wanted to come and were added to the list. Again, I think there's a lot of people that are involved in this process; the bill will go through many committees and I think -- I think a lot of different viewpoints will be expressed today. And I think many of those viewpoints will have somebody to make them.

Q Why is the President against single-payer?

MR. GIBBS: The President doesn't believe that's the best way to achieve the goal of cutting costs and increasing access.

Single Payer Advocates Speak Out at Senate Finance Committee Meeting May 5

See a video of the event on our video page.

Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer health system -- also known as improved Medicare for All -- directly confronted senators at a Senate Finance Committee "roundtable" on health reform today. Videos are available here and C-SPAN coverage is here.

One by one, single-payer advocates in the audience stood up and asked why single-payer experts were being excluded from the proceedings. They each spoke out in turn until they were removed from the committee hearing room by Capitol police, at which point another person would speak up. Eight were arrested.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has stated on multiple occasions that single payer is "off the table" of health reform. As advocates spoke up today, he joked that he needed more police.

Today's roundtable, the second of three, consisted of 15 witnesses with no single-payer advocates among them. By contrast, several witnesses have direct ties to the for-profit, private health insurance industry.

Among the single-payer advocates who spoke up at the hearing, were:

MARGARET FLOWERS, MD

Flowers, who is co-chair of the Maryland chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (a national organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance), said today: "Health insurance administrators are practicing medicine without a medical license. The result is the suffering and death of thousands of patients for the sake of private profit.

After Flowers and others where removed from the hearing room, Baucus stated that he "deeply respected" their views while "orderly process" was needed. Flowers said: "We tried the orderly process, we contacted the senators, and they excluded us. The first person who spoke up noted that there were doctors who could testify -- and they arrested him."More Information is available from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), as well as PHNP's Maryland Chapter.

RUSSELL MOKHIBER, founder of Single Payer Action.

Mokhiber said today: "It's a pretty spectacular display of raw political power. The health insurance industry demands that not one of the 15 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."

Visit Single Payer Action for more information.

KATIE ROBBINS, Assistant National Coordinator of Healthcare-NOW

Robbins said today: "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."

More Information on Healthcare-NOW, a grassroots advocacy organization in support of single-payer national health care with a network of activists in 42 states