Single payer health care

Time For Real Left To Double Down On Single Payer Medicare For All

November 22, 2016 Bruce A. Dixon, www.blackagendareport.com Strategize! Left, Medicare, Single payer health care

By Bruce A. Dixon for Black Agenda Report - Under President Obama, Democrats threw away their mandate to fight for health care for. Instead they let insurance companies concoct Obamacare, sketchy policies, skimpy coverage, high deductibles and co-pays for half the uninsured and empty promises for the other half. A Gallup Poll confirms that 58% of Americans want to see Obamacare replaced with a single payer system to guarantee health care, not health insurance for everybody.

Newsletter: Elections Expose the Oligarchs

October 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Banking and Finance, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Corruption, Democracy, Donald Trump, health insurance industry, Healthcare, Hillary Clinton, Neoliberalism, oligarchy, Sexism, Single payer health care, Tax Evasion, Wikileaks

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The 2016 presidential election has shown how the duopoly, the two parties that represent big business interests and the wealthiest, are corrupted in ways that prevent the people’s voices from being heard, their necessities being met and the planet being protected from human greed. During the campaigns, leaks have given people a behind-the-scenes look at how the parties operate and research on the candidates shows their personal failures. They give voters an image of elites who behave as if the law does not apply to them and who put themselves ahead of the public interest. Last Friday was a day of embarrassment for both the Republican and Democratic Parties. A tape showing Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault in lewd ways has gotten the bulk of attention, but Wikileaks also released thousands of pages of The Podesta Emails, 2,060 emails and 170 attachments. John Podesta is the ultimate insider.

Medical School: An invitation For Single Payer Activism

June 26, 2016 Josh Faucher, www.student.pnhp.org Organize! health, Health Care, Medicare for all, Single payer health care

By Josh Faucher for Students for a National Health Program. Each year, I’m impressed with the reality that many of our most enthusiastic and active members are students early in their medical school journeys, many of whom haven’t had much contact with patients yet. When I first began medical school, it was easy to get caught up in the praise and aggrandizement that was heaped upon us – the constant congratulations for joining a profession as well-respected and impactful as medicine. It is true that physicians can have a profound impact on the lives of our patients, curing terrible diseases and lessening the suffering caused by chronic ailments. In looking at the nature of the health care system as a whole, however, I have seen clear examples of how access is rationed based on a patient’s financial resources, and how seeking health care can leave patients vulnerable to harm that affects their livelihoods and economic security.

Newsletter – Lift The Veil; See Reality, Take Action

May 21, 2016 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, climate crisis, Healthcare, Living Wage, Medicare for all, Single payer health care, Social Security, TPP, Wages, Worker Rights

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. It is graduation time and our youth are inheriting a dysfunctional economy while they are saddled with the highest debt ever. This situation creates a downward spiral in which new graduates delay meaningful participation in the economy, such as buying a house or starting a new business, while they try to pay off their debt. Chuck Collins advocates for one solution: higher taxes on the wealthy that are used to reduce the cost of education. This is being done in Washington State. The reality for most youth today is a very different situation than that experienced by the older generation; it is one of intergenerational injustice that must be confronted and corrected or the negative impacts will last a long time. Many people no longer believe the lies we are told to keep us from demanding solutions. A veil is being lifted as people understand how the system is rigged against them and how they need to work together to fight for a better future.

Single Payer Health Care Groups Converge On Chicago

September 21, 2015 David Johnson, www.popularresistance.org Organize! Chicago, Public Health, Single payer health care

By David Johnson - On Friday Oct. 30th until Sunday November 1st in Chicago Illinois, the largest ever national conference of single-payer / Medicare for All healthcare advocates will convene. The conference is jointly sponsored by the LABOR CAMPAIGN FOR SINGLE PAYER, HEALTHCARE NOW, ONE PAYER STATES, and the PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM. The conference will begin Friday afternoon with a demonstration in front of a ( not to be named ) office building of a notorious healthcare company profiteer. That evening presentations will be made by the national president of the Steelworkers Union ( Leo Gerard ) and the National President of the National Nurses Union ( Jean Ross ). Musical entertainment will be provided by Labor singer / songwriter Anne Feeney.

Medical Student National Actions For ‘Medicare For All’

September 13, 2015 Students for a National Health Program, www.popularresistance.org Resist! health, Health Care, Medicare for all, Single payer health care

By Students for a National Health Program. United States - Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP) – working in coalition with the American Medical Student Association, WhiteCoats4BlackLives, the Latino Medical Student Association, Universities Allied for Essential Medicine, and Pre-Health Dreamers – will hold teach-ins, rallies, and candlelight vigils to remember the millions of people in our country who remain uninsured, underinsured and underserved by our current health care system. We will also underscore the need for a more fundamental health reform – a nonprofit, publicly financed, single-payer health system. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee universal health care. Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act is neither universal nor affordable.

Obamacare Enrollees Highly Dissatisfied With Health Coverage

August 10, 2015 Kate Randall, www.wsws.org Educate! ACA, Health Insurance, Medicare, Obamacare, Single payer health care

By Kate Randall for WSWS - A new study, however, shows that those enrolled through Obamacare are more dissatisfied with their coverage than any other group of insured Americans. The poll from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, research arm of the consulting firm, finds that only 30 percent of people with insurance through the ACA exchanges are satisfied with their plans, mainly due to cost. By contrast, 58 percent of Medicare enrollees are satisfied, while 42 percent of those with insurance through their employer are satisfied. The most affordable plans offered for sale on the ACA exchanges come with deductibles in excess of $5,000 annually and other out-of-pocket costs. Data from the Deloitte poll shows that enrollment in an Obamacare plan is no guarantee that health care coverage will be affordable or accessible. Researchers surveyed 3,887 people who had purchased health insurance on either the state exchanges or the federal web site, HealthCare.gov. The poll found that only 24 percent of ACA enrollees felt they could get affordable care when they needed it, and an abysmal 16 percent felt fully prepared to handle future health care costs.

Health Insurance Industry Eats Competition

July 26, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Educate! ACA, Health Care, health insurance industry, Single payer health care

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Many have argued, though we have not, that the federal health law, the ACA, is a 'step in the right direction' or a 'step towards single payer.' Our analysis is that the ACA is a step in the wrong direction because it further entrenches and empowers the private health insurance industry. Since its passage in 2010, the ACA has led to greater privatization of our public insurances Medicaid and Medicare and greater consolidation of health insurers and health facilities. As you will read in the article below, we are moving in the direction of a single payer health system, but one in which the single payer (or perhaps there will be a few payers) are the private health insurance industry. In this system, the costs of health care will continue to sky rocket and those who cannot afford care will go without it.

Medicare Is Turning 50! Celebration Flash Mob

July 17, 2015 Nathan Wilkes, www.healthcareforallcolorado.org Organize! Health Care, Medicare for all, Single payer health care, Single-Payer

By Nathan Wilkes of Healthcare for All Colorado. Join Health Care for All Colorado and other supporters in a multi-city Flash Mob as part of a growing list of events across the country celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Medicare! We like it so much, we think it should be Protected, Improved, and Expanded to everyone!!! HCAC is coordinating flash mobs in Denver, Fort Collins, and Pueblo on Thursday, July 30th. Live in another city and want to lead one in your town? Let us know and we'll help you organize it! The "dance" is super easy and you can practice with our custom video.

Subsidies Upheld, But Health Needs Still Unmet

June 25, 2015 Dr. Robert Zarr, www.pnhp.org Organize! ACA, health, Health Care, Health Insurance, Single payer health care

By Dr. Robert Zarr for Physicians for a National Health Program. Washington, DC - Today’s decision by the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies in about three dozen states will spare more than 6 million Americans the health and financial harms associated with the sudden loss of health insurance coverage. For that reason alone the decision must be welcomed: Having health insurance is better than not having coverage, as several research studies have shown. That said, the suffering that many Americans are experiencing today under our current health care arrangements is intolerable, with approximately 35 million people remaining uninsured, a comparable number underinsured, and rapidly growing barriers to medical care in the form of rising premiums, copayments, coinsurance and deductibles, and narrowing networks.

Supreme Court Case Exposes Flaws In Healthcare System

March 4, 2015 Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org Educate! health, Health Care, Single payer health care

Regardless of how the court rules, the unfortunate reality is that the ACA won’t be able achieve universal coverage. It won’t make care affordable or protect people from medical bankruptcy. Nor will it be able to control costs. The ACA is fundamentally flawed in these respects because, by design, it perpetuates the central role of the private insurance industry and other corporate and for-profit interests (e.g. Big Pharma) in U.S. health care. In contrast, a single-payer system – an improved Medicare for All – would achieve truly universal care, affordability, and effective cost control. It would be simple to administer, saving approximately $400 billion annually by slashing the administrative bloat in our private-insurance-based system. That money would be redirected to clinical care. Copays and deductibles would be eliminated.

Doctor’s Group Hails Re-Introduction Of ‘Medicare For All’ Bill

February 4, 2015 Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org Create! health, Health Care, Single payer health care

A national physicians group today hailed the reintroduction of a federal bill that would upgrade the Medicare program and swiftly expand it to cover the entire population. The “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” H.R. 676, introduced last night by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., with 44 other House members, would replace today’s welter of private health insurance companies with a single, streamlined public agency that would pay all medical claims, much like Medicare works for seniors today. Proponents say a Medicare-for-all system, also known as a single-payer system, would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, improve patient health, restore free choice of physician, eliminate copays and deductibles, and yield substantial savings for individuals, families and the national economy.

What Happened To Universal Healthcare In Vermont

January 11, 2015 Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., and David U. Himmelstein, M.D., www.pnhp.org Educate! Healthcare, Single payer health care, Vermont

Gov. Peter Shumlin’s Dec. 17, 2014, announcement that he would not press forward with Vermont’s Green Mountain Care (GMC) reform arose from political calculus rather than fiscal necessity. GMC had veered away from a true single payer design over the past three years, forfeiting some potential cost savings. Yet even the diluted plan on the table before Shumlin’s announcement would probably have lowered total health spending in Vermont, while covering all of the state’s uninsured. It’s a misnomer to label Vermont’s Green Mountain Care plan “single payer.” It was hemmed in by federal restrictions that precluded including 100 percent of Vermonters in one plan, and its designers further compromised on features needed to maximize administrative savings and bargaining clout with drug firms, and improve health planning. But even the watered-down plan that emerged could have covered the uninsured, improved coverage for many who currently face high out-of-pocket costs, and actually reduced total health spending in the state – albeit far less than under a true single payer plan. A true single payer plan would have made covering long-term care affordable, and allowed the elimination of all copayments and deductibles. Vermont’s experience holds important lessons for single payer advocates.

Lessons On The Struggle For Health Care As A Human Right

January 4, 2015 Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Strategize! health, Health Care, Human Rights, Single payer health care

Many in the US don’t understand that they have human rights, let alone that their rights are being violated. The human rights framework is based on five core principles. Put simply, they are universality, that all people are included; equity, that all are able to participate; transparency, that all have access to information; accountability, that those who make decisions answer to the people; and participation, that all are able to participate in the process. It is the government’s responsibility to guarantee our human rights. Once we have this understanding of our rights, we see the violation of our human rights across a broad sector of issues whether it is the right to housing, education, a job with a living wage, healthcare, clean water and air or other rights. Then we can look more deeply to understand why these rights are being denied and that there are systemic root causes that are the same for all of these issues. All of our struggles face the same obstacles of monstrous industries that are driven by profit through exploitation of people and the planet and that control not only the lawmakers but in most areas, the method by which they are elected.

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