Single-Payer

Act Now To Protect Everyone’s Health In New Bill

January 23, 2019 Health Over Profit for Everyone. Resist! Health Care, National Improved Medicare for All, Single-Payer

The reports we have are that Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is planning to introduce her new Medicare for All legislation in early February. We still have not seen a copy of the text - now her office says they will not release it ahead of time - but many HOPE members have been in touch with her office and have met with her staff. It seems the bill is better than the senate version but weaker than our gold standard, the former HR 676, in critical ways. This means we have a short time to act to urge Congresswoman Jayapal to strengthen the bill so that everyone's health is protected.

Importance Of Aligning House And Senate Single-Payer Bills The Right Way

November 23, 2018 Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, Pnhp.org Strategize! Electoral Politics, Health Care, Legislation, Senate, Single-Payer

Single-payer reform is in the news — and in the U.S. House and Senate. One hundred twenty-three Congresspeople have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 676, the single-payer legislation in House of Representatives, and 16 Senators have formally endorsed S.1804, the Senate version. (Disclosure: H.R. 676 was closely modeled on the Physicians for a National Health Program reform proposal published in JAMA, for which we served as lead authors). While both bills would cover all Americans under a single, tax-funded insurance program, they prescribe different provider payment strategies. The Senate version largely adopts Medicare’s current payment mechanisms...

We’ve Come A Long Way: Obama Praises Medicare For All

September 8, 2018 Margaret Flowers, Health Over Profit. Organize! Barack Obama, Health Care, Medicare for all, Single-Payer

On September 7, 2018, speaking at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, President Obama said that Democrats are running on “good new ideas like Medicare for All…” This indicates a significant shift in support of National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA). President Obama is campaigning for Democrats in the mid-terms and his public support for NIMA right at the start shows how far we have come and that we have a real opportunity to win in the next few years. Eight years ago when President Obama was pushing through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) he asked in his State of the Union whether anyone had “a better idea.

Improved Medicare For All Becoming Unstoppable

August 27, 2018 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance Create! Healthcare, National Improved Medicare for All, Single-Payer

Medicare for all has had majority support in the United States for more than a decade. Support has been growing as more become aware of the details of the policy. The most recent poll, conducted by Reuters/Ispos found 70% of the public now supports Medicare for all. We see the potential for winning National Improved Medicare for All in the early 2020s, if people continue to build the movement necessary to demand it. People are understanding that for our health and for our economy we cannot afford not to put in place National Improved Medicare for All.

Why The Latest Attack On Single-Payer Backfired

August 9, 2018 By Michael Corcoran, Truthout.org Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer

“If you find that you have to keep explaining what your proposal is, you haven’t done enough, and your opponents can and will destroy your efforts with a few soundbites.” —Dr. Don McCanne of Physicians for a National Health Program, 2016. Medicare for All costs $32.6 trillion. This jarring statistic, plastered all over the dominant media last week, was designed to turn heads. “That’s trillion with a ‘T,’” the Associated Press (AP) quipped. This kind of coverage was frequent following the release of a July 30 study by the Koch-supported libertarian think tank, the Mercatus Center, which analyzed Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All bill (S.1804). The head of the study was a former George W. Bush official, Charles Blahous.

Debate Over Strategy For National Improved Medicare For All Continues

February 23, 2018 Margaret Flowers, Lee Stanfield and Kevin Zeese, Healthoverprofit.org Strategize! Health Care, Medicaid, Single-Payer

On February 1, Margaret Flowers posted “Which Path to National Improved Medicare for All?”, which argued that states cannot enact single payer health systems and that a state-by-state approach will not lead to National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA). The article was intended to stimulate debate about strategies to win NIMA. Kip Sullivan, a single payer activist in Minnesota, responded to some of the points in the article. His arguments were discussed by the Health Over Profit for Everyone steering committee. Below are summaries of Sullivan’s responses and our rebuttals (Sullivan’s full response and the rebuttals are provided at the bottom). Please use the comment section and our Facebook page to keep this discussion going.

How Big Medicine Can Ruin Medicare For All

November 16, 2017 Phillip Longman, theguardian.com Educate! Health Care, Medicare, Single-Payer

By Phillip Longman for The Guardian - In 2013, Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” couldn’t find a single co-sponsor for his healthcare plan, which would replace private insurance with Medicare-like coverage for all Americans regardless of age or income. Today, the roll call of supporters for his latest version includes the leading lights of the Democratic party, including many with plausible presidential aspirations. It’s enough to make an exasperated Dana Milbank publish a column in the Washington Post under the headline ‘The Democrats have become socialists’. But have they? Actually, no. Real socialized medicine might work brilliantly, as it has in some other countries. In the United Kingdom, the socialist government of Labour’s Clement Attlee nationalized the healthcare sector after the second world war, and today the British government still owns and operates most hospitals and directly employs most healthcare professionals. The UK’s National Health Service has it problems, but it produces much more health per dollar than America’s – largely because it doesn’t overpay specialists or waste money on therapies and technologies of dubious clinical value. Though they smoke and drink more, Britons live longer than Americans while paying 40% less per capita for healthcare.

The Collapse Of Trumpcare And The Rise Of Single Payer

October 19, 2017 Adam Gaffney and Zackary D. Berger, www.blogs.bmj.com Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer, Trump Administration

By Adam Gaffney and Zackary D. Berger for The BMJ Opinion - Two major developments in September upended US healthcare politics. The month’s end saw the failure of a last-ditch blitz by Senate Republicans to dispatch the Affordable Care Act (ACA) via the Graham-Cassidy bill, a painful defeat for opponents of Obamacare, including President Trump. And on 13 September, Senator Bernie Sanders’ single-payer “Medicare-for-All” bill was released, galvanizing proponents of progressive healthcare reform. Among the notable aspects of Sanders’ bill was its co-sponsorship by 16 Senators (as opposed to zero for Sanders’ last bill), among whom were most of the potential Democratic 2020 presidential contenders. Rising support for single-payer in the Senate follows a similar shift in the House of Representatives, where a majority of Democratic lawmakers now support Representative John Conyers’ single-payer bill. The immediate impact of these single-payer bills—given that neither will pass in the current Congress—may seem modest. Yet in conjunction with the collapse of Republicans’ ACA repeal efforts, they could signal a new era in American healthcare politics.

Trojan Horse Democrats Pile Into House Of Single-Payer

September 22, 2017 Jim Kavanaugh, www.thepolemicist.net Educate! Congress, Health Care, Single-Payer

By Jim Kavanaugh for The Polemicist - It’s great that more than a third of Democratic senators have signed on to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-All bill. It’s a potentially strong bill that’s been welcomed by single-payer activist organizations like Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and National Nurses United (NNU), and it represents a victory for the tireless work of single-payer activists and the popular pressure they stoked. It is also, we must recognize, only possible because of Bernie’s insistent promotion of healthcare as a right, in a campaign that widened the field of American political discourse. Above all, it is a result of continuing disgust with American for-profit health insurance system. It marks the exasperation with Obamacare’s half-assed attempt to patch up that system, and the rejection of the even crueler Republican schemes. At the very least, this bill puts single-payer “on the table” of legislative action and public discussion. The “public discussion” part is perhaps the most important. People will now hear about single-payer, and its advocates will not be completely shut out of media coverage from Fox to PBS, as they are now. Even the Democratic Party will have to talk about it. But please, please, do not be fooled. It does not mean that most, or any, of those co-sponsoring Democratic senators actually support single-payer. Most of those Democrats have signed on because they felt politically forced to, because they knew they could not face their constituents if they didn’t.

America’s Health Care System Kills People—But It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

August 17, 2017 GabBess, www.broadly.vice.com Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer

By Gabby Bess for Broadly Vice - Linda Kimber is a 65-year-old retiree in Australia. When discussing how she was diagnosed with breast cancer last November, through a thick Australian accent, over the phone, Kimber is straightforward and direct. Frankly, she makes cancer sound like it's not a big deal. At least one part of her treatment definitely wasn't: She didn't have to worry about the cost of the surgery, rounds of radiotherapy, and subsequent follow-ups. Unlike in the US, where the stress of financial panic often compounds a health emergency, Australia's universal Medicare system, which provides free health insurance for every citizen through a general tax and an additional levy on high-income earners, covered the bill. Kimber says the care she received was stress-free as well. After she was diagnosed, she was given a list of doctors to choose from for her surgery, and it was scheduled for three weeks later at a public hospital. "Then they just told me a day for the operation and I came in on that day," she said. "That was basically it. From there, it was all in their hands. I've had radiotherapy. I saw a medical oncologist, and the follow-up has been absolutely fantastic. They bent over backwards."

A Businessman Makes The Case For A Single-Payer Health Care System

August 15, 2017 Richard Master, www.pnhp.org Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer

By Richard Master for PNHP - With all due respect to President Trump, he is wrong about the single-payer model of health insurance. Single payer — centralized public financing of a continued privately operated health system — will not "bankrupt the United States." In fact, the opposite is true. Single payer is the only internationally proven strategy to transition the U.S. out of its current crisis of runaway health care costs to economic sustainability, where overall system cost growth is consistent with overall economic growth and inflation. At one-sixth of our economy and over 25 percent of the federal budget, health care will continue to be a focus in Congress until real progress is made and the angst of the American people about the system is resolved. It is clear to most Americans that runaway health care costs translate into flat wages and also a deterioration of real disposable income that drags down our 70 percent consumer-driven economy. But recent efforts in Congress to confront the crisis have been misguided. Congress has focused on cost shifting — moving the burden of our health system away from the federal government to the states and also to employers and to working families across the country, who will pay higher private insurance premiums to cover the expected cost of increased uncompensated care as the system absorbs the loss of Medicaid funds.

The Practical Libertarian’s Case For Single Payer Healthcare

August 15, 2017 Camilo Gomez, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer

By Camilo Gomez for Counter Punch - This year, there have been serious discussions about healthcare policy in America. The Republicans’ attempt to repeal Obamacare generated much backlash. The images of disability activists protesting in Congress circulated the world. For many foreigners, it’s a surprise that the richest country in the world doesn’t have any form of universal healthcare. In fact, many of the activists’ goals were not to preserve Obamacare, but support Medicare for all––or single payer. In America, organizations like Physicians for a National Health Programsupport single payer–a tax-funded healthcare system administered by the state that covers health care for all residents. It is logical that this policy is backed mostly by progressives, on the basis of their belief that healthcare is a human right. Not all Democratic politicians support single payer, but the support for it among the Democratic base is putting those who oppose it in a difficult position. Republicans in office are opposed to single payer, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t conservatives arguing for it, too. About 40 percent of Trump supporters back single payer and is worth acknowledging that some Republicans attitudes on the issue are shifting.

The Battles Ahead: Meet The Biggest Opponents Of Single-Payer

July 7, 2017 Michael Corcoran, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Health Care, Single payer health care, Single-Payer

By Michael Corcoran for Truthout - It has become fashionable to write premature obituaries of the Senate bill to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, using hyperbolic and misleading language. The Senate bill, according to varying headlines, is "in peril," on "life support" and "dead on arrival." These stories should be of little comfort given that the exact same headlines were published prior to the House passing its version of the repeal. That bill was also reportedly "on the verge of collapse," "in tatters," "flailing" and even "dead." Such sentiment could give Americans a false sense of complacency. There is still a real danger that this contemptible bill, which according to the Congressional Budget Office would lead to 22 million Americans becoming uninsured, will still become law. Considering this, stopping this legislation -- which repeals Medicaid as much as it does the ACA -- should remain the top short-term priority for advocates of health care justice. But the fight to stop Trumpcare must also be part of a wider struggle for health care justice. The threat of this shameful legislation alone has demonstrated that it is morally indefensible to leave anyone without coverage. As a result, the argument for single-payer health care is starting to make sense to a lot of people...

Medicare For Everyone With A Pre-Existing Condition

June 21, 2017 Staff, www.singlepayeraction.org Create! Health Care, Medicare, Single-Payer

By Staff of Single Payer Action - Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) has no time for single payer. But Senator Lindsey Graham says yes to single payer for sick people. That’s what came out of a meeting with Senator Manchin with single payer activists earlier this month in Charleston, West Virginia. Also present during the meeting, via Skype, was University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Gerald Friedman. According to notes taken during the meeting by a participant, Manchin dismissed single payer in the the Senate, saying “my interest is in finding a workable pathway.” “Republicans are not going to back off of a private sector market,” Manchin said. “Mitch McConnell is determined to vote to repeal. But he wants to get rid of taxes to pay for what we want to do. To do that they’ve got to cut services. They’re not trying to look for efficiencies or work with preventative care.” “A few of us — Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and others — are looking for a better way. Lindsey Graham says — let’s put everyone with a pre-existing condition on Medicare.” “That’s a big leap forward,” Manchin said. “But I told him — we have to change the tax structure. We can’t accumulate more debt.” “There is not another Republican who supports what Lindsey has said,” Manchin said. “But people are listening. It gives us an opening we didn’t have before. I told Chuck Schumer to act like he doesn’t like it and wait and see what happens.”

Survey: Physician Attitudes Shift To Single Payer

June 15, 2017 Staff, www.cmsdocs.org Educate! Health Care, Single-Payer

By Staff of CMS - The AHCA, which would roll back the Medicaid expansion in 31 states, including Illinois, earned positive views from just 23.4 percent of physicians who said they were “generally favorable” about the legislation. Rather, physicians voice support for single payer and and also support the Affordable Care Act (ACA)with some fixes. In the Chicago Medical Society survey, the ACA received a “generally favorable” view from 62.7% of Chicago area physicians and even more, or 66.8% have a “generally favorable” view of a single-payer financing health care system. Given a choice between single payer, an improved ACA and the AHCA, Chicago physicians favored a single payer approach by 2 to 1 over the ACA and by 3 to 1 over the AHCA. Chicago area physicians’ more positive views of single-payer financing comes as attitudes shift on the issue. Just last week, the California Senate approved a “Medicare for all-type/single payer bill.”

«1 2 3 4 »

Daily movement news and resources