Join us on Saturday, June 25

June 16, 2011

Join us for our schedule of public leafletting and petition signing for single payer health care reform.  The Health Care for All Philadelphia public relations committee seeks volunteers to join us by contacting the lead person on any of the following dates:

Saturday, June 25, 2011    Table and leaflet at Clark Park, 43rd and Chester Ave.
11AM to 6 PM .  Contact Cheshire Agusta (267 973-7246)

Sat., July 2, 1 p.m. – 3:30pm, Declare Peace Fair
Independence Visitors Center (lawn area), 6th & Market Sts, Phila., PA.
Contact Contact  Kay Lasker (215 983-5531)Cheshire Agusta (267 973-7246)

Wed, July  20, 2011,  Movie showing “Sick Around the World” at the Coleman NW
regional library. Chelten and Greene St in Germantown.  Contact  Linda  Beckman (215 242-3849)

Saturday, August 13, 2011   Leaflet in Spanish and English  at 5th and Lehigh.
Contact   Sylvia Metzler (215 423-9375) and Linda Beckman (215 242-3849)

Monday, September 5, 2011    Leaflet at the Labor Day parade.  Time  TBA
Contact  Kay Lasker (215 983-5531)

Will you Cry for Me, John Boehner? Save Medicare/Medicaid

June 11, 2011

*Will you Cry for Me, John Boehner?* link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z-L6Gltg94

In D.C., I had the honor of participating in (and videotaping) an action at
Speaker of the House John Boehner’s office. Katie Robbins of Healthcare-Now
collected hundreds of testimonials from people who have suffered under the
present profit –driven system – and will suffer more if Medicare and
Medicaid are further defunded and privatized. These stories made us cry, and
since John Boehner has a tendency for weepiness, we each came armed with a
box of Kleenax. Boehner wasn’t there, and his aide called the security
guards, so we had to read the testimonials in the hall.
But we left behind the stories – and the Kleenax.

Alison McLeod, RN, BSN
Southern Arizona Field Organizer
Progressive Democrats of America
*”The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics
whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.”
*–John F. Kennedy

Private Insurance Death Panel

April 24, 2011

 

It is hard to imagine the tragedy that could occur if Scott Poole, a young man with ALS and recently married in 2006 finds that he would be faced with death because his COBRA insurance runs out.  Welcome to the American health care system!  You can read about how Scott came to the attention of Health Care for All Pennsylvania, which incidentally, would not allow a single payer plan to simply end someone’s life.  There is a PayPal site which is trying to raise the $160,000 needed to maintain Scott’s existence.  So far it has raised $200.

http://www.squidoo.com/let-scott-live

http://letscottlive.com/

 

Is Massachusetts the Health Care Model for America?

April 15, 2011

Come out to hear the second in our series of free lectures on health care reform.  Benjamin Day is the Executive Director of Mass-Care, a Massachusetts based organization that has helped shape the political debate in their state.  Massachusetts health care reform is now five years old and is the model upon which the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama health plan) is based.  What lessons can we learn from Massachusetts about our future health plan?

Monday, May 16, 2011, 7 PM, Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Branch, 1901 Vine Street, Montgomery Auditorium

For more information, email us at macman2@aol.com.

Sponsored by Health Care for All Philadelphia (HCAP), Healthcare NOW!

Snow cancellation

January 11, 2011

Due to the predicted snow on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011, the Health Care for All Philadelphia General Meeting will be cancelled.  The next general meeting will be on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Students for single payer organizing meeting

December 18, 2010

Hello student leaders,
 
As many of you read in my first email below (and others have been referred by people who did), we at Health Care for All Philadelphia are trying to bring together medical and health professional students from all the schools in Philly to advocate for a single payer health care system.
 
We will be meeting at 3PM in the Hamilton Building at Jefferson Medical College TODAY Saturday Dec. 18th to brainstorm and set an agenda for the coming year, including hopefully: an single payer education event at each school in early 2011 and a trip to Vermont to join hundreds of other meds student stating ‘single payer is what we want for our future.’
 
Please come if you can and let me know if you are interested in joining (and helping to lead!) this effort, but cannot make this meeting. (I understand this is very last minute notice for many of you, but wanted to include as many people as possible on the notice.)
 
The address for Hamilton is 1001 Locust Street. We will gather in the lobby.  Call me at 203 668 6669 if you need further directions.  Jen

America Spoke

June 28, 2010

On June 26, America Speaks, a non partisan group conducted the largest national town meeting on the budget deficit in 19 cities across the country.  This 6.5 hour marathon consisted of about 3500 people who were meant to be representative of America.   We were given the task of cutting 1.2 trillion dollars from the federal budget by 2025.  

The initial demographics suggested that there were equal numbers of men and women, liberals (44%), moderates (23%), conservatives (33%), a larger number of those older (55+) than the US population, and fewer Latinos.  People were more supportive of government spending (51%) than not adding to the national debt (38%) at this time of recession.  61% felt government should do more to strengthen the economy.  People were equally divided between taking care of the current generation vs. redirecting resources for “future generations” and equally divided between government caring for the most vulnerable and individual responsibility to take care of oneself.  More people felt the rich should pay higher amounts to reduce the deficit.  

It was interesting to hear how people balanced the choices (which were pre chosen by the sponsors) between cuts in spending and raising revenue.  The final report won’t be out for several weeks, but my impression was that people were angry about the undue influence of lobbyists and corporate interests over that of ordinary people.  The recent decision not to extend unemployment benefits and FMAP funding for Medicaid is a perfect example of this.
People favored raising taxes over cutting health care or social security.  When people were asked if they would cut Medicare and Medicaid by 5, 10 or 15%, the largest group (38%) said they wanted no cuts.  Many felt that the choices were too limited (in the “options workbook” there is this statement “at the moment, the nation does not seem prepared to consider fundamental reform of the kind suggested in the first two approaches above – premium support or single payer.”  Amazingly, when people were asked to comment on their health cuts, there was a huge support for single payer health care – enough to get into the final report.  In Philadelphia, which was the host center for the entire America Speaks program and where I was one of the 450 people who showed up, there was loud clapping for single payer.  Dr. Alice Rivlin was in the Philadelphia conference all day and is one of the members of the debt commission.  I went up to her and pointed to my T shirt which said “It’s simple:  Medicare for All”.  She most assuredly heard the response to single payer.
There was one area that people definitely wanted cut – defense spending (85%) and raise taxes on corporations to 40% (59%), millionaires (68%), a carbon tax (64%) and stock and bond trading (61%) with the goal of cutting 1.2 trillion by 2025. 
I have to say that the technology was pretty impressive.  There were live camera interviews from all of the sites cross the country.  Everyone of the 3,500 people had keypads which allowed instantaneous polling within 20 seconds of asking a question.  Each of the sites had tables with 6-8 people randomly assigned and a facilitator who discussed all of these issues.  Each table had a laptop and free form comments were invited which allowed other choices besides the ones prescribed by the organizers.  I was surprised at the consensus at my table.  If there were teabaggers, they did not make their presence known in Philadelphia.
AmericaSpeaks says that there is a scheduled meeting next week to discuss these national findings.  They have access to key Congressional staffers and some members.  I, of course, am too cynical to believe that it will make much of a difference since our politicians are totally bought off by the lobbyists.  I remember the town hall meetings in 2006 leading up to the health reform debate which also supported a single payer system.  It was not even a consideration for the politicians.  
But for those of us in the town hall meeting, I think the message was pretty clear – raise taxes on those who have the money, cut defense, don’t cut services for main street Americans, and stop listening to special interests and start listening to the American people.

Kevin Zeese on "health reform" and next steps

April 7, 2010

an excellent, but long article.


By Kevin Zeese
Prosperity Agenda
A year ago health care was in crisis. Its cost burdened individuals, businesses, and all levels of government. Americans were dying at a rate of 45,000 per year due to lack of access to health care, health care bankruptcies were rising. Change was urgently needed. The crisis was an opportunity to create the best health care system in the world.
Because we have extensive experience with three health systems, we could have had a very informed debate. The U.S. has a market-based system (private insurance-controlled health care); a single payer system (Medicare) and a socialist system (the Veterans Administration). We could have asked which worked best, which covered the most people, which was least expensive, and which produced the best health outcomes. This fact-based discussion could have resulted in putting in place an efficient, effective national health system moving the U.S. into the top tier of health programs from its current dismal ranking of 37th in the world.
But, that debate never happened. Right from the outset President Obama and the Democratic leadership decided to consider only a private insurance, market-based solution. A real debate would have found that the market approach was the least effective and most costly part of American health care. In the end we got the pre-ordained decision; market-based health insurance was further enshrined with all its administrative and bureaucratic costs, its unfairness and inability to provide health care to all.
Over the last year, Democratic and Republican partisans in and out of government have made the debate on health a misleading one. False distractions like ‘death panels’ and ‘government take-over’ kept the right wing and Republicans fomenting and angry when neither was occurring. On the left, the public option, always miniscule and never really on the table, was the primary focus of non-profits aligned with the Democratic Party. This non-issue distracted progressives from the real issues and divided Americans who wanted real reform.
Reality is still hard to see through the fog of partisan rhetoric. The Republicans continue to claim socialism and a government takeover of health care, when the law is neither. And, the Democrats have been high-fiving each other and claiming they’ve achieved the equivalent of Social Security, the Civil Rights Acts, and Medicare – none of that is true either.
When the rhetorical fog lifts, we will see the system has not changed much. Health care will still be dominated by profit-driven insurance companies. More public money will go to executive salaries and private industry profits. Tens of millions of people will remain uninsured and costs will continue to increase. The challenge for the future is how to get public dollars to go to the nation’s public health and not to corporations that serve as middlemen that do not provide health care.
The centerpiece of the “reform,” subsidizing the insurance industry, forcing Americans to buy their overpriced product and more deeply embedding insurance market-control of health care, was barely debated. Only after passage of the bill is a debate beginning on whether this is within the constitutional power of government. Of course, the corporate media are saying the mandate is constitutional, not surprisingly since it is in the interests of corporate power. But never before has the federal government required Americans to buy a product. This unprecedented expansion of federal power raises a very real constitutional question that expands the Commerce Clause at a time when the Supreme Court is reining it in. Putting on my lawyer hat, I see this as unconstitutional and in the end it will be decided by a divided court. Click here and here for links to the legal arguments from a progressive and conservative perspective.
We never had a debate about whether it is a good idea to have the federal government force Americans to buy a corporate product. This major, unprecedented approach was lost in the din of death panels and the public option. Where does this precedent lead? Should Americans be forced to buy a retirement plan from JPMorgan or Bank of America to ensure retirement security? The U.S. already gives hundreds of billions annually in corporate welfare through crony capitalism, disguising it with “free market” rhetoric, not even counting the massive bailouts of the last year. This new form of corporate welfare will extend the big business-big government connection in new ways and further the pay-to-play politics of Washington, D.C., with more corporate money polluting politics.
The new law forces Americans to buy a corporate product that is overpriced and flawed. Americans could be required to pay up to 9.5 percent of their income on insurance that only covers an average of 70 percent of their medical expenses. In addition, insurance is allowed to deny care with no court review of that decision. As a result, someone with insurance, paying an expensive premium, could find themselves in bankruptcy as a result of this law. The major cause of bankruptcy before this bill was a health care crisis and a majority of those people had insurance. That will remain true under the new law.
What did we get? There were some attempts to fix insurance abuse, but every fix had a poison pill added by the insurance industry. A good example is insurance no longer being able to deny care for pre-existing illness. The poison pill, which may actually make things worse for more people, is the industry can charge people who do not meet their wellness guidelines double what they charge others. And, if you are older, they can charge triple. So, while you cannot be denied insurance, will you be able to afford it?
We also got expansion of coverage. The largest source of expansion is Medicaid – 16 million more people will be covered. Medicaid is woefully underfunded poverty medicine that pays doctors such poor reimbursement that many refuse Medicaid patients, and it does not cover all health needs. States are already stretched thin trying to pay for Medicaid resulting in more cuts to services and lowered payments to doctors. The federal government provides financial assistance but that ends in 2016. Relying on Medicaid re-enforces a caste system where health care depends on wealth.
The other expansion of coverage depends on people buying insurance. For many the penalty in increased taxes will be more affordable than health insurance. And, businesses will find that it is much cheaper to pay a small fine than to provide insurance. More people will be pushed into the individual insurance market where the cost of insurance is rapidly increasing.
Perhaps the change that will have the most positive impact is one produced by Senator Bernie Sanders; a deal he got for not forcing a vote on single payer in the Senate, the expansion of funding by $12.5 billion for community health centers so that they can double the patients they see. Community health centers are the foundation of primary care for residents of rural areas and inner cities, providing basic services such as blood and dental work for about 20 million U.S. residents.
I’m not going to review every detail of the bill here. Two clear-sighted reviews come from National Nurses United, the largest nurses union, and Physicians for National Health Program. You can see those here and here.
Maybe more important than the specifics, because most of those have insurance company-written poison pills that undermine them, is that for the first time ever in U.S. history, the law codifies the view that all people should have access to health care, regardless of age, income, health or employment status. This bill does not achieve the goal, after fully implemented it leaves 23 million (at best) without health insurance and tens of millions more with inadequate health insurance because they are on Medicaid’s poverty care or their private insurance does not fully cover them.
Now the law states an aspiration. Just as the U.S. is working to become a more perfect union, health care policy needs a lot of work, indeed some important paradigm shifts, before we achieve good quality health care for all.
What should real reform advocates do now?
The first step is to know clearly what we want: Public dollars should only go to health care not to insurance expenses, profits, and bureaucracy. That means a national health program based on expanded and improved Medicare for all so we cost effectively provide health care to everyone in the United States.
Organize a movement to achieve that clear purpose. Build from the base up, organized around congressional districts. The foundation of this movement will be a well educated and unwavering core group that will not compromise on core principles. There are already many strong organizationms working for real reform (see Health Care Now!Physicians for National Health ProgramSingle Payer ActionNational Nurses UnitedProgressive Democrats of AmericaProsperity Agenda) that did not compromise and no doubt many of the groups that compromised now see that the result was unsatisfactory. And, polls consistently show majority support for a single payer national health program, so we are further along than many realize.
Apply strategies and tactics designed to achieve that end. We need to build a foundation of broad-based education and an understanding that you cannot compromise or effectively regulate the insurance industry. All the traditional tools of advocates have a role in the single payer movement: lobbying, litigation, voter initiatives, state-level reform, protest, civil resistance and elections to achieve our goals. On elections, the single payer movement needs to challenge incumbents in primaries and General Elections. The latter may be where we have more power. The movement must be independent of either political party. One lesson we should learn from this year is we cannot count on any ally in Congress until we build a movement that adds to our power and theirs.
A particular spotlight needs to be kept on the insurance industry. Their behavior will not change with the new law, indeed it will worsen. Single payer advocates need to continue to highlight their abuses, denials of care, excessive executive salaries, rapid increases in premiums and cut backs in coverage. Tools like shareholder actions, boycotts and divestiture need to be used. When abuses occur the movement needs to use tactics like sit-ins at insurance companies to show that people are angry. See www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org.
Those who recognize the need for real reform should not get stuck within the framework of the status quo. Now that the Democrats have further enshrined the insurance industry, some will urge that we work within that framework to improve the law. Tinker with insurance regulation, increase subsidies and increase penalties for not purchasing insurance. The framework of the law is insurance domination of health care. We need to change the framework, not work within it.
There will be a special push for a public option or lowering the age of Medicare. We cannot be fooled by this. These types of programs leave in the place the bureaucratic and expensive profit-driven insurance system. Such approaches only have a marginal positive gain if everyone – those with insurance and those without, whether they get their insurance from work or the individual market – are able to participate. If these programs are limited to those without insurance, as all the proposals considered did, they will do more harm than good because they will become a dumping ground for those who are priced out of the insurance market because of illness or age. It will make the public program fail and add to industry profits. We need to end insurance market-based health care and put in place a national public health system that is publicly funded and covers everyone.
The last year has seen an expansion of activism from those who favor improved Medicare for All. It is critical that the momentum of the movement not be slowed by a law that protects the status quo even if it is called reform. The urgent need for such change remains as tens of thousands will continue to die annually, and hundreds of thousands (mostly with insurance) will go bankrupt. The task of providing health to all as a birth right still remains.
Kevin Zeese is executive director of Prosperity Agenda.

Reflections on the House health bill

March 22, 2010

Below is the response from Physicians for a National Health Program on yesterday’s House vote.  But first, my comments:

Yesterday, the House of Representatives took a huge step in embracing the principle of health care reform.  Much of the language used resembles the rhetoric that would sound like single payer (“universal coverage”, “health care is a right”, “no longer would people be denied coverage”, etc.).  Unfortunately, the promise is better than the reality and the plan fundamentally relies on the for-profit, private insurance industry to rely on providing this coverage.

Given their track record and their demand for shareholder profits, we should be very cautious.  
If you want an idea of how much this will cost and whether you will get a subsidy to fund health care, go to the Kaiser Family Foundation subsidy calculator to get an idea of how much insurance will cost you.  (Look up the reconciliation bill version which is what passed last night).  You may be surprised at the cost.  
Frankly, we will still have the most expensive health care system in the world, by far, (http://blogs.ngm.com/.a/6a00e0098226918833012876a6070f970c-800wi) because we are unwilling to face the reality that the feared “government takeover” of health care is the bitter medicine that we need to control costs.  We would like to believe that a competitive private insurance industry can lower costs, but we have 50 years of evidence that this belief is misguided.  Within that framework, we have asked the insurance industry to stop excluding people with preexisting conditions, no more recissions, no lifetime caps, no medical underwriting, etc.  This is good, but insurers are unlikely to do all this without raising premiums or cutting benefits and AHIP’s statement essentially assures they will do just that.
We should note that America’s Health Insurance Plans have released a one sentence statement about the reform plan which basically assures us that there will be increases in premiums:

AHIP Statement on Health Care Reform Legislation

   

Washington, D.C. – America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President and CEO Karen Ignagni today released the following statement on health care reform legislation:
“The access expansions are a significant step forward, but this legislation will exacerbate the health care costs crisis facing many working families and small businesses.” 

We will never control costs and preserve access without taking a step toward single payer health care, perhaps by expanding Medicare. This was not our step yesterday.  But in the global economy, we have to start moving this way or employers will find themselves stuck with unaffordable insurance premiums.  I am willing to support candidates who clearly understand this and are willing to support single payer, while still getting people health insurance using our flawed private insurance model right now.  But eventually, we will have to make the really tough decision which we avoided with this legislation.
So today, I rejoice that we made a step toward the idea that we need to fix our health care system, but we have not made the tough choice to move us toward single payer that we have to make to control health care costs and that will position our country to be competitive in a global economy.   For those who don’t want to wait until 2014 to see insurance expansion, we have a chance to prove the benefits of single payer in Pennsylvania with the passage of SB 400/HB 1660, the Family and Business Health Security Act.  Walter
______________________________
Physicians for a National Health Program
News release
March 22, 2010
A False Promise of Reform
The following statement was released today by leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program, www.pnhp.org. Their signatures appear below.
As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House’s passage of the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.
Instead of eliminating the root of the problem – the profit-driven, private health insurance industry – this costly new legislation will enrich and further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to buy private insurers’ defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of public money.
The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:
* About 23 million people will remain uninsured nine years out. That figure translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering.
* Millions of middle-income people will be pressured to buy commercial health insurance policies costing up to 9.5 percent of their income but covering an average of only 70 percent of their medical expenses, potentially leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin if they become seriously ill. Many will find such policies too expensive to afford or, if they do buy them, too expensive to use because of the high co-pays and deductibles.
* Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future reform.
* The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will remain uninsured.
* People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan’s limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their health benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as the cost of insurance grows.
* Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, as the experience with the Massachusetts plan (after which this bill is patterned) amply demonstrates.
* The much-vaunted insurance regulations – e.g. ending denials on the basis of pre-existing conditions – are riddled with loopholes, thanks to the central role that insurers played in crafting the legislation. Older people can be charged up to three times more than their younger counterparts, and large companies with a predominantly female workforce can be charged higher gender-based rates at least until 2017.
* Women’s reproductive rights will be further eroded, thanks to the burdensome segregation of insurance funds for abortion and for all other medical services.
It didn’t have to be like this. Whatever salutary measures are contained in this bill, e.g. additional funding for community health centers, could have been enacted on a stand-alone basis.
Similarly, the expansion of Medicaid – a woefully underfunded program that provides substandard care for the poor – could have been done separately, along with an increase in federal appropriations to upgrade its quality.
But instead the Congress and the Obama administration have saddled Americans with an expensive package of onerous individual mandates, new taxes on workers’ health plans, countless sweetheart deals with the insurers and Big Pharma, and a perpetuation of the fragmented, dysfunctional, and unsustainable system that is taking such a heavy toll on our health and economy today.
This bill’s passage reflects political considerations, not sound health policy. As physicians, we cannot accept this inversion of priorities. We seek evidence-based remedies that will truly help our patients, not placebos.
A genuine remedy is in plain sight. Sooner rather than later, our nation will have to adopt a single-payer national health insurance program, an improved Medicare for all. Only a single-payer plan can assure truly universal, comprehensive and affordable care to all.
By replacing the private insurers with a streamlined system of public financing, our nation could save $400 billion annually in unnecessary, wasteful administrative costs. That’s enough to cover all the uninsured and to upgrade everyone else’s coverage without having to increase overall U.S. health spending by one penny.
Moreover, only a single-payer system offers effective tools for cost control like bulk purchasing, negotiated fees, global hospital budgeting and capital planning.
Polls show nearly two-thirds of the public supports such an approach, and a recent survey shows 59 percent of U.S. physicians support government action to establish national health insurance. All that is required to achieve it is the political will.
The major provisions of the present bill do not go into effect until 2014. Although we will be counseled to “wait and see” how this reform plays out, we cannot wait, nor can our patients. The stakes are too high.
We pledge to continue our work for the only equitable, financially responsible and humane remedy for our health care mess: single-payer national health insurance, an expanded and improved Medicare for All.
Oliver Fein, M.D.
President
Garrett Adams, M.D.
President-elect
Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Past President
     
Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow
David Himmelstein, M.D.
Co-founder
Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.
Co-founder
     
Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator
Don McCanne, M.D.
Senior Health Policy Fellow

Meeting on March 9 only

March 9, 2010

The March 9 general meeting from 7-9 PM for Health Care for All Philadelphia will change to the Edmund Bossone Research Center, 3141 Market St, Drexel University in the student lounge area as you walk in the door on Market Street, turn left.  The front door is actually across Market Street from the Soverign Bank parking lot.

Before the meeting, come join us to watch Money Driven Medicine based on a book by Maggie Mahar, who will BE there herself to answer questions in Mitchell Auditorium from 5-7 PM.

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