I’d like to make every one aware of Lancaster-based Progressives4Pennsylvania’s plans to host a healthcare conference On Saturday, January 12, 2007 at approximately 1pm at the Lancaster Host Resort & Conference Center. The conference itself will be presented by Health Care for All PA, the group sponsoring The Pennsylvania Family and Business Healthcare Security Act (HB 1660 and SB 300), the single-payer bill that, when passed, will bring comprehensive universal health care coverage to every man, woman and child in Pennsylvania. First of all, allow me to apologize if you receive this message more than once as I am sending it to multiple lists that may overlap.
There will be a lot going on at the Host on January 11th and 12th. The Democratic State Committee will be holding its State Committee Meeting there on those dates along with a series of workshops and panel discussions. Health Care for All PA was already planning to hold a statewide conference of its own in January, so it seems only natural to hold it at the Host in order to take advantage of the other gathering of many like-minded activists in the hopes of enticing them to attend our gathering, (which will commence at about the time the Democratic State Party meetings conclude) as well.
Our conference is tentatively scheduled to take place in Ballroom B at the Host. We will open the doors at approximately 12 noon and will be serving snacks and beverages at that time. The State Committee Meeting begins at noon as well, but we are told it will likely be a relatively brief meeting. We will likely begin our conference when the Committee Meeting ends or at 1pm, whichever comes first.
Progressives4Pennsylvania will have a table set up at the Host on both Friday, January 11th and Saturday January 12th in order to provide information about the conference to all thinking about attending or for the benefit of those just seeking more information.
The agenda for Health Care for All Pa’s conference is still being put together, and we will make the details known as they develop. We’ll post regular updates on our P4P web site (www.progressives4pennsylvania.com), and they’ll also be posted at Health Care for All PA’s site: http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/home.php
I wish I could tell you more about the conference now, but we are still in the preliminary planning stages. On the other hand, we want to alert you early so you can make plans to attend and to tell your friends.
If you do plan to attend we’d appreciate an RSVP so we will have a general idea how many people to expect and can make sure we prepare accordingly. You can RSVP at: info@progressives4pennsylvania.com
Thank you, and see you in Lancaster on January 12th.
Sincerely.
Jerry Policoff
Progressives4Pennsylvania
717-295-0237
Friday, December 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
EYEWITNESS CUBA: HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
EYEWITNESS CUBA: HEALTHCARE FOR ALL
Featuring Laurena White, local student at
Havana's Latin American School of Medicine
speaking and presenting a screening of'Salud!'
widely-hailed movie about some of the thousands
of Cuban doctors delivering free care in
some 67 countries across the Third World.
Thursday November 1st at 7pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
48th & Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia
1) Laurena White is in her fourth year of living
in Cuban neighborhoods and delivering
community healthcare. This is a unique
opportunity to get first-hand information from
Cuba, given Washington's travel ban
preventing Americans traveling there and
Cubans coming to the United States.
2) 'Salud' is a U.S.-made film by Oscar nominee
Connie Fields ('Rosie the Riveter' and 'Freedom
on My Mind'). Accolades include:
"Salud! is an excellent, accurate and
deeply moving portrayal of a healthcare
system designed to keep people healthy
rather than the 'sickcare' system that
currently exists in the United States."
Joycelyn Elders, MD, former U.S.
Surgeon General
"I salute Salud! for teaching us how
much we can learn not just about - but
from - Cuba."
Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board,
NAACP
"Salud! is compelling, upbeat
and moving, a great tool for learning the
much there is to learn from Cuba."
Paul Farmer, MD, Partners in Health
and Harvard Medical School
"Salud! is a powerful film whose time has
come. It's essential to those seriously
working for a national health insurance
program in the United States: it shows
what is possible when the focus is the
patient, not profits."
Quentin Young, MD, National Coordinator,
Physicians for a National Health
Program
Please join us for this special event.
Thursday November 1st at 7pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
48th & Baltimore, Philadelphia
Event is free.
Please circulate to your friends and
lists.
Sponsored by the Philadelphia Cuba
Solidarity Coalition
Philly@CubaSolidarity.com
484.431.0182
Featuring Laurena White, local student at
Havana's Latin American School of Medicine
speaking and presenting a screening of'Salud!'
widely-hailed movie about some of the thousands
of Cuban doctors delivering free care in
some 67 countries across the Third World.
Thursday November 1st at 7pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
48th & Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia
1) Laurena White is in her fourth year of living
in Cuban neighborhoods and delivering
community healthcare. This is a unique
opportunity to get first-hand information from
Cuba, given Washington's travel ban
preventing Americans traveling there and
Cubans coming to the United States.
2) 'Salud' is a U.S.-made film by Oscar nominee
Connie Fields ('Rosie the Riveter' and 'Freedom
on My Mind'). Accolades include:
"Salud! is an excellent, accurate and
deeply moving portrayal of a healthcare
system designed to keep people healthy
rather than the 'sickcare' system that
currently exists in the United States."
Joycelyn Elders, MD, former U.S.
Surgeon General
"I salute Salud! for teaching us how
much we can learn not just about - but
from - Cuba."
Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board,
NAACP
"Salud! is compelling, upbeat
and moving, a great tool for learning the
much there is to learn from Cuba."
Paul Farmer, MD, Partners in Health
and Harvard Medical School
"Salud! is a powerful film whose time has
come. It's essential to those seriously
working for a national health insurance
program in the United States: it shows
what is possible when the focus is the
patient, not profits."
Quentin Young, MD, National Coordinator,
Physicians for a National Health
Program
Please join us for this special event.
Thursday November 1st at 7pm
Calvary United Methodist Church
48th & Baltimore, Philadelphia
Event is free.
Please circulate to your friends and
lists.
Sponsored by the Philadelphia Cuba
Solidarity Coalition
Philly@CubaSolidarity.com
484.431.0182
Friday, October 12, 2007
Trick or Treatment, Oct 30, Meet the Democrats
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, the Democratic presidential candidate forum at Drexel University. Why are the leading candidates not supporting single payer, national health insurance? Because there aren't enough demands. Let's start asking for what we want! Join ACT UP, Spiral Q and us for a demonstration on "Trick or Treatment". 34th and Chestnut Streets, meet around 7 - 7:30 PM.
For more information about the Oct 30 event, read more below.
This Halloween, join ACT UP and activists from across the country to Philadelphia for a rally and march against AIDS and for universal healthcare. We will be gathering at the debate of Democratic presidential candidates. (Location TBD, somewhere in Philadelphia) Demand the candidates commit to ending AIDS and keep United States' pledges to achieve universal access to comprehensive treatment and prevention, in the U.S. and around the world. Our demands:
$50 billion over 5 years to fight global AIDS
REAL universal, free health care in the United States
Evidence-based prevention policies
Sponsored by: ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP New York, African Services Committee, American Medical Student Association, Campaign to End AIDS - Youth Caucus, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, Health GAP, Housing Works, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign. For more info, to endorse the march, or help plan the action, contact kaytee@healthgap.org or 267 334 6984.
For more information about the Oct 30 event, read more below.
This Halloween, join ACT UP and activists from across the country to Philadelphia for a rally and march against AIDS and for universal healthcare. We will be gathering at the debate of Democratic presidential candidates. (Location TBD, somewhere in Philadelphia) Demand the candidates commit to ending AIDS and keep United States' pledges to achieve universal access to comprehensive treatment and prevention, in the U.S. and around the world. Our demands:
$50 billion over 5 years to fight global AIDS
REAL universal, free health care in the United States
Evidence-based prevention policies
Sponsored by: ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP New York, African Services Committee, American Medical Student Association, Campaign to End AIDS - Youth Caucus, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, Health GAP, Housing Works, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign. For more info, to endorse the march, or help plan the action, contact kaytee@healthgap.org or 267 334 6984.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
National mobilization for Healthcare not Warfare
National mobilization for Healthcare not Warfare. There will be a march from the VA Hospital (39th and Woodland) to Independence Hall on Sat., October 27. Each group will be asked to fill a block on the parade route. Our health care group has chosen 19th and Market, Independence Blue Cross as a gathering place. There is a wide sidewalk in front or across the street from the building. SO, we can take the 19th & Market block for Philadelphia Area Committee To Defend Health Care. Please plan to participate on Saturday, October 27th, 12:30 to 1:00pm. After that we wait for the March from the VA hospital to reach us and join behind them (or take the bus) to Independance Square for a Rally Celebration(if so inclined.) More updates will come.
Make a movie, support single payer
OK, this is a chance to support national health insurance and put our money where our mouths are. We should send it out widely. I think Mark Webber's mom is Cheri Honkala, KWRU. There is a little blurb on Explicit Ills here. and the Inky below.
Inqlings | Indie role for Rosario Dawson
By Michael Klein
Inquirer Columnist
Rosario Dawson should be in town soon to join the cast of explicit ills., an independent film exploring the effects of drugs and poverty and the choices that people make.
A month of filming starts this week in North Philly under the eye of actor/first-time director Mark Webber (Broken Flowers), who in April won the Philadelphia Film Festival's Rising Star Award; his mother, Cheri Honkala, is an activist with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.
Dawson, who grew up poor herself in New York, plays a woman with an asthmatic son and no insurance.
Sound like a downer? "It's uplifting," says Mike Lemon, who is handling the casting.
Also cast are Paul Franklin Dano (Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine); Naomie Harris (the voodoo princess in Pirates of the Caribbean); Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker); and Tariq Trotter (a.k.a. Black Thought of The Roots).
Walter
--------------------------
Dear Healthcare Organizers: We have an extraordinary opportunity to make a great impact in Philadelphia this coming Sunday, October 7th. A Hollywood film crew is going to be filming “Explicit Ills,” a new film about a child who is sick, cannot get healthcare coverage and dies. The stars are big, and the media is going to be there. Mark Weber who is a young star in several new films wrote the script.
Mark is asking that we be at Constitution Center at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday to be a part of a demonstration there for H.R. 676, national guaranteed healthcare for all carrying banners, signs, getting petition signatures – and all those things we do.
Mark’s mom will be leading a year-long effort in Minneapolis to create the atmosphere at the Republican Convention that makes clear that we must have a national healthcare system run by us, the people, not the corporate healthcare industrial complex. We’ll be able to use his film for openings and fund-raisers everywhere with all of our people featured in the campaign to get healthcare for everybody.
Please be there if you can. I cannot be there because of a family obligation, but I’ll be there in spirit. We need to do this, folks.
Marilyn Clement,
National Coordinator
Healthcare-NOW
www.healthcare-now.org
Inqlings | Indie role for Rosario Dawson
By Michael Klein
Inquirer Columnist
Rosario Dawson should be in town soon to join the cast of explicit ills., an independent film exploring the effects of drugs and poverty and the choices that people make.
A month of filming starts this week in North Philly under the eye of actor/first-time director Mark Webber (Broken Flowers), who in April won the Philadelphia Film Festival's Rising Star Award; his mother, Cheri Honkala, is an activist with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.
Dawson, who grew up poor herself in New York, plays a woman with an asthmatic son and no insurance.
Sound like a downer? "It's uplifting," says Mike Lemon, who is handling the casting.
Also cast are Paul Franklin Dano (Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine); Naomie Harris (the voodoo princess in Pirates of the Caribbean); Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker); and Tariq Trotter (a.k.a. Black Thought of The Roots).
Walter
--------------------------
Dear Healthcare Organizers: We have an extraordinary opportunity to make a great impact in Philadelphia this coming Sunday, October 7th. A Hollywood film crew is going to be filming “Explicit Ills,” a new film about a child who is sick, cannot get healthcare coverage and dies. The stars are big, and the media is going to be there. Mark Weber who is a young star in several new films wrote the script.
Mark is asking that we be at Constitution Center at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday to be a part of a demonstration there for H.R. 676, national guaranteed healthcare for all carrying banners, signs, getting petition signatures – and all those things we do.
Mark’s mom will be leading a year-long effort in Minneapolis to create the atmosphere at the Republican Convention that makes clear that we must have a national healthcare system run by us, the people, not the corporate healthcare industrial complex. We’ll be able to use his film for openings and fund-raisers everywhere with all of our people featured in the campaign to get healthcare for everybody.
Please be there if you can. I cannot be there because of a family obligation, but I’ll be there in spirit. We need to do this, folks.
Marilyn Clement,
National Coordinator
Healthcare-NOW
www.healthcare-now.org
Friday, September 07, 2007
Forum on Single Payer Delco
Green Solutions presents a Forum on
Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance for PA
Which do you prefer?
The way it
is now?
Or the way it
could be?
Join us Saturday, September 29th, 6-8:30 PM, at the Peace Center of Delaware
County (1001 Old Sproul Rd in Springfield, behind Sproul Lanes Bowling Alley) to learn:
-What is Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance & what would it mean for me?
-What is in the PA Family & Business Health Security Act (SB 300 / HB 1660) & how
does it compare with Rendell’s Prescription for PA?
-What is in the US National Health Insurance Act (HR 676)?
Featured Speakers:
Walter Tsou, MD, a physician specializing in public health who has worked persistently to obtain
adequate health benefits for everyone. Recently he has presented his popular power point
program on universal, single-payer health care to Congress.
Chuck Pennachio, a history professor at The University of the Arts. He has been traveling
around Pennsylvania in a tireless effort to promote health care legislation in Pennsylvania. He ran
against Senator Casey in the Democratic ‘07 primary.
Following the presentation will be a question and answer session. Refreshments will be served. More
information can be obtained at www.DelCoGreens.org or by calling 610-543-8427.
Co-sponsored by the Green Party of Delaware County & Citizen Access
Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance for PA
Which do you prefer?
The way it
is now?
Or the way it
could be?
Join us Saturday, September 29th, 6-8:30 PM, at the Peace Center of Delaware
County (1001 Old Sproul Rd in Springfield, behind Sproul Lanes Bowling Alley) to learn:
-What is Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance & what would it mean for me?
-What is in the PA Family & Business Health Security Act (SB 300 / HB 1660) & how
does it compare with Rendell’s Prescription for PA?
-What is in the US National Health Insurance Act (HR 676)?
Featured Speakers:
Walter Tsou, MD, a physician specializing in public health who has worked persistently to obtain
adequate health benefits for everyone. Recently he has presented his popular power point
program on universal, single-payer health care to Congress.
Chuck Pennachio, a history professor at The University of the Arts. He has been traveling
around Pennsylvania in a tireless effort to promote health care legislation in Pennsylvania. He ran
against Senator Casey in the Democratic ‘07 primary.
Following the presentation will be a question and answer session. Refreshments will be served. More
information can be obtained at www.DelCoGreens.org or by calling 610-543-8427.
Co-sponsored by the Green Party of Delaware County & Citizen Access
Public Forum on Health Care Reform
While the following is directly oriented toward Bucks County residents, it would be quite applicable and relevant to all:
Public Forum on Health Care Reform
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Bucks County Community College
Library Auditorium
275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA
9:30am to 12:30pm.
Free and open to the public.
The purpose of the forum is (1) to establish basic principles that Bucks County residents want to see incorporated in any health care reform developed at the state or national level, (2) and to inaugurate a network of Bucks County residents ready to respond and work for those principles.
Dr. Walter Tsou, past President of the American Public Health Association and Former Philadelphia Commissioner of Public Health, will speak about the problems with our current health care system. Congressman Patrick Murphy and State Representative David Steil will talk about the process of how legislation becomes law, and how citizens can be effective in their advocacy.
The participants of the forum will decide what basic principles need to be included in any current or future health care reform legislation.
Sponsored by Bucks County League of Women Voters and many others.
The upcoming edition of democratic Left will feature more information and background on the event.
For information, contact Dr. Henry D'Silva at 215-860-7442 or Greater Philadelphia DSA at PhilaDSA@gmail.com. For directions, visit www.bucks.edu.
Spread the word!
Public Forum on Health Care Reform
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Bucks County Community College
Library Auditorium
275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA
9:30am to 12:30pm.
Free and open to the public.
The purpose of the forum is (1) to establish basic principles that Bucks County residents want to see incorporated in any health care reform developed at the state or national level, (2) and to inaugurate a network of Bucks County residents ready to respond and work for those principles.
Dr. Walter Tsou, past President of the American Public Health Association and Former Philadelphia Commissioner of Public Health, will speak about the problems with our current health care system. Congressman Patrick Murphy and State Representative David Steil will talk about the process of how legislation becomes law, and how citizens can be effective in their advocacy.
The participants of the forum will decide what basic principles need to be included in any current or future health care reform legislation.
Sponsored by Bucks County League of Women Voters and many others.
The upcoming edition of democratic Left will feature more information and background on the event.
For information, contact Dr. Henry D'Silva at 215-860-7442 or Greater Philadelphia DSA at PhilaDSA@gmail.com. For directions, visit www.bucks.edu.
Spread the word!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Norristown Health Care Town Meeting
PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL APPROPRIATE INDIVIDUALS AND LISTS
To: Norristown-area folks concerned about healthcare
From: Phila Back, Working Families Win Organizer
Subject: Healthcare for All - What Are the Plans? 7 pm Wednesday, August 22, Carver Center, 249 Jacoby St., Norristown
Healthcare for All - The push is on! There are competing state proposals plus some federal bills AND the presidential candidates' plans. Working Families Win is having a program on August 22 for the public to learn about the different plans and to compare them. Get the facts and judge for yourself.
What: Forum on current state & federal healthcare proposals
Who: Speakers for:
Physicians for a National Health Program
Healthcare for All PA
Prescription for Pennsylvania
Status of Montgomery Hospital
When: 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 22
Where: George Washington Carver Community Center, 249 Jacoby St., Norristown
Please attend; bring your family & friends; post the attached flyer.
Phila Back
Organizer
Working Families Win
30 Pine Street, Kutztown, PA 19530
610-334-5563
610-683-8629 (FAX)
Phila_Back@verizon.net
www.wfwin.org
To: Norristown-area folks concerned about healthcare
From: Phila Back, Working Families Win Organizer
Subject: Healthcare for All - What Are the Plans? 7 pm Wednesday, August 22, Carver Center, 249 Jacoby St., Norristown
Healthcare for All - The push is on! There are competing state proposals plus some federal bills AND the presidential candidates' plans. Working Families Win is having a program on August 22 for the public to learn about the different plans and to compare them. Get the facts and judge for yourself.
What: Forum on current state & federal healthcare proposals
Who: Speakers for:
Physicians for a National Health Program
Healthcare for All PA
Prescription for Pennsylvania
Status of Montgomery Hospital
When: 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 22
Where: George Washington Carver Community Center, 249 Jacoby St., Norristown
Please attend; bring your family & friends; post the attached flyer.
Phila Back
Organizer
Working Families Win
30 Pine Street, Kutztown, PA 19530
610-334-5563
610-683-8629 (FAX)
Phila_Back@verizon.net
www.wfwin.org
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
HELP PROTECT HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN AND SENIORS!
SCHIP needs $50 Billion. The House of Representatives has identified the offsets to get us there. Will our elected leaders to take a stand for children?!
In the Senate-- In a show of bi-partisan work, the Senate Finance Committee approved $35 billion to support a major expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million children with health insurance.
The bill is not perfect – first it only give $35 billion to SCHIP when we are asking for $50 billion - but it is a major step along the way of providing meaningful reauthorization. The Senate Finance Committee is asking for this money to come from an increase in the tobacco tax.
ACTION!!!
CALL SENATOR CASEY AND SENATOR SPECTER AND TELL THEM:
SUPPORT the Finance Committee-approved bill
OPPOSE any weakening amendments
UTILIZE funding from overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans (which is undermining the Medicare system for seniors) and from an increase in the tobacco tax in conference
You can call your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-828-0498 or through their direct lines. For Senator Specter 202-224-4254 -- For Senator Casey 202-224-6324
The House is going to vote on the “Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act” (CHAMP Act) this week. The CHAMP ACT includes the following important provisions:
The entire $50 billion needed for full SCHIP reauthorization
Ending Citizenship Documentation Requirements by making it a state option for children applying for Medicaid. The CHAMP bill does not apply the citizenship documentation requirement to SCHIP.
Allowing States the Option of Covering LEGAL Immigrant Children and Pregnant Women
Giving States the Option of Covering Pregnant Women Under SCHIP
ACTION!!! CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND TELL THEM YOU WANT SCHIP FULLY FUNDED AT $50 BILLION!
SUPPORT the CHAMP SCHIP bill
OPPOSE any weakening amendments
UTILIZE funding from overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans (which is undermining the Medicare system for seniors) and from an increase in the tobacco tax
You can call your Congressman through the Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-828-0498 or
Congressman Brady - 202-225-4731 Congressman Gerlach - 202-225-4315
Congressman Fattah - 202-225-4001 Congressman Patrick Murphy - 202-225-4276
Congressman Sestak - 202-225-2011 Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz - 202 225 6111
How can we pay for SCHIP Reauthorization and provide millions of children with health insurance?
Raise the Tax on Tobacco
Raise the federal tobacco tax- The federal tax on cigarettes has remained at 39 cents per pack since 2002. An increase to the cigarette tax of 61 cents per pack would raise over $35 billion over five years. This would pay for a portion of SCHIP reauthorization.
Stop Costly “Medicare Advantage” Overpayments, protect Medicare and Expand SCHIP
Reduce Medicare overpayments to private health plans which were brought into Medicare to save the program money. Instead private plans are costing the Treasury tens of billions of dollars because they are significantly overpaid – receiving 12% higher reimbursement rates than fee-for-service Medicare plans. This money is NOT being used to offer additional benefits to seniors – instead, it is being used for marketing and profits and is undermining the Medicare program!
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Congress’ expert advisor on Medicare payments recommends that Medicare level the playing field by adjusting the payment formula to essentially pay private plans the same amounts it would pay to treat the same patients under fee-for-service. Matching the private Medicare plans rates with the fee-for-service rate would save $54 billion over five years.
· Overpayments to Medicare Advantage Programs hurts seniors because premium costs are tied to total Medicare costs. Senior citizens in traditional Medicare are paying $24 more in Part B premiums this year because of overpayments in Medicare Advantage
1 Medicare Advantage overpayments will shorten the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by two years
2 Most low-income seniors are not in Medicare Advantage plans. Instead, they are in a mixture of traditional Medicare and Medicaid.
Alisa Simon, Health Director
Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth
Seven Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Sixth Floor
Philadelphia, Pa 19103
215-563-5848 x 13 / 215-563-9442
alisasimon@pccy.org / www.pccy.org
In the Senate-- In a show of bi-partisan work, the Senate Finance Committee approved $35 billion to support a major expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover 4 million children with health insurance.
The bill is not perfect – first it only give $35 billion to SCHIP when we are asking for $50 billion - but it is a major step along the way of providing meaningful reauthorization. The Senate Finance Committee is asking for this money to come from an increase in the tobacco tax.
ACTION!!!
CALL SENATOR CASEY AND SENATOR SPECTER AND TELL THEM:
SUPPORT the Finance Committee-approved bill
OPPOSE any weakening amendments
UTILIZE funding from overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans (which is undermining the Medicare system for seniors) and from an increase in the tobacco tax in conference
You can call your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-828-0498 or through their direct lines. For Senator Specter 202-224-4254 -- For Senator Casey 202-224-6324
The House is going to vote on the “Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act” (CHAMP Act) this week. The CHAMP ACT includes the following important provisions:
The entire $50 billion needed for full SCHIP reauthorization
Ending Citizenship Documentation Requirements by making it a state option for children applying for Medicaid. The CHAMP bill does not apply the citizenship documentation requirement to SCHIP.
Allowing States the Option of Covering LEGAL Immigrant Children and Pregnant Women
Giving States the Option of Covering Pregnant Women Under SCHIP
ACTION!!! CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND TELL THEM YOU WANT SCHIP FULLY FUNDED AT $50 BILLION!
SUPPORT the CHAMP SCHIP bill
OPPOSE any weakening amendments
UTILIZE funding from overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans (which is undermining the Medicare system for seniors) and from an increase in the tobacco tax
You can call your Congressman through the Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-828-0498 or
Congressman Brady - 202-225-4731 Congressman Gerlach - 202-225-4315
Congressman Fattah - 202-225-4001 Congressman Patrick Murphy - 202-225-4276
Congressman Sestak - 202-225-2011 Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz - 202 225 6111
How can we pay for SCHIP Reauthorization and provide millions of children with health insurance?
Raise the Tax on Tobacco
Raise the federal tobacco tax- The federal tax on cigarettes has remained at 39 cents per pack since 2002. An increase to the cigarette tax of 61 cents per pack would raise over $35 billion over five years. This would pay for a portion of SCHIP reauthorization.
Stop Costly “Medicare Advantage” Overpayments, protect Medicare and Expand SCHIP
Reduce Medicare overpayments to private health plans which were brought into Medicare to save the program money. Instead private plans are costing the Treasury tens of billions of dollars because they are significantly overpaid – receiving 12% higher reimbursement rates than fee-for-service Medicare plans. This money is NOT being used to offer additional benefits to seniors – instead, it is being used for marketing and profits and is undermining the Medicare program!
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Congress’ expert advisor on Medicare payments recommends that Medicare level the playing field by adjusting the payment formula to essentially pay private plans the same amounts it would pay to treat the same patients under fee-for-service. Matching the private Medicare plans rates with the fee-for-service rate would save $54 billion over five years.
· Overpayments to Medicare Advantage Programs hurts seniors because premium costs are tied to total Medicare costs. Senior citizens in traditional Medicare are paying $24 more in Part B premiums this year because of overpayments in Medicare Advantage
1 Medicare Advantage overpayments will shorten the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by two years
2 Most low-income seniors are not in Medicare Advantage plans. Instead, they are in a mixture of traditional Medicare and Medicaid.
Alisa Simon, Health Director
Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth
Seven Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Sixth Floor
Philadelphia, Pa 19103
215-563-5848 x 13 / 215-563-9442
alisasimon@pccy.org / www.pccy.org
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Take a Republican, Get Michael to wash your clothes
See the Movie, Start the Revolution ...a letter from Michael Moore
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Friends,
I am overwhelmed by the response to "Sicko." And I'm not just talking about all the wonderful, heart-felt letters you've sent me and the stories you've shared with me about the abuse you've suffered from our health care system.
No, I'm talking about how thousands of you are taking matters into your own hands and using the movie to do something. From Seattle to New England, each day I learn of numerous groups holding meetings or dinners after the movie to discuss it and to plot a course for action. A church in Plano, TX took its weekly bible study group to see "SiCKO." 70 people crammed into a Wisconsin coffee shop's back room. Groups are plotting over pancakes in Illinois and microbrew in Missouri. E-mail addresses are being exchanged in theater lobbies. A Connecticut group is inviting legislators to see "Sicko" and keeping a tally on their website. Local groups have been buying out theaters to have special screenings for their members. Information tables are set up, literature is distributed, action groups are formed.
It's all an amazing sight. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see the impact a movie can have. For all of you who have written me to ask, "What can I do," well, read more about what others have done, and then try these simple steps:
1. Call or write you member of Congress right now (I'll wait) and tell him or her that you insist they become a co-sponsor of H.R. 676 -- "The United States National Health Insurance Act." It's sponsored currently by Rep. John Conyers and 76 other members of Congress. Insist that your congressperson be one of those co-sponsors. I want to see 100 co-sponsors by Thanksgiving. Will you help make that happen?
2. Call and write to each of the candidates running for President. Tell them you expect them to back H.R. 676, and to take the Senator Brown pledge. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio refuses to accept his free, government-run health insurance until EVERY American is covered.
3. Organize your own local HealthCare-Now! coalition. You can do it in your own neighborhood. It has to start somewhere. Everyday people have to make this happen. Don't wait for someone else to do this. Ask yourself, "if not me, who?"
4. Call your local media and tell them about your health care horror story. Many papers and TV stations have been running these since "Sicko" arrived in theaters. They like the local angle. Tell them you saw the movie and that there's a "Sicko" story happening right here in (fill in the blank). Tell them you are passing it on to me.
Well, that's a start. Here's what I'm going to do. Because last weekend's "Win a Trip to a Universal Healthcare Country" was so successful (the winner will be announced next week), this weekend we're going to try something different: it's "Take a Republican to 'Sicko!'" C'mon, we all have a conservative in the family! They mean well. It's just that they believe what they've been told about that scary "socialized medicine." Treat them to the movie this weekend and tell them to send me their ticket stub and entry form. I will hold a drawing and the lucky winner will get to have me come to their home and do their laundry -- just like in France! Now, what would make a Republican happier than to see me working away in their laundry room?!
I truly believe that the health care issue is one where we can find some common ground with those who may hold different opinions than us. After all, they're getting the shaft by the same insurance and pharmaceutical companies we are. And sooner or later, they're not going to take it any more, either.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. I will be on Jay
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Friends,
I am overwhelmed by the response to "Sicko." And I'm not just talking about all the wonderful, heart-felt letters you've sent me and the stories you've shared with me about the abuse you've suffered from our health care system.
No, I'm talking about how thousands of you are taking matters into your own hands and using the movie to do something. From Seattle to New England, each day I learn of numerous groups holding meetings or dinners after the movie to discuss it and to plot a course for action. A church in Plano, TX took its weekly bible study group to see "SiCKO." 70 people crammed into a Wisconsin coffee shop's back room. Groups are plotting over pancakes in Illinois and microbrew in Missouri. E-mail addresses are being exchanged in theater lobbies. A Connecticut group is inviting legislators to see "Sicko" and keeping a tally on their website. Local groups have been buying out theaters to have special screenings for their members. Information tables are set up, literature is distributed, action groups are formed.
It's all an amazing sight. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see the impact a movie can have. For all of you who have written me to ask, "What can I do," well, read more about what others have done, and then try these simple steps:
1. Call or write you member of Congress right now (I'll wait) and tell him or her that you insist they become a co-sponsor of H.R. 676 -- "The United States National Health Insurance Act." It's sponsored currently by Rep. John Conyers and 76 other members of Congress. Insist that your congressperson be one of those co-sponsors. I want to see 100 co-sponsors by Thanksgiving. Will you help make that happen?
2. Call and write to each of the candidates running for President. Tell them you expect them to back H.R. 676, and to take the Senator Brown pledge. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio refuses to accept his free, government-run health insurance until EVERY American is covered.
3. Organize your own local HealthCare-Now! coalition. You can do it in your own neighborhood. It has to start somewhere. Everyday people have to make this happen. Don't wait for someone else to do this. Ask yourself, "if not me, who?"
4. Call your local media and tell them about your health care horror story. Many papers and TV stations have been running these since "Sicko" arrived in theaters. They like the local angle. Tell them you saw the movie and that there's a "Sicko" story happening right here in (fill in the blank). Tell them you are passing it on to me.
Well, that's a start. Here's what I'm going to do. Because last weekend's "Win a Trip to a Universal Healthcare Country" was so successful (the winner will be announced next week), this weekend we're going to try something different: it's "Take a Republican to 'Sicko!'" C'mon, we all have a conservative in the family! They mean well. It's just that they believe what they've been told about that scary "socialized medicine." Treat them to the movie this weekend and tell them to send me their ticket stub and entry form. I will hold a drawing and the lucky winner will get to have me come to their home and do their laundry -- just like in France! Now, what would make a Republican happier than to see me working away in their laundry room?!
I truly believe that the health care issue is one where we can find some common ground with those who may hold different opinions than us. After all, they're getting the shaft by the same insurance and pharmaceutical companies we are. And sooner or later, they're not going to take it any more, either.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. I will be on Jay
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Brilliant essay on private health care
BARBARA EHRENREICH|
Health Care vs. the Profit Principle
Posted July 12, 2007 | 12:35 PM (EST)
Read More: Breaking Politics News, Barbara Ehrenreich, George W. Bush, U.S. Congress, Aetna Inc., U.S. Republican Party
It's always nice to see the President take a principled stand on something. The man formerly known as "43," and now perhaps better named "29" for his record-breaking approval rating, is promising to battle any expansion of government health insurance for children -- and not because he hates children or refuses to cough up the funds. No, this is a battle over principle: private health care vs. government-provided health care. Speaking in Cleveland this week, Bush boldly asserted:
I strongly object to the government providing incentives for people to leave private medicine, private health care to the public sector. And I think it's wrong and I think it's a mistake. And therefore, I will resist Congress's attempt ... to federalize medicine...In my judgment that would be -- it would lead to not better medicine, but worse medicine. It would lead to not more innovation, but less innovation.
Now you don't have to have seen SiCKO to know that if there is one area of human endeavor where private enterprise doesn't work, it's health care. Consider the private, profit-making, insurance industry that Bush is so determined to defend. What "innovations" has it produced? The deductible, the co-pay, and the pre-existing condition are the only ones that leap to mind. In general, the great accomplishment of the private health insurance industry has been to overturn the very meaning of "insurance," which is risk-sharing: We all put in some money, though only some of us will need to draw on the common pool by using expensive health care. And the insurance companies have overturned it by refusing to insure the people who need care the most -- those who are already, or are likely to become, sick.
I once tried to explain to a Norwegian woman why it was so hard for me to find health insurance. I'd had breast cancer, I told her, and she looked at me blankly. "But then you really need insurance, right?" Of course, and that's why I couldn't have it.
This is not because health insurance executives are meaner than other people, although I do not rule that out. It's just that they're running a business, the purpose of which is not to make people healthy, but to make money, and they do very well at that. Once, many years ago, I complained to the left-wing economist Paul Sweezey that America had no real health system. "We have a system all right," he responded, "it's just a system for doing something else." A system, as he might have put it today, for extracting money from the vulnerable and putting it into the pockets of the rich.
But let's not just pick on the insurance companies, though I wouldn't mind doing that -- with a specially designed sharp instrument, over a period of years. Sunday's Los Angeles Times featured a particularly lurid case of medical profiteering in the form of one Dr. Prem Reddy, who owns eight hospitals in Southern California. I do not begrudge any physician a comfortable lifestyle -- good doctoring is hard work -- but Dr. Reddy dwells in a 15,000 square foot mansion featuring gold-plated toilets and keeps a second home, valued at more than $9 million, in Beverly Hills, as well as a $1.4 million helicopter for commuting.
The secret behind his $300 million fortune? For one thing, he rejects the standard hospital practice of making contracts with insurance companies because he feels that these contracts unduly limit his reimbursements. (In a battle between Aetna and Reddy, it would be hard to know which side to cheer for.) In addition, he's suspended much-needed services such as chemotherapy, a birthing center and mental health care as insufficiently profitable. And his hospitals are infamous for refusing to treat uninsured patients, like a patient with kidney failure and a 16-month-old baby with a burn.
But Dr. Reddy -- who is, incidentally a high-powered Republican donor -- has a principled reason for his piratical practices. "Patients," the Los Angeles Times reports him saying, "may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford." He dismisses as "an entitlement mentality" the idea that everyone should be getting the same high quality health care. This is Bush's vaunted principle of "private medicine" at its nastiest: You don't get what you need, only what you can pay for.
If government insurance for children (S-CHIP) isn't expanded to all the families that need it, there is no question but that some children will die -- painfully perhaps and certainly unnecessarily. But at least they will have died for a principle.
Health Care vs. the Profit Principle
Posted July 12, 2007 | 12:35 PM (EST)
Read More: Breaking Politics News, Barbara Ehrenreich, George W. Bush, U.S. Congress, Aetna Inc., U.S. Republican Party
It's always nice to see the President take a principled stand on something. The man formerly known as "43," and now perhaps better named "29" for his record-breaking approval rating, is promising to battle any expansion of government health insurance for children -- and not because he hates children or refuses to cough up the funds. No, this is a battle over principle: private health care vs. government-provided health care. Speaking in Cleveland this week, Bush boldly asserted:
I strongly object to the government providing incentives for people to leave private medicine, private health care to the public sector. And I think it's wrong and I think it's a mistake. And therefore, I will resist Congress's attempt ... to federalize medicine...In my judgment that would be -- it would lead to not better medicine, but worse medicine. It would lead to not more innovation, but less innovation.
Now you don't have to have seen SiCKO to know that if there is one area of human endeavor where private enterprise doesn't work, it's health care. Consider the private, profit-making, insurance industry that Bush is so determined to defend. What "innovations" has it produced? The deductible, the co-pay, and the pre-existing condition are the only ones that leap to mind. In general, the great accomplishment of the private health insurance industry has been to overturn the very meaning of "insurance," which is risk-sharing: We all put in some money, though only some of us will need to draw on the common pool by using expensive health care. And the insurance companies have overturned it by refusing to insure the people who need care the most -- those who are already, or are likely to become, sick.
I once tried to explain to a Norwegian woman why it was so hard for me to find health insurance. I'd had breast cancer, I told her, and she looked at me blankly. "But then you really need insurance, right?" Of course, and that's why I couldn't have it.
This is not because health insurance executives are meaner than other people, although I do not rule that out. It's just that they're running a business, the purpose of which is not to make people healthy, but to make money, and they do very well at that. Once, many years ago, I complained to the left-wing economist Paul Sweezey that America had no real health system. "We have a system all right," he responded, "it's just a system for doing something else." A system, as he might have put it today, for extracting money from the vulnerable and putting it into the pockets of the rich.
But let's not just pick on the insurance companies, though I wouldn't mind doing that -- with a specially designed sharp instrument, over a period of years. Sunday's Los Angeles Times featured a particularly lurid case of medical profiteering in the form of one Dr. Prem Reddy, who owns eight hospitals in Southern California. I do not begrudge any physician a comfortable lifestyle -- good doctoring is hard work -- but Dr. Reddy dwells in a 15,000 square foot mansion featuring gold-plated toilets and keeps a second home, valued at more than $9 million, in Beverly Hills, as well as a $1.4 million helicopter for commuting.
The secret behind his $300 million fortune? For one thing, he rejects the standard hospital practice of making contracts with insurance companies because he feels that these contracts unduly limit his reimbursements. (In a battle between Aetna and Reddy, it would be hard to know which side to cheer for.) In addition, he's suspended much-needed services such as chemotherapy, a birthing center and mental health care as insufficiently profitable. And his hospitals are infamous for refusing to treat uninsured patients, like a patient with kidney failure and a 16-month-old baby with a burn.
But Dr. Reddy -- who is, incidentally a high-powered Republican donor -- has a principled reason for his piratical practices. "Patients," the Los Angeles Times reports him saying, "may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford." He dismisses as "an entitlement mentality" the idea that everyone should be getting the same high quality health care. This is Bush's vaunted principle of "private medicine" at its nastiest: You don't get what you need, only what you can pay for.
If government insurance for children (S-CHIP) isn't expanded to all the families that need it, there is no question but that some children will die -- painfully perhaps and certainly unnecessarily. But at least they will have died for a principle.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sicko discussion
Yesterday, we had a Sicko discussion at the Penn Newman Center. To our delight, we had about 30 or more people who came to hear Dr. Walter Tsou talk about the moral AND economic arguments for single payer and HR 676. Later, Chuck Pennachio spoke about the arguments for HB 1660 and SB 300, the Family and Business Health Security Act which would provide a single payer program in Pennsylvania. There was a spirited discussion mostly around people's impression about the movie, about responses to critics of single payer, and about the need for local organization around the single payer effort. In that last regard, the Phila Area Committee to Defend Health Care has been a leader in the Philly area for single payer health care for many years and it was a welcome addition to use Sicko as a way of inspiring others to join us. If you are interested, come to our meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 - 9 PM, Penn Newman Center, 3720 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Send a note to phillyhc4all@aol.com
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
"Sicko's" Successful Weekend
"Sicko's" Successful Weekend Puts My Movie in 200 More Cities Beginning Today!
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
Friends,
The results are in from the weekend -- and they are amazing! "Sicko" more than doubled what industry insiders had predicted it would do for the weekend and, as I predicted, it did indeed have the second largest opening weekend in film history for a documentary (after F911). It also had the second highest per screen average for the weekend (after the Pixar animated film, "Ratatouille"). All this in spite of the fact, as Variety wrote, it's not been a very good year for documentaries at the box office. According to Variety, there have been 29 docs released in theaters in 2007, and they have grossed less than two million combined. What does it say about the state of affairs for non-fiction films if, in just three days, one film more than doubles what all 29 of them did together? I've decided I want to do something about this. I see so many great documentaries and it's a shame that most of you don't get to see them. Later this year, I will announce a new project that will help other filmmakers get the distribution they deserve.
Of course, if you live in Lincoln, NE; Bangor, ME; Reno, NV; New Haven, CT; Columbia, SC; or Oklahoma City, you didn't get to see "Sicko" this weekend either. But thanks to the massive turnout in the 440 theaters who had it, the studio has decided to expand "Sicko," TODAY (Tuesday, July 3) to 200 more theaters! And this Friday, they will add another 100 cities. Those of you who went to see it in the last few days have made it possible for others around the country to see my movie. Thank you.
So this will become the make-it-or-break-it week for "Sicko." Will you help me? Here's something you can do right now. Go to your address book icon on your computer and send a brief note to all your friends and associates about why they should see "Sicko." Then organize a group of your friends to go see "Sicko" some night this week. I promise you that you won't be disappointed. After all, what's the worst that could happen -- a pardon or a commutation from the President of the United States?
On Sunday, Canada celebrated the 45th anniversary of its free, universal health care system -- with its built-in bonus of living longer than we do. Why do they have this and not us? We've already taken their Stanley Cup from them for good. Let's demand we get to live as long as they do, too! What good is a dumb ol' Cup if we aren't around long enough to use it?
The letters you are sending me are powerful and profound. Thank you for sharing with me thousands of more stories about the criminal way our system operates. One woman wrote to say her dentist just gave her this choice: have all her teeth pulled, or pay him $30,000 to fix and rebuild them. She told me she's made the choice to give up her teeth -- a choice she was forced to make only because she lives from paycheck to paycheck in middle class America. This is a crime.
Go to your address book on your computer now and send out that e-mail to everyone you know and tell them to find their way to the theater this week. This film stands the chance of igniting a movement. Let's not let this moment pass.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
Friends,
The results are in from the weekend -- and they are amazing! "Sicko" more than doubled what industry insiders had predicted it would do for the weekend and, as I predicted, it did indeed have the second largest opening weekend in film history for a documentary (after F911). It also had the second highest per screen average for the weekend (after the Pixar animated film, "Ratatouille"). All this in spite of the fact, as Variety wrote, it's not been a very good year for documentaries at the box office. According to Variety, there have been 29 docs released in theaters in 2007, and they have grossed less than two million combined. What does it say about the state of affairs for non-fiction films if, in just three days, one film more than doubles what all 29 of them did together? I've decided I want to do something about this. I see so many great documentaries and it's a shame that most of you don't get to see them. Later this year, I will announce a new project that will help other filmmakers get the distribution they deserve.
Of course, if you live in Lincoln, NE; Bangor, ME; Reno, NV; New Haven, CT; Columbia, SC; or Oklahoma City, you didn't get to see "Sicko" this weekend either. But thanks to the massive turnout in the 440 theaters who had it, the studio has decided to expand "Sicko," TODAY (Tuesday, July 3) to 200 more theaters! And this Friday, they will add another 100 cities. Those of you who went to see it in the last few days have made it possible for others around the country to see my movie. Thank you.
So this will become the make-it-or-break-it week for "Sicko." Will you help me? Here's something you can do right now. Go to your address book icon on your computer and send a brief note to all your friends and associates about why they should see "Sicko." Then organize a group of your friends to go see "Sicko" some night this week. I promise you that you won't be disappointed. After all, what's the worst that could happen -- a pardon or a commutation from the President of the United States?
On Sunday, Canada celebrated the 45th anniversary of its free, universal health care system -- with its built-in bonus of living longer than we do. Why do they have this and not us? We've already taken their Stanley Cup from them for good. Let's demand we get to live as long as they do, too! What good is a dumb ol' Cup if we aren't around long enough to use it?
The letters you are sending me are powerful and profound. Thank you for sharing with me thousands of more stories about the criminal way our system operates. One woman wrote to say her dentist just gave her this choice: have all her teeth pulled, or pay him $30,000 to fix and rebuild them. She told me she's made the choice to give up her teeth -- a choice she was forced to make only because she lives from paycheck to paycheck in middle class America. This is a crime.
Go to your address book on your computer now and send out that e-mail to everyone you know and tell them to find their way to the theater this week. This film stands the chance of igniting a movement. Let's not let this moment pass.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Thursday, June 28, 2007
We have a PA House Single Payer Bill
We have a PA House Single Payer Bill, HR 1660. Thank you, Rep. Kathy Mandarino and the 28 other co sponsors of this groundbreaking legislation.
Please call your state representative and ask him/her to support this bill.
Please call your state representative and ask him/her to support this bill.
Go See Sicko
Don't miss the most important health care movie, maybe ever. If you want to help flyer at any of these theaters, here are some of the links with flyers:
www.sickocure.org
www.healthcare-now.org
www.healthcare4allpa.org
Here are the list of movie theaters showing Sicko in the area:
Bala Cynwyd, PA Clearview Bala Theatre
Bensalem, PA AMC Neshaminy 24
Cherry Hill, NJ LCE Cherry Hill 24
Doylestown, PA Regal Barn Plaza 14
Jenkintown, PA Hiway
King of Prussia, PA UA KingOfPrussia Stadium 15 & IMAX
Langhorne, PA Regal Oxford Valley 14
Newtown Square, PA Regal Edgmont Square 10
Oaks, PA Regal Marketplace 24
Philadelphia, PA Ritz East
Plymouth Meeting, PA AMC Plymouth Meeting Cinema 12
Warrington, PA Regal Warrington Crossing 22
www.sickocure.org
www.healthcare-now.org
www.healthcare4allpa.org
Here are the list of movie theaters showing Sicko in the area:
Bala Cynwyd, PA Clearview Bala Theatre
Bensalem, PA AMC Neshaminy 24
Cherry Hill, NJ LCE Cherry Hill 24
Doylestown, PA Regal Barn Plaza 14
Jenkintown, PA Hiway
King of Prussia, PA UA KingOfPrussia Stadium 15 & IMAX
Langhorne, PA Regal Oxford Valley 14
Newtown Square, PA Regal Edgmont Square 10
Oaks, PA Regal Marketplace 24
Philadelphia, PA Ritz East
Plymouth Meeting, PA AMC Plymouth Meeting Cinema 12
Warrington, PA Regal Warrington Crossing 22
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sicko Town Meeting
On Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 7 PM, there will be a Town Meeting at the Penn Newman Center, 3720 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia to discuss Sicko, single payer health care, and what WE can do to help advance national health insurance in America. Everyone is invited. Donations to support this effort would be appreciated.
Here are some web sites to read more about helping in these efforts:
HR 676 - the US National Health Insurance Act of 2007
http://www.sickocure.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
http://www.pnhp.org
SB 300 - the Pennsylvania Family and Business Health Security Act (state single payer plan)
http://www.helpfundpa.org
Here are some web sites to read more about helping in these efforts:
HR 676 - the US National Health Insurance Act of 2007
http://www.sickocure.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
http://www.pnhp.org
SB 300 - the Pennsylvania Family and Business Health Security Act (state single payer plan)
http://www.helpfundpa.org
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Single payer Go See Sicko
There was a sneak preview of Michael Moore’s documentary about the crisis in American healthcare at the Ritz East this past Saturday. It will return June 29tth to three Philadelphia theaters—the Ritz East, the Bala, and the Bridge. Moore’s film, I have heard, is heart-breaking, convincing, and very funny (the last is no surprise, from the director of Farenheit 9/11, whatever you thought of its politics). Moore contends that the answer to unaffordable premiums, insurance companies that try to elude giving you the benefits you have paid for, poor quality care, is an state-run not-for-profit healthcare system. He wants a national plan that is supported by taxes, which is what every other advanced country in the world has. And so it is indeed news that the appearance of “Sicko” coincides with groundbreaking activity in the Pennsylvania state house on behalf of the Family & Business Health Care Security Act.
Representative Kathy Mandarino, who recently agreed to be the Prime Sponsor of this bill in the House, last week circulated a Memo seeking co-sponsors (endorsement) for it. Here in our own state we could have the kind of healthcare system—often tagged “Medicare for All”—that Moore is calling for, which would make us a model for the nation. If we get single payer health insurance here, the national bill that has been stalled in Congress (despite numerous endorsements) since 2005, a bill subtitled “Medicare for All” (HR 686), might find itself infused with new life. Both bills offer comprehensive benefits: beyond “medical” care, they offer dental, mental health, vision, chiropractic, hospice, longterm, and other kinds of health services.
Single payer simply means that the money for the health system comes out of a single tax-supported fund. Not all government-run systems around the world are exactly like that, but one of the things that unites them is that profit is NOT their objective. Yet we are not talking about anything resembling what people associate with “socialized medicine.” With the kind of health system the Pennsylvania Family and Business Healthcare Security Act and HR 676 would provide, you could go to any doctor or hospital you wanted. and there would actually be less bureaucracy than there is now. The involvement of profit-making insurance companies that act as middlemen adds costly layers of paperwork (such expenses are about 24% of the American healthcare budget) while Medicare’s overhead is only 4%. Friends in France (widely considered the nation that has the best health system) tell me they have personal relationships with their doctors, who do not have money on their minds while treating them.
Americans pay about twice as much as people in other countries for health care, and yet are less healthy. Of course the 47 million without insurance, are less healthy: less likely to have early diagnoses for disease, less likely to get preventative care. But Americans in general have a higher infant and maternal mortality rate and have a 25 % greater chance of dying early. Moore’s film, focuses of those who DO have insurance. Because health insurance in the US is an industry with profit as its goal, it tries to get out of spending money, and thus “Sicko” tells horrifying stories. One is about a woman who was refused payment for an MRI on the grounds that it was unnecessary and then found out, after having the test in Japan, that she had a brain tumor.
Like Michael Moore I believe that health insurance, unlike car insurance, should have nothing to do with profit: access to health care is a fundamental right in a democracy. All Americans should have high-quality health care: rich people should not have better health care and hence better health than poor people! We do not find this to be an obvious truth because we have been brainwashed by the medical-insurance and pharmaceutical industries which spend tremendous amounts of money to keep the truth from us, often by paying lobbyists to keep the media silent.
Thus most of us know about Rendell’s Prescription for Pennsylvania, legislation that would not offer comprehensive benefits and would not come close to covering everybody. Yet few of us even know that the Healthcare Security Act is in the state legislature (and HR 676 in Congress). But the Governor knows: At a forum in Lancaster in early April he conceded that a single-payer model of healthcare for Pennsylvanians might be better, and he acknowledged that the state’s powerful health insurance lobbies was a “hurdle.” He has promised not to veto a single payer bill if it gets through the legislature, so let’s give him a chance to keep his promise. Call or e-mail your Pennsylvania House member right after reading this, and demand he or she endorse the bill—you can find the right phone number or e-mail by going to this website: www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm And see “Sicko”!
Representative Kathy Mandarino, who recently agreed to be the Prime Sponsor of this bill in the House, last week circulated a Memo seeking co-sponsors (endorsement) for it. Here in our own state we could have the kind of healthcare system—often tagged “Medicare for All”—that Moore is calling for, which would make us a model for the nation. If we get single payer health insurance here, the national bill that has been stalled in Congress (despite numerous endorsements) since 2005, a bill subtitled “Medicare for All” (HR 686), might find itself infused with new life. Both bills offer comprehensive benefits: beyond “medical” care, they offer dental, mental health, vision, chiropractic, hospice, longterm, and other kinds of health services.
Single payer simply means that the money for the health system comes out of a single tax-supported fund. Not all government-run systems around the world are exactly like that, but one of the things that unites them is that profit is NOT their objective. Yet we are not talking about anything resembling what people associate with “socialized medicine.” With the kind of health system the Pennsylvania Family and Business Healthcare Security Act and HR 676 would provide, you could go to any doctor or hospital you wanted. and there would actually be less bureaucracy than there is now. The involvement of profit-making insurance companies that act as middlemen adds costly layers of paperwork (such expenses are about 24% of the American healthcare budget) while Medicare’s overhead is only 4%. Friends in France (widely considered the nation that has the best health system) tell me they have personal relationships with their doctors, who do not have money on their minds while treating them.
Americans pay about twice as much as people in other countries for health care, and yet are less healthy. Of course the 47 million without insurance, are less healthy: less likely to have early diagnoses for disease, less likely to get preventative care. But Americans in general have a higher infant and maternal mortality rate and have a 25 % greater chance of dying early. Moore’s film, focuses of those who DO have insurance. Because health insurance in the US is an industry with profit as its goal, it tries to get out of spending money, and thus “Sicko” tells horrifying stories. One is about a woman who was refused payment for an MRI on the grounds that it was unnecessary and then found out, after having the test in Japan, that she had a brain tumor.
Like Michael Moore I believe that health insurance, unlike car insurance, should have nothing to do with profit: access to health care is a fundamental right in a democracy. All Americans should have high-quality health care: rich people should not have better health care and hence better health than poor people! We do not find this to be an obvious truth because we have been brainwashed by the medical-insurance and pharmaceutical industries which spend tremendous amounts of money to keep the truth from us, often by paying lobbyists to keep the media silent.
Thus most of us know about Rendell’s Prescription for Pennsylvania, legislation that would not offer comprehensive benefits and would not come close to covering everybody. Yet few of us even know that the Healthcare Security Act is in the state legislature (and HR 676 in Congress). But the Governor knows: At a forum in Lancaster in early April he conceded that a single-payer model of healthcare for Pennsylvanians might be better, and he acknowledged that the state’s powerful health insurance lobbies was a “hurdle.” He has promised not to veto a single payer bill if it gets through the legislature, so let’s give him a chance to keep his promise. Call or e-mail your Pennsylvania House member right after reading this, and demand he or she endorse the bill—you can find the right phone number or e-mail by going to this website: www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm And see “Sicko”!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
State House single payer bill gathers cosponsors
From Chuck Pennachio, Exec Director of www.helpfundpa.org
Yes, folks, we have a House bill version of the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" on the way to introduction. Thanks to the courage and vision of Rep. Kathy Mandarino (D, Phila), her circulation memo encouraging colleagues to co-sponsor FaBHCA is making the rounds as of this morning. That means we have approximately one week to lobby the State House to get as many co-sponsors as possible on the bill before its formal introduction. So get those phone calls and e-mails off to your representatives right away!
Click on the following for resources to locate and contact those House members already committed to the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act." But please reach out to ALL members. Additionally, the Capitol Hill switchboard number is 717.787.2121. For name and local contact info. go to www.congress.org and to state legislators; put in your zip code.
http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/legislators.htm
Working together we are saving our economy, liberating all our citizens from healthcare insecurity, and restoring sanity to a medical delivery system that is broken. Virtually all economists now agree that the only means to achieving all of the above is through legislation like our universal single-payer bill. See you on the campaign trail!
Yours in unity,
Chuck
Yes, folks, we have a House bill version of the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" on the way to introduction. Thanks to the courage and vision of Rep. Kathy Mandarino (D, Phila), her circulation memo encouraging colleagues to co-sponsor FaBHCA is making the rounds as of this morning. That means we have approximately one week to lobby the State House to get as many co-sponsors as possible on the bill before its formal introduction. So get those phone calls and e-mails off to your representatives right away!
Click on the following for resources to locate and contact those House members already committed to the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act." But please reach out to ALL members. Additionally, the Capitol Hill switchboard number is 717.787.2121. For name and local contact info. go to www.congress.org and to state legislators; put in your zip code.
http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/legislators.htm
Working together we are saving our economy, liberating all our citizens from healthcare insecurity, and restoring sanity to a medical delivery system that is broken. Virtually all economists now agree that the only means to achieving all of the above is through legislation like our universal single-payer bill. See you on the campaign trail!
Yours in unity,
Chuck
Sicko press event and movie premiere
The wait is over. Sicko is being released this Saturday. Here is the list. Locally, it will be at the Ritz East and the Ritz in Voohees, NJ. Next week will have a wider distribution list. Sylvia Metzler, RN, CRNP who has seen the film on a sneak preview called me excitedly to say, "you have got to see this film". It will make you laugh, cry, cheer, and finally demand that our country get a better health care system. Don't miss this movie. Send this to all your friends.
On June 19, the red Sicko bus came and it was filled with nurses ready to promote the movie. They came from all over, New York, Calif, Illinois, etc. Very exciting.
On June 19, the red Sicko bus came and it was filled with nurses ready to promote the movie. They came from all over, New York, Calif, Illinois, etc. Very exciting.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Join us at Sicko Press Event June 19
On Tuesday, June 19, 12 noon at the Liberty Bell, there will be a rally in suppport of Michael Moore's amazing new movie, Sicko which has its national debut, June 29. It will be shown at the Ritz theaters, Bala, and the Bridge among other places in Philadelphia.
Locally, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals will be welcoming the nurses from the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) to Philadelphia on their way to D.C. They will be promoting the national release of the riveting movie “SiCKO” and building a broad movement for genuine health care reform. “SiCKO” is a new film by Michael Moore which documents real-life health care problems; putting a face on the vast number of Americans who have trouble with their insurance or no insurance at all.
Join us for a Press Event on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at noon at Independence Mall (on Market Street between 5th and 6th streets) to hear speakers, including one of the movie's stars, discuss “SiCKO” and the need for guaranteed health care for all.
Locally, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals will be welcoming the nurses from the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) to Philadelphia on their way to D.C. They will be promoting the national release of the riveting movie “SiCKO” and building a broad movement for genuine health care reform. “SiCKO” is a new film by Michael Moore which documents real-life health care problems; putting a face on the vast number of Americans who have trouble with their insurance or no insurance at all.
Join us for a Press Event on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at noon at Independence Mall (on Market Street between 5th and 6th streets) to hear speakers, including one of the movie's stars, discuss “SiCKO” and the need for guaranteed health care for all.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Change in General Meeting Start Time-6:30 PM
Please note an error in the time. This special general meeting will start at 6:30 PM and will be a joint meeting with the local National Assoc. of Health Care Executives. The presenters will be Drs. Walter Tsou and Chuck Pennachio who will discuss single payer health care at the national and local level. Please come out for this information session. After the meeting, we will be having a business meeting of the PACDHC.
The location is the same: Penn Newman Center, 3720 Chestnut St, parking in the lot behind the center on Sansom Street.
The location is the same: Penn Newman Center, 3720 Chestnut St, parking in the lot behind the center on Sansom Street.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Bipartisan PA Single Payer Bill Introduced in House
Dear Healthcare Leaders:
Please extend your heartiest thanks right away to Reps. Tony Payton (tpayton@pahouse.net) and Dave Steil (dsteil@pahousegop.com ) for co-introducing the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This is a huge step for our single-payer movement, and its significance should not be lost on anyone -- especially when you realize the degree to which certain individuals have tried to forestall our legislation while paying lip service to single-payer and our citizen lobbying efforts.
On the lobbying front, social workers on Tuesday, and medical students and medical providers on Wednesday pitched more than 100 legislators and legislative aides on the remarkable attributes of the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act. Not one approach was rebuffed; members and staff wanted to learn more; common ground was discovered even with the most conservative legislators -- all of whom recognize the same fault lines in the medical industrial complex. As always, follow up is the key to securing commitments.
Keep on organizing, speaking, writing, contributing, blogging, and educating! Now is another very good time to remind your state representative and state senator to co-sponsor (or thank them for co-sponsoring) the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.
Also, please go check out our improved web site, where you will find new and valuable resources available to all... Plus we have upcoming meetings in Pittsburgh (this good-luck Friday the 13th) and in State College (Saturday the 21st). Details are at www.helpfundpa.org.
Yours in solidarity,
Chuck
Chuck Pennacchio
Executive Director, Health Education & Legislative Progress (HELP) Fund of PA www.helpfundpa.org
chuck@helpfundpa.org
Please extend your heartiest thanks right away to Reps. Tony Payton (tpayton@pahouse.net) and Dave Steil (dsteil@pahousegop.com ) for co-introducing the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act into the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This is a huge step for our single-payer movement, and its significance should not be lost on anyone -- especially when you realize the degree to which certain individuals have tried to forestall our legislation while paying lip service to single-payer and our citizen lobbying efforts.
On the lobbying front, social workers on Tuesday, and medical students and medical providers on Wednesday pitched more than 100 legislators and legislative aides on the remarkable attributes of the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act. Not one approach was rebuffed; members and staff wanted to learn more; common ground was discovered even with the most conservative legislators -- all of whom recognize the same fault lines in the medical industrial complex. As always, follow up is the key to securing commitments.
Keep on organizing, speaking, writing, contributing, blogging, and educating! Now is another very good time to remind your state representative and state senator to co-sponsor (or thank them for co-sponsoring) the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.
Also, please go check out our improved web site, where you will find new and valuable resources available to all... Plus we have upcoming meetings in Pittsburgh (this good-luck Friday the 13th) and in State College (Saturday the 21st). Details are at www.helpfundpa.org.
Yours in solidarity,
Chuck
Chuck Pennacchio
Executive Director, Health Education & Legislative Progress (HELP) Fund of PA www.helpfundpa.org
chuck@helpfundpa.org
Rendell Encounters Rosie, the Single Payer Activist
On 4/12/07, Skostouf@aol.com wrote:
Following is background and an encounter I had with Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday, 4/4/07, at the Health Care Forum at F&M sponsored by the Lancaster based Progressives 4 PA.
Rosie
The panel included 2 physicians, an economist, an employee benefits executive, HelpFundPA Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio, and arriving late and leaving early, Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor breezed in when Chuck, the last of the 4 previous speakers, was wrapping up. He therefore missed the fact that the 2 physicians and the economist provided evidence supportive of the single payer plan (Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, SB300) that Chuck so eloquently promoted. Rendell's pejorative tone toward Chuck and those of us who support the Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, as well as his contradictory statements regarding a single payer plan, was exactly the kind of rhetoric that gives politicians a bad name. Rendell exhibited contempt for the people and physicians but sheer adoration for insurance companies. At one point he joked, "I'd like to wake up tomorrow and comb my hair in a pompadour, but that's not gonna happen. And passing a single payer health care bill isn't gonna happen." The governor accused those of us supporting the single payer bill of engaging in a Quixotic tilting at windmills. When he finished speaking, the governor entertained a few questions and then HAD to leave. Since I had not been given a chance to present my comments/questions, Rendell said I could talk to him on his way out of the building, so I did.
Here's how that went--- lightly paraphrased:
ROSIE: Governor, your political prowess is legendary. If you were to push SB300(single payer) it would have a good chance of passing.
GUV: It can't work at the state level, only at the national level.
ROSIE: Have you read the bill (which Rendell has in the past said he'd sign if it passes the legislature), because if you had you'd realize that it will work in PA.
GUV: I've read it. It can't work at the state level.
ROSIE: The Harrisburg Patriot and the Philadelphia Inquirer have endorsed our single payer plan.
GUV: It can't work at the state level.
ROSIE: In your address tonight you stated that during a period of years when inflation rose 16%, health insurance premiums increased 75%. Why would you continue to reward these irresponsible insurance companies who have contributed to our health care crisis.
GUV: ( Not much by way of comment ; changing the subject) The health care plan proposed by presidential candidate John Edwards is a good one .
ROSIE: The Edwards plan is pretty good, and it does lead to a single payer plan.
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
Well, you get the idea. As we neared the door, I made one last comment referring to his earlier pompadour remark:
ROSIE: Governor, get yourself some Rogaine, grow that pompadour, and give us single payer health care!!!!!!!!!
For more on single payer see improved site: http://www.HelpFundPa.org
And now, for double-speak(1984) and Rendell-speak...from John Morgan......
Subj: Rendell-speak....single payer...and Rosie's encounter w. the Guv!
Date: 04/12/2007 10:36:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Skostouf
To: Skostouf
from John Morgan's http://www.thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com
Rendell's Dishonesty on Health Care
Ed Rendell likes to say he'd sign a single payer, comprehensive health care bill providing universal coverage but he's parsing his words. He's being dishonest because he's implying he supports such a bill when he does not. The Governor is actually doing everything within his power to stop Senate Bill 300, an actual single payer, comprehensive, universal health care bill, from being introduced and enacted into law.
We caught him lying his way through a health care forum last week in Lancaster when he claimed such a bill has no chance of being passed and that no such a bill has yet to pass anywhere. It did pass in California but they have the exact same obstacle to overcome as here: the Governor. The fact is that unless Ed Rendell wakes up and becomes a real Democrat fighting for the people he'll never be able to able establish a legacy of taking care of the people much less be able to comb a pompadour.
The fact is if the Governor supports the single payer bill it can be passed and he can sign it into law. Rendell falsely claimed the bill has no Republican support but if he'd bothered to stick around or bothered to listen to the other participants at the forum, or allowed any of them to respond to the questions asked he would have discovered he was wrong about that.
Rendell sold out to the health insurance industry. He took $183,000 from their PAC's and thousands more in individual contributions from executives of AmeriChoice and other companies preying on the citizenry. They've bought off the Governor and now he's determined to give them what they want: a state requirement that every resident MUST purchase health insurance from one of their companies.
He isn't telling you that part of the deal however. He's going about giving lip service to the benefits of single payer while siding with the other side. Instead of realizing he doesn't have to run for office again and being freed from any obligations he might feel indebted to and doing the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania he's trying to screw everyone instead. Instead of making his final term in public office about taking care of the people he's taking care of health insurance companies.
I circulated his petition last year and voted for him in November. Now I regret having done that. It's a good thing he isn't running again because as the word gets out about his dishonesty regarding this issue he'll be losing considerable support. I believed the Governor when he told us he'd sign a single payer bill. I mistakenly thought that meant he supported true health care reform. He doesn't and he isn't. His words cannot hide his actions and his actions speak louder than his words. When he announced his plan and the CEO of Highmark was standing beside him we all knew this was nothing more than a corporate welfare program for the health insurance industry.
Rendell said his plan covers mental health but it doesn't. His own proposed bill says only that all benefits are "limited." It says nothing about comprehensive care. It also requires health care providers to continue establishing and documenting their indigent care practices which acknowledges his plan doesn't provide universal coverage. Don't believe anything Rendell is telling you about his plan or his support for different plans. Read the bills and see for yourself what's covered and what isn't.
People are suffering and dying every day at the hands of the insurance industry. These corporations are legally required to serve their shareholders rather you, the insured. That is the fundamental flaw in this system. Our legal system mandates they deny you care so they can maximize profits, that's how capitalism works. The reason we have government is to take care of the people where private business cannot and health care should be one of those fundamental government operations. Where lives are at stake, where safety nets are crucial, government needs to be there to insure care and treatment, not private business.
The single payer system proposed here is not socialized medicine. No doctors, nurses, aides, or any other care provider would be employed by government. They all remain privately employed. Hospitals and other providers remain private businesses. What we change is the collection of premiums and the disbursement of payments to providers. Instead of these private companies in business for profit or to enrich their financial reserves at your expense, a single state agency collects payroll taxes and a personal income tax (in lieu of a premium) from individuals then uses those funds to pay doctors and hospitals for your treatment. The 20-25% of current health care costs being spent on advertising, CEO salaries and agent commissions is enough to cover all the uninsured. It's time for a real solution to this crisis and a real solution can never be achieved unless we deal with the biggest obstacle to universal coverage: the insurance companies.
Rendell loves to talk and talk and talk about cutting waste from the system. He goes on and on about emergency rooms and nurses not being allowed to sew stitches, about hospital acquired infections and all that. What he neglects to mention is the biggest single waste of health care dollars: the vast bureaucracy of adjustors, auditors, claims specialists, actuaries, etc. duplicating each others efforts in hundreds of different insurance companies. That's the largest source of waste in the system and the Governor's plan does not deal with that problem. Until you do Guv, STFU.
Following is background and an encounter I had with Gov. Ed Rendell on Wednesday, 4/4/07, at the Health Care Forum at F&M sponsored by the Lancaster based Progressives 4 PA.
Rosie
The panel included 2 physicians, an economist, an employee benefits executive, HelpFundPA Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio, and arriving late and leaving early, Gov. Ed Rendell. The governor breezed in when Chuck, the last of the 4 previous speakers, was wrapping up. He therefore missed the fact that the 2 physicians and the economist provided evidence supportive of the single payer plan (Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, SB300) that Chuck so eloquently promoted. Rendell's pejorative tone toward Chuck and those of us who support the Family and Business Health Care Security Act of 2007, as well as his contradictory statements regarding a single payer plan, was exactly the kind of rhetoric that gives politicians a bad name. Rendell exhibited contempt for the people and physicians but sheer adoration for insurance companies. At one point he joked, "I'd like to wake up tomorrow and comb my hair in a pompadour, but that's not gonna happen. And passing a single payer health care bill isn't gonna happen." The governor accused those of us supporting the single payer bill of engaging in a Quixotic tilting at windmills. When he finished speaking, the governor entertained a few questions and then HAD to leave. Since I had not been given a chance to present my comments/questions, Rendell said I could talk to him on his way out of the building, so I did.
Here's how that went--- lightly paraphrased:
ROSIE: Governor, your political prowess is legendary. If you were to push SB300(single payer) it would have a good chance of passing.
GUV: It can't work at the state level, only at the national level.
ROSIE: Have you read the bill (which Rendell has in the past said he'd sign if it passes the legislature), because if you had you'd realize that it will work in PA.
GUV: I've read it. It can't work at the state level.
ROSIE: The Harrisburg Patriot and the Philadelphia Inquirer have endorsed our single payer plan.
GUV: It can't work at the state level.
ROSIE: In your address tonight you stated that during a period of years when inflation rose 16%, health insurance premiums increased 75%. Why would you continue to reward these irresponsible insurance companies who have contributed to our health care crisis.
GUV: ( Not much by way of comment ; changing the subject) The health care plan proposed by presidential candidate John Edwards is a good one .
ROSIE: The Edwards plan is pretty good, and it does lead to a single payer plan.
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
GUV: Does not!
ROSIE: Does too!
Well, you get the idea. As we neared the door, I made one last comment referring to his earlier pompadour remark:
ROSIE: Governor, get yourself some Rogaine, grow that pompadour, and give us single payer health care!!!!!!!!!
For more on single payer see improved site: http://www.HelpFundPa.org
And now, for double-speak(1984) and Rendell-speak...from John Morgan......
Subj: Rendell-speak....single payer...and Rosie's encounter w. the Guv!
Date: 04/12/2007 10:36:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Skostouf
To: Skostouf
from John Morgan's http://www.thepennsylvaniaprogressive.com
Rendell's Dishonesty on Health Care
Ed Rendell likes to say he'd sign a single payer, comprehensive health care bill providing universal coverage but he's parsing his words. He's being dishonest because he's implying he supports such a bill when he does not. The Governor is actually doing everything within his power to stop Senate Bill 300, an actual single payer, comprehensive, universal health care bill, from being introduced and enacted into law.
We caught him lying his way through a health care forum last week in Lancaster when he claimed such a bill has no chance of being passed and that no such a bill has yet to pass anywhere. It did pass in California but they have the exact same obstacle to overcome as here: the Governor. The fact is that unless Ed Rendell wakes up and becomes a real Democrat fighting for the people he'll never be able to able establish a legacy of taking care of the people much less be able to comb a pompadour.
The fact is if the Governor supports the single payer bill it can be passed and he can sign it into law. Rendell falsely claimed the bill has no Republican support but if he'd bothered to stick around or bothered to listen to the other participants at the forum, or allowed any of them to respond to the questions asked he would have discovered he was wrong about that.
Rendell sold out to the health insurance industry. He took $183,000 from their PAC's and thousands more in individual contributions from executives of AmeriChoice and other companies preying on the citizenry. They've bought off the Governor and now he's determined to give them what they want: a state requirement that every resident MUST purchase health insurance from one of their companies.
He isn't telling you that part of the deal however. He's going about giving lip service to the benefits of single payer while siding with the other side. Instead of realizing he doesn't have to run for office again and being freed from any obligations he might feel indebted to and doing the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania he's trying to screw everyone instead. Instead of making his final term in public office about taking care of the people he's taking care of health insurance companies.
I circulated his petition last year and voted for him in November. Now I regret having done that. It's a good thing he isn't running again because as the word gets out about his dishonesty regarding this issue he'll be losing considerable support. I believed the Governor when he told us he'd sign a single payer bill. I mistakenly thought that meant he supported true health care reform. He doesn't and he isn't. His words cannot hide his actions and his actions speak louder than his words. When he announced his plan and the CEO of Highmark was standing beside him we all knew this was nothing more than a corporate welfare program for the health insurance industry.
Rendell said his plan covers mental health but it doesn't. His own proposed bill says only that all benefits are "limited." It says nothing about comprehensive care. It also requires health care providers to continue establishing and documenting their indigent care practices which acknowledges his plan doesn't provide universal coverage. Don't believe anything Rendell is telling you about his plan or his support for different plans. Read the bills and see for yourself what's covered and what isn't.
People are suffering and dying every day at the hands of the insurance industry. These corporations are legally required to serve their shareholders rather you, the insured. That is the fundamental flaw in this system. Our legal system mandates they deny you care so they can maximize profits, that's how capitalism works. The reason we have government is to take care of the people where private business cannot and health care should be one of those fundamental government operations. Where lives are at stake, where safety nets are crucial, government needs to be there to insure care and treatment, not private business.
The single payer system proposed here is not socialized medicine. No doctors, nurses, aides, or any other care provider would be employed by government. They all remain privately employed. Hospitals and other providers remain private businesses. What we change is the collection of premiums and the disbursement of payments to providers. Instead of these private companies in business for profit or to enrich their financial reserves at your expense, a single state agency collects payroll taxes and a personal income tax (in lieu of a premium) from individuals then uses those funds to pay doctors and hospitals for your treatment. The 20-25% of current health care costs being spent on advertising, CEO salaries and agent commissions is enough to cover all the uninsured. It's time for a real solution to this crisis and a real solution can never be achieved unless we deal with the biggest obstacle to universal coverage: the insurance companies.
Rendell loves to talk and talk and talk about cutting waste from the system. He goes on and on about emergency rooms and nurses not being allowed to sew stitches, about hospital acquired infections and all that. What he neglects to mention is the biggest single waste of health care dollars: the vast bureaucracy of adjustors, auditors, claims specialists, actuaries, etc. duplicating each others efforts in hundreds of different insurance companies. That's the largest source of waste in the system and the Governor's plan does not deal with that problem. Until you do Guv, STFU.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Rep. John Conyers Headlines Community Meeting
On March 25 from 1:30-3:30 PM, the Philadelphia Area Committee to Defend Health Care will host a community meeting on single payer health care at the Penn Newman Center, 3720 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Highlighting the meeting will be the Honorable Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI) who represents the 14th District of Michigan (Detroit). Rep. Conyers is the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is the prime sponsor of HR. 676. the US National Health Insurance Act.
Also joining the community meeting will be:
Steve Larchuk, JD, chief author of Pennsylvania SB 300, the state single payer bill
Chuck Pennachio, PhD, Exec Director of the Health, Education and Legislative Progress Fund of PA
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH, Phila Area Committee to Defend Health Care
Joel Segal, Health Legislative Aide to Congressman John Conyers
Fabricio Rodriquez, Director of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice, moderator
Congressman Conyers will be speaking about the need for a single payer health care bill in America.
For more information, see our contact information on the right headings.
Highlighting the meeting will be the Honorable Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI) who represents the 14th District of Michigan (Detroit). Rep. Conyers is the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is the prime sponsor of HR. 676. the US National Health Insurance Act.
Also joining the community meeting will be:
Steve Larchuk, JD, chief author of Pennsylvania SB 300, the state single payer bill
Chuck Pennachio, PhD, Exec Director of the Health, Education and Legislative Progress Fund of PA
Walter Tsou, MD, MPH, Phila Area Committee to Defend Health Care
Joel Segal, Health Legislative Aide to Congressman John Conyers
Fabricio Rodriquez, Director of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice, moderator
Congressman Conyers will be speaking about the need for a single payer health care bill in America.
For more information, see our contact information on the right headings.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Fattah announces his health plan
Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
Fattah proposes checkups yearly for the uninsured
"Health care is going to be a priority," the mayoral candidate said of his latest policy initiative.
By Marcia Gelbart
Inquirer Staff Writer
Mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah wants Philadelphia doctors and other medical professionals to provide free yearly checkups for every uninsured Philadelphian. He also wants city workers, union and nonunion, to get health coverage from the same insurance provider.
He even wants to recast himself as Philly's own Richard Simmons, leading residents in morning stretches.
"We can't do the things I want to do" - generate new jobs and expand education programs - "unless our citizens are healthy," Fattah said yesterday at St. Christopher's Hospital, where he unveiled a wide-ranging assortment of health-care proposals, the third in a series of policy initiatives released by his campaign. "I'm here to say that health care is going to be a priority of a Fattah administration."
This makes him the first among five Democratic mayoral rivals to address health care in detail as the campaign for the May 15 primary heats up.
Health insurance costs here, as in other cities, have been skyrocketing. The the cost of insuring city employees is projected to grow by $147 million in the next five years.
"This is one of the key financial issues that is facing the city, and the next mayor is going to have to tackle it, and tackle it fairly quickly," said Rob Dubow, executive director of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the city's fiscal overseer.
Fattah proposes lowering costs by using competitive bidding to select a single health insurer to cover the city's 23,000 municipal employees, and possibly enlarge the pool to include Philadelphia School District workers and others.
Most city employees are now insured by various providers who have contracts with the city's four municipal unions. Right now, the health-care cost per employee is $12,623.
"Every mayor wants to consolidate stuff to control costs," said Bob Wolper, a longtime consultant for AFSCME District Council 33, which represents the city's blue-collar workers. Doing so would hardly be easy, he said.
"The tradition for public-sector workers over the years has been to get a good benefits package in lieu of [higher] wages," he said, "and so people will be leery about tearing it apart and starting from scratch."
District Council 47 president Tom Cronin, whose members are mostly white-collar municipal workers, declined comment for now on Fattah's plan, except to call it "a serious proposal."
While the use of a single provider could lower expenses, other parts of Fattah's plan would cost money, such as renovating the city's district health centers and expanding their hours into the evenings and weekends.
The plan included no item-by-item cost analysis, but Fattah said the entire initiative would cost $27 million to $36 million a year.
Some of the proposals would cost nothing. For instance, he envisions an all-volunteer network of medical professionals to give free annual checkups to the city's 140,000 uninsured residents.
This idea drew a cautious welcome from the head of a doctors' group. "I think if it were organized, and if it were distributed fairly, physicians might be willing and able to provide services in kind as it were," George M. Wohlreich, director and chief executive officer of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, said last night.
Other ideas on Fattah's list have been under way in the Street administration, such as removing lead paint from buildings citywide. And one proposal reads as if written by Street, a fitness buff: If elected, "Fattah will begin each of his quarterly visits to the 10 Councilmanic districts with an exercise event, during which he will lead people from the neighborhood in a morning exercise activity."
Fattah proposes checkups yearly for the uninsured
"Health care is going to be a priority," the mayoral candidate said of his latest policy initiative.
By Marcia Gelbart
Inquirer Staff Writer
Mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah wants Philadelphia doctors and other medical professionals to provide free yearly checkups for every uninsured Philadelphian. He also wants city workers, union and nonunion, to get health coverage from the same insurance provider.
He even wants to recast himself as Philly's own Richard Simmons, leading residents in morning stretches.
"We can't do the things I want to do" - generate new jobs and expand education programs - "unless our citizens are healthy," Fattah said yesterday at St. Christopher's Hospital, where he unveiled a wide-ranging assortment of health-care proposals, the third in a series of policy initiatives released by his campaign. "I'm here to say that health care is going to be a priority of a Fattah administration."
This makes him the first among five Democratic mayoral rivals to address health care in detail as the campaign for the May 15 primary heats up.
Health insurance costs here, as in other cities, have been skyrocketing. The the cost of insuring city employees is projected to grow by $147 million in the next five years.
"This is one of the key financial issues that is facing the city, and the next mayor is going to have to tackle it, and tackle it fairly quickly," said Rob Dubow, executive director of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the city's fiscal overseer.
Fattah proposes lowering costs by using competitive bidding to select a single health insurer to cover the city's 23,000 municipal employees, and possibly enlarge the pool to include Philadelphia School District workers and others.
Most city employees are now insured by various providers who have contracts with the city's four municipal unions. Right now, the health-care cost per employee is $12,623.
"Every mayor wants to consolidate stuff to control costs," said Bob Wolper, a longtime consultant for AFSCME District Council 33, which represents the city's blue-collar workers. Doing so would hardly be easy, he said.
"The tradition for public-sector workers over the years has been to get a good benefits package in lieu of [higher] wages," he said, "and so people will be leery about tearing it apart and starting from scratch."
District Council 47 president Tom Cronin, whose members are mostly white-collar municipal workers, declined comment for now on Fattah's plan, except to call it "a serious proposal."
While the use of a single provider could lower expenses, other parts of Fattah's plan would cost money, such as renovating the city's district health centers and expanding their hours into the evenings and weekends.
The plan included no item-by-item cost analysis, but Fattah said the entire initiative would cost $27 million to $36 million a year.
Some of the proposals would cost nothing. For instance, he envisions an all-volunteer network of medical professionals to give free annual checkups to the city's 140,000 uninsured residents.
This idea drew a cautious welcome from the head of a doctors' group. "I think if it were organized, and if it were distributed fairly, physicians might be willing and able to provide services in kind as it were," George M. Wohlreich, director and chief executive officer of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, said last night.
Other ideas on Fattah's list have been under way in the Street administration, such as removing lead paint from buildings citywide. And one proposal reads as if written by Street, a fitness buff: If elected, "Fattah will begin each of his quarterly visits to the 10 Councilmanic districts with an exercise event, during which he will lead people from the neighborhood in a morning exercise activity."
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Phila Health Center 3-5 month wait
Press release
Contact: Brady Russell,
Organizer, 267.971.1680
Report: It takes too long to see a city doctor
Low-income workers and the uninsured call for an accessible public primary care system
(Philadelphia - 1/9/2006) - The medically uninsured are waiting as long as five months to get into City run District Health Centers for the first time, according to a new report by the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] called "Waiting: 3-to-5 months for first appointments at District Health Centers." This morning, members of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] gathered outside of Health Center #2 with their supporters to release the report and call on the city to do more for people without insurance.
"We want the Health Centers to have enough staff so people can be seen," said Irma Sumler, a member of P.U.P's Health Care Committee and user of Health Center #3. "We also want the hours extended every night and regular hours on Saturday. The people working without insurance can't afford to take off to go to the doctor."
According to the most recent data from the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation's Community Health Database [http://www.phmc.org/chdb/], nearly 140,000 people are living without health insurance in Philadelphia. Nationally, 82% of them are in families headed by workers, and 59% of uninsured workers work full-time.*
"People assume that if you've got a full time job, then you don't have a problem with health care. The truth is that most uninsured people have jobs. We can see that in entry level jobs people don't get the benefits that provide health care. How can you look for work or expect to work if you don't believe you have a way to protect the health of you and your family?" Andre Butler, chair of the P.U.P board and Health Center #10 user, said.
Sumler said she continued using the Health Center even after she got onto Medicare and no longer had to. She said she likes going to the health centers, but added that she's seen services diminish as staff have moved on or retired, "They used to be a one-stop shop for everything you needed, which is how it should be."
The "Waiting" report compiles the results of several dozen calls made by PUP members and staff on two different occassions (first in the Summer and then in the Fall), calling all the health centers to ask for a first appointment for an uninsured, Philadelphia resident. While a few people were offered appointments within a month, that was only sporadically. Over two-thirds of the callers were offered appointments at least three months out, some as late as five months out.
The results come as no surprise to long-time supporters and users of District Health Centers. Sue Rosenthal, chair of Health Center #10's Community Board, issued a statement on behalf of all the Community Board chairs, "We - the chairs of the eight Philadelphia Health Center Community Boards - are deeply disturbed by the results of your research ... It is our hope your report will galvanize the Administration to relieve the unnecessary misery and danger caused to Health Center patients by the Administrations unconsionable delays." Rosenthal explained that the City failed to hire for the new positions approved for the Health Centers in the 2006 budget and did a poor job of refilling empty positions.
Richard Weisshaupt, Senior Attorney at Community Legal Services, said: "The kind of wait times documented by PUP are simply not acceptable -- we would not tolerate such delay in other City services essential to public health and safety, like police and fire. Hopefully, the uncovering of this scandal will be the first step towards fixing this terrible problem."
Currently, each District Health Center has a different night of the week that it stays open later than 4:30 PM. Only Health Center #2 has Saturday hours, which run from 8AM to Noon. All residents of Philadelphia may access District Health Centers, whether or not they have insurance. To find a Health Center near you, call, (215) 685-6790.
###
The Philadelphia Unemployment Project [PUP]is a membership organization of unemployed and low-wage workers. It began in 1975 to help meet the needs of the unemployed during that year’s recession. PUP has remained a leader in the struggle for economic justice in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
Contact: Brady Russell,
Organizer, 267.971.1680
Report: It takes too long to see a city doctor
Low-income workers and the uninsured call for an accessible public primary care system
(Philadelphia - 1/9/2006) - The medically uninsured are waiting as long as five months to get into City run District Health Centers for the first time, according to a new report by the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] called "Waiting: 3-to-5 months for first appointments at District Health Centers." This morning, members of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project [P.U.P.] gathered outside of Health Center #2 with their supporters to release the report and call on the city to do more for people without insurance.
"We want the Health Centers to have enough staff so people can be seen," said Irma Sumler, a member of P.U.P's Health Care Committee and user of Health Center #3. "We also want the hours extended every night and regular hours on Saturday. The people working without insurance can't afford to take off to go to the doctor."
According to the most recent data from the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation's Community Health Database [http://www.phmc.org/chdb/], nearly 140,000 people are living without health insurance in Philadelphia. Nationally, 82% of them are in families headed by workers, and 59% of uninsured workers work full-time.*
"People assume that if you've got a full time job, then you don't have a problem with health care. The truth is that most uninsured people have jobs. We can see that in entry level jobs people don't get the benefits that provide health care. How can you look for work or expect to work if you don't believe you have a way to protect the health of you and your family?" Andre Butler, chair of the P.U.P board and Health Center #10 user, said.
Sumler said she continued using the Health Center even after she got onto Medicare and no longer had to. She said she likes going to the health centers, but added that she's seen services diminish as staff have moved on or retired, "They used to be a one-stop shop for everything you needed, which is how it should be."
The "Waiting" report compiles the results of several dozen calls made by PUP members and staff on two different occassions (first in the Summer and then in the Fall), calling all the health centers to ask for a first appointment for an uninsured, Philadelphia resident. While a few people were offered appointments within a month, that was only sporadically. Over two-thirds of the callers were offered appointments at least three months out, some as late as five months out.
The results come as no surprise to long-time supporters and users of District Health Centers. Sue Rosenthal, chair of Health Center #10's Community Board, issued a statement on behalf of all the Community Board chairs, "We - the chairs of the eight Philadelphia Health Center Community Boards - are deeply disturbed by the results of your research ... It is our hope your report will galvanize the Administration to relieve the unnecessary misery and danger caused to Health Center patients by the Administrations unconsionable delays." Rosenthal explained that the City failed to hire for the new positions approved for the Health Centers in the 2006 budget and did a poor job of refilling empty positions.
Richard Weisshaupt, Senior Attorney at Community Legal Services, said: "The kind of wait times documented by PUP are simply not acceptable -- we would not tolerate such delay in other City services essential to public health and safety, like police and fire. Hopefully, the uncovering of this scandal will be the first step towards fixing this terrible problem."
Currently, each District Health Center has a different night of the week that it stays open later than 4:30 PM. Only Health Center #2 has Saturday hours, which run from 8AM to Noon. All residents of Philadelphia may access District Health Centers, whether or not they have insurance. To find a Health Center near you, call, (215) 685-6790.
###
The Philadelphia Unemployment Project [PUP]is a membership organization of unemployed and low-wage workers. It began in 1975 to help meet the needs of the unemployed during that year’s recession. PUP has remained a leader in the struggle for economic justice in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
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