Single payer health reform conference, Lancaster, PA

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

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

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.

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