H.R. 676 National Call-In Day

Physicians For A National Health Program has sent E-Alerts announcing an H.R. 676 National Call-In Day scheduled for tomorrow.

The E-Alert reads:

This Wednesday, May 15, PNHP is participating in call-in day to Congress in support of H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. PNHP members and supporters are encouraged to call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be connected to your representative’s office, and urge him or her to become co-sponsor of Rep. John Conyers’ bill if they haven’t already signed on. (If they’ve already signed on, please thank them.) Other groups participating in the call-in day include Progressive Democrats of America, Healthcare-Now, National Nurses United, All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care – H.R. 676, and Labor Campaign for Single Payer, among others.

On the internet, I see a similar announcement here at yahoo groups from Health Care For All Philadelphia/PNHP .

So please call your representative and urge him or her to support this vitally important and historic legislation which would expand an improved Medicare to the country - providing a single payer quality health care system for all - and similar to the one in Canada.  You can find your representative at the U.S. House of Representatives website here, and you can also email them there.

Health care is a human right!




*Photo credit/Michigan Improved Medicare For All

It's The Real Thing

 

Not to give anyone any ideas, but that's the Illinois contingent of the Overpass Light Brigade.  Healthcare-NOW! reports that Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice (NIJWJ) is endorsing H.R. 676, John Conyer's national single payer healthcare legislation.  [The real thing, that is, like in the words to the old Coca Cola commercial, and what all educated people know Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be standing up for, as well.  (So if you know about that, you must be educated.)] 

NIJWJ is the 606th American labor organization to take a stand for an expanded and improved Medicare for all.  (Along with all the major women's rights organizations, 65% of the American public, and 55% of the medical profession.)  Mary Shesgreen, a member of the NIJWJ steering committee, told Healthcare-NOW! that most members of the steering committee have long supported it (anyway).

Also, on July 30, 2013, 3 more congresspersons signed on to H.R. 676, bringing the total number of House cosponsors to 49.  The roll call now includes Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (NY- 12), Robert A. Brady (PA-1), and Jose E. Serrano (NY-15). 

Can someone redo this song?  I'd really like to give everyone in America a national health care policy so that all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and agnostics, women and children, too - can see the doctor of their choice when they need to.  A real national health care plan like Canada - an expanded and improved Medicare for All, including dental and vision, and one in which you never see a bill - you only see your healthcare provider.  You never worry about whether or not you're covered or whether you can afford to see a physician - you just make the appointment.

That is my dream.  For all of America.  (Now please go tell it on the mountain at #DreamDay or make sure people hear about it on Wed., August 28th.  If you share this dream, find and contact your representative here to either thank him or her if you see their name on that list of cosponsors, or to urge them to truly honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by signing on to the real thing - a bill that really provides health care for all - H.R. 676.)

Happy Birthday, Medicare!

Medicare turns 49 today, and local papers around the country started to put up birthday wishes as early as midnight.   

Most of those wishes went something like this:

Happy birthday to the health program that should be expanded to the whole country.

Think that makes sense?  If you do, you're not alone. Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare for All, along with most of the American medical profession, most nurses, hundreds of business and labor groups, and all of the major women's rights organizations.  Dr. Ed Weisbart states in the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, "the need to expand it to all Americans has never been greater."  

The Post and Courier says,

With all we spend, we can afford to provide essential services to every American without imposing co-pays, deductions, caps or exclusions.

A bill in Congress, HR 676, would do just that. Titled the Improved Medicare for All Act, it would provide basic services, including preventative care, hospitalization, medications, mental health, and long-term care.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined it can be provided without raising taxes.

Universal health care would not only extend coverage to everyone below age 65, but it would improve coverage for seniors.

 

One letter writer to the editor of The Courant in Hartford, Connecticut also suggests this present to Medicare,

There are some in Congress who continue to call for benefit cuts for retirees and disabled Americans. For example, there continue to be calls to cut Medicare benefits by raising the age of eligibility, means-testing benefits, requiring home health co-pays and limiting Medigap coverage. These changes would do nothing to reduce the cost of health care, but instead, shift costs to beneficiaries.

July 30 is Medicare's 49th birthday. What better way to celebrate than by strengthening Medicare through a better alternative that will not harm beneficiaries? Congress should pass the Medicare Drug Savings Act introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Rep. Henry Waxman of California. This legislation will require drug companies to provide the government discounts for low-income Medicare beneficiaries, saving the government and taxpayers $141 billion over 10 years and all but eliminating the need to cut benefits or shift costs to beneficiaries.

In California, National Nurses United announced 15 cities events calling to protect, improve, and expand Medicare for All.

Healthcare-NOW! has information about other events throughout the country;  you can also email your representatives via their website;  or, phone at the Capital Switchboard today (202) 224-3121, National Call-In Day for H.R. 676 - ask them to sign on to cosponsor H.R. 676, Rep. John Conyers’ “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” as well as S. 1782, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “American Health Security Act,” to ensure that everyone, without exception, has access to all medically necessary care. Physicians For A National Health Program (PNHP) is joining with Public Citizen, Healthcare-Now! along with other groups in this effort.  PNHP reports that PNHP medical students are organizing a “Virtual Lobby Day” on Facebook and Twitter.

H.R. 676

PHNP reports in their e-newsletter that Representative John Conyer's office is reintroducing H.R. 676 or "The Expanded And Improved Medicare For All Act" in the next few weeks.  He is currently seeking cosponsors in Congress.

As of January 30th, there are 27 of the original 77 cosponsors from the 112th Congress: Nadler (NY), Schakowsky (IL), Pingree (ME), Grijalva (AZ), Ellison (MN), Hank Johnson (GA), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX), Tonko (NY), Holmes-Norton (DC), Lofgren (CA), Rangel (NY), Moore (WI), Chu (CA), Al Green (TX), Farr (CA), McGovern (MA), Welch (VT), Clarke (NY), Lee (CA), Nolan (MN), Pocan (WI), Doyle (PA), Engel (NY), Gutierrez (IL), Frederica Wilson ( FL), Cohen (TN ) and Edwards (MD ).

Please contact your representative to encourage them to cosponsor this historic and vitally important legislation, or to thank them if they already signed on.  Email contact through the House Of Representatives website here, or phone at the Capital Switchboard at 202-224-3121 (if they haven't turned their voicemail off), or both. 

The original H.R. 676 was found to be supported by 65% of the American public, 55% of the medical profession, hundreds of labor unions, and all of the major women's rights organizations.   The Congressional Budget Office found it was the most cost-effective way to provide quality health care to the entire country, research findings supported by numerous other studies around the nation. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."

Considering public events recently commemorating Dr. King's birthday, let's honor his life in actual deed, not just words, ceremonies, and photo ops, and pass The Expanded and Improved Medicare For All Act today.

Photo credit/courtesy of Next Left Notes/photographer: Bud Korotzer, NLN/Medicare For All or "single payer" advocates

Single Payer Reintroduced

 

PNHP has released an email action alert from PNHP President Andy Coates, M.D. 

Representative John Conyers has reintroduced single payer H.R. 676, as of February 14th, and to the 113th Congress.  Read the bill here. More blogging and information here.  H.R. 676 or The Improved And Expanded Medicare For All Act is widely supported by the majority of the American public, most of the medical profession, hundreds of labor unions, and all of the major women's rights organizations.

Please call your representative at the Capitol Switchboard at 866-220-0044 to urge him or her to cosponsor and support this historic and vitally important legislation.  You can find and email your representative here at the House of Representatives website.  Or have PNHP send a convenient and customized letter here.

PNHP also invites citizens to organize small delegations to visit congresspersons' local offices on behalf of Medicare for All.  More information here.

Photo credit/Courtesy of VoteRocky.Org/Posted By Rocky Anderson/"Single Payer. France Has It. Canada Has It. Taiwan Has It. We Want It." Medicare For All advocates.

happy birthday medicare

illinois congresswoman jan schakowsky - who has been a single payer advocate (supporting an improved medicare for all through h.r. 676) - "pops myths" about the affordable care act [youtube below] - and on medicare's 47th birthday on friday.


 

on the same occasion, the houston chronicle runs an article by margaret nosak, professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine and president of Health Care for All Texas.  

she writes, "Before Medicare was enacted 1965, most retired older people were at risk of financial ruin when they got sick. Medicare changed that picture, and our state and nation are much better for it."

hmm, sounds familiar nowadays to many in other age groups, too, doesn't it!  including the recently horrifying story of the shooting victim who faced a possible 2 million dollars in medical bills (the studio for dark knight rising now taking on his bills).  if i were an opponent of guaranteed health care for all, i might have been asking why that young man didn't have enough money saved up for these possible medical expenses!

for i have been told as much in debates on this subject with opponents.

also from margaret nosek:

Ironically, the best way to save Medicare is to improve and expand it to cover everybody. By establishing an improved Medicare for all, a single-payer health-care financing system, we could recoup about $400 billion that is wasted each year on unnecessary, private-insurance-related profits, paperwork and bureaucracy. That's enough money to provide health care to everyone in the U.S. with no co-pays or deductibles and without spending a penny more than we do now.

We would also acquire other cost-control tools like the market clout needed to negotiate lower prices for medical supplies, and the ability to set global budgets for hospitals.

This type of system would bring back free choice of doctor and hospital - the one thing everyone agrees is among the top goals of health-care reform.

Polls show an improved-Medicare-for-all approach enjoys the support of about two-thirds of the public and more than half of all physicians. Yet up to now, this commonsense solution has been blocked by private insurers, pharmaceutical companies and their allies in Congress.

On Medicare's anniversary, what do you say we give them a run for their money? Tell your elected officials the ACA doesn't go far enough. Cut the private insurers out of the picture. We need an improved and expanded Medicare for all.

if the houston chronicle is printing margaret nosek's article, perhaps we're approaching a time when it won't *just* be 2/3rds of americans and more than 1/2 of american physicians supporting such a strange idea - like the one they have in canada.

and maybe when we write to our representatives, that time, he or she will write back, saying (instead), "you're so correct!  and that's exactly what we're going to accomplish today in congress.  so i just signed h.r. 676 (or its senate version)."

then we're really gonna party.

teach in

Today's teach-in topic is single payer health care - basically an improved Medicare expanded to age zero - what it is, and how and why it works.  The video is a 2008 entry from an H.R. 676 video contest.  What Is Single Payer is written by Katie Robbins and directed by Philip Swift.  (Keep in mind that the figures used in the video are from 2008 - so these statistics have only gotten worse.)  Read the 30 pages of H.R. 676 here and decide for yourself.

H.R. 365

Tommasio Nicholas Boggia writes about Congressman Hansen Clarke's (D-MI) resolution H.R. 365 that would, in part, forgive all student debt, providing a "trillion dollar stimulus to the demographic most sought after by advertisers and by realtors: college educated young people."

These are the people that have the potential to revitalize the housing market and local economies. Best of all, this wouldn’t just be a short-term money injection; this resolution would result in millions of people being able to keep more than 13% of their paycheck every month for 30+ years (assuming Stafford loan interest rates and using average millennial debt and wage).

Boggia points out that more and more middle class Americans are slipping into poverty with (what I would describe as an even) lower standard of living expected for future generations (usually people say "not higher," as Boggia does too).  He also argues that the entire system needs reform, pointing to this tired counter-argument that future borrowers will be discouraged from paying back their debt.

This [counter] argument points at the real crisis in higher education. The problem isn’t simply that people have too much debt, but that by choosing to enroll in an institution of higher learning to hone their skills and become a more productive member of society, they are essentially forced to. This is a financial burden that used to be largely taken on by the government (and still is in most other modern democracies) because it was recognized that the road to social and economic growth was rooted in an educated citizenry. Thus, while this criticism has some validity, it simply stands to underscore the need to reform our systems of financing public higher education altogether so people no longer have to take on such high debt burdens.

I support such a measure;  however, just as a rational health bill like H.R. 676 could not get through Congress, most of us know that H.R. 365 will not pass muster either.  One of the reasons we are on Wall Street is because we can no longer expect rational, accountable behavior from Congress.  But we can expect the opposite!  We can expect irrational behavior, unaccountable to the nation's well-being.  For most representatives are not in office to serve their constituents, as this Michigonian apparently is, but the interests of a small and increasingly greedy and wealthy minority.

So, once again, I will write to my representative and tell others, but I don't need a crystal ball to know what's going to happen. 

Will our representatives pass H.R. 365?

Yet another reason why we carry signs on Wall Street stating:  "Evict Congress."

Occupy Student Debt

Remember H.R. 365 and how weepable the possibility considering what happened to H.R. 676 and why?

Well now there is a campaign called Occupy Student Debt.  Organizers are looking for 1 million debtor pledges to refuse to pay off loans after a million signatures have been collected.  They are also collecting the signatures of any other supporters, including teachers.  At the time of this posting, there are 2,026 debtor pledges, 343 supportive faculty pledges, and another 489 non-debtor supportive signatories.

More here in a Nation article at truthout. Rachel Signer writes:

In seeking to gain one million signatures, the campaign is looking for strength in collective action, which will be important if it is to succeed. One thousand people refusing to pay their loans—and potentially suffering the consequences of default—will not make much of an impact. But the organizers hope that one million could make an effective statement while also launching a political movement.

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! speaks with the campaign in the video below:

Jobs Now

Democracy Now! interview here and here with Dennis Kucinich, still fighting back through his last week in Congress.  Speaking on a range of subjects, including spying on Occupy Wall Street and the so-called fiscal cliff, Mr. Kucinich repeatedly returned, in the conversation, to the importance of creating jobs and the relationship of unemployment to how we are becoming "increasingly dysfunctional as a nation because of our unwillingness to challenge the military-industrial complex, which Dwight Eisenhower warned about generations ago."

Lately, we are having "the wrong discussion," Mr. Kucinich asserted,

Why haven’t we been talking about stimulating the economy through the creation of jobs? We’ve seemed to accept a certain amount of unemployment as being necessary for the proper functioning of the economy, so that for corporations it will keep wages low. That is baloney. We’re creating our own economic vice here that is entrapping tens of millions of Americans, and I just find it unacceptable. It’s like this whole fiscal cliff thing is a creation of people who are unimaginative and locked in by special interests.

A co-writer of the widely popular Medicare For All legislation H.R. 676 -- and one of the longest progressive hold-outs in the health care "overhaul" fight (whereby both Democrats and Republicans blocked a Medicare for All plan), Mr. Kucinich stated that the White House has to stand up for Medicare and social security, and that we have to "decide who we are as a nation."  He stated,

We’re spending more and more money for wars. We’re spending more and more money for interventions abroad. We’re spending more and more money for military buildups. And we seem to be prepared to spend less and less on domestic programs and on job creation. This whole idea of a debt-based economic system is linked to a war machine. And it’s linked to Wall Street’s concerns rather than Main Street’s concerns. We need to shift that. We need to get government—give government back the ability to create jobs. Private sector is not doing it.

Here's a clip of Dwight from RobUniv.

Photo Credits/top, courtesy of Lake Erie Winds, posted by Rich Norgard, August 2011, Jobhunter With Sign, EPA Hiring Jobless Workers For Great Lakes Cleanup/middle, courtesy of wikipedia, photographer: Brian Corr, Dennis Kucinich addressing an anti-war demonstration in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention/bottom, courtesy of the guardian, photographer: Mark Ralston, August 2010, Protesters hold up "I want to work" placards in a demonstration of several thousand people outside City Hall in Los Angeles, California.

Portrait

Familiar face?  That's Max Baucus (D-Mont), Senate Finance Committee Chairman, who infamously had physicians standing for Medicare For All arrested and thrown out of health care discussions that later led to the present legislation.

Old Mad Max is back at it proposing 400 billion dollars in Medicare cuts.

Health care activists appropriately enough down on Wall Street - since we couldn't get a widely supported and sane bill like H.R. 676 due to the same corporate stranglehold on government Americans are objecting to in demonstrations across the country - a government that is supposed to be representing The People - not CEOs and their record profits.

In the youtube below, NYC Healthcare Now! activist Kate Robbins speaks at Saint Vincent's Hospital in the West Village of Manhattan, where a single-payer march culminated.  HCN reports that protesters gathered at Liberty Plaza, and then headed out from the offices of Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a subsidiary of WellPoint, the largest publicly-traded health insurance company.  Saint Vincent's closed earlier this year due to bankruptcy, and as a casualty of profit-driven insurers. There are now no hospitals on the West side below 57th St.

More here at Healthcare NOW! including video of an Occupy Philly single-payer health care march.

Let's keep fighting for single payer!  Health care is a human right.

investors

 courtesy of acj

photographer:  john spink

thousands of americans wait on lines overnight 

for free dental care at woodstock baptist church in georgia

usa today has this article on the expected u.s.s.c. health care ruling, and how investors stand to gain or lose (money, that is, first and foremost).  matt kranz asserts that managed care companies and insurers stand to benefit from the legislation with more than 30 million new customers, hospitals gain by getting paid for visits by uninsured patients, and so do drug companies because rules get taken off the table.

ah, we wait with bated breath.

compare here to rob stone's september 2011 tikkun article on how good it is to be an insurance company as well as financial and moral bankruptcy.

meanwhile, wendall potter has these tips for court watchers and brendan fischer asks, who is bankrolling the fight against "obamacare?"

of course we're not even beginning to discuss dentistry.

(what's a little infection to the brain, eh?)

Healthcare-NOW! suggests people ready themselves for swift actions when the court decision is announced.  (tell them you want single payer, which sounds best to me, and which includes dental in h.r. 676.)

i wonder if, or when, the united nations can intervene on the grounds of catastrophic human rights violations in the united states.

Medican't

Via Progress Missouri, Jon Stewart (bless his heart and working mind) takes on those politicians resisting Medicaid expansion in their states. 

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

So when they say "We can't afford Medicaid," do they ever consider that it's really (that) the United States Of America can't afford them?
 

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Hey, I've got a singular idea that's never been broached before* - if these lawmakers think Medicaid is such a bad program, why don't they just open up an improved Medicare by passing H.R. 676?  After all, numerous studies along with the Congressional Budget Office show that would be the most cost-effective way to provide quality health care to the whole country.  And that's what we all want, right?  Nah ...


*It's just supported by 65% of the American public, most of the medical profession, hundreds of labor and business groups, and all of the major women's rights organizations.  So pass single payer now and give health care for all a chance.

m1gs preparations

nationwide, preparations are underway for a may 1st general "strike" in support of occupy wall street, also dubbed "a day without the 99%."  reportedly, there are many ways to participate, including demonstrations, biking-only, not attending school or work, and not doing any housework.  high school and college students have called for a walk-out. 

everyone is urged not to spend any money. 

the occupy wall street website has published a directory for may 1st general strike activities in your chosen geographical area.  or references for planning activities in your own.  a full roster of new york city activities are now published here. 

immigrant and labor rights activists are planning events, and in a number of cities.  below, part of an OWS press conference on solidarity:

 

c.u.n.y. faculty have released a statement of support, decrying the increasing burden of tuition, fees, and student loan debt, as well as modeling c.u.n.y. "on corporate structures — from excessive executive compensation to the exploitation of contracted and adjunct labor. "

the may 1st general strike (M1GS) is being supported by single payer health-care-for-all activists.  [single payer is basically an improved medicare extended to age zero (read h.r. 676 here).]  health-care now! invites supporters to download flyers and petitions to pass out on M1GS at this link.

in the youtube below, occupy los angeles presents its stunning "4 winds" strategy for M1GS. 




in the next video, anonymous announces support for a global M1GS.

48th Anniversary

Today is the 48th anniversary of Medicare.  Single payer activist Dr. Margaret Flowers speaks about the importance of expanding an improved Medicare to the whole country.

 

Also, a Medicare birthday article here by Representative John Conyers (who coauthored H.R. 676 with Dennis Kucinich)  and Robert Weissman with Public Citizen.

#cureALL

A new commercial for H.R. 676 and a national single payer health care system.  Pass it on - everyone in, nobody out.  An improved and expanded Medicare for All.

 

Emergency Room

Strike Debt demands a single payer medical system.  From the Physicians For A National Health Program email news, an update below on the Rolling Jubilee that bought up and abolished distressed medical debt for 44 people in upstate New York.  As of March 14th, the group announces its second debt buy on behalf of individuals who used emergency rooms in Indiana and Kentucky;  the group is also demanding that America meet this issue head-on by expanding an improved Medicare for the entire country.  

Strike Debt/Rolling Jubilee, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street that has reportedly raised about $1 million to buy distressed medical debt (for pennies on the dollar), is planning a nationwide week of actions on March 16-23 around the issue of medical debt and medical bankruptcy, culminating in a rally in New York City on March 23. The actions will have a special focus on buying distressed medical debt in Indiana and Kentucky. Rolling Jubilee is explicitly demanding a single-payer health system as part of its call to action. You can listen to PNHP co-founder Dr. Steffie Woolhandler’s talk on a recent radio show about Strike Debt/Rolling Jubilee and the issue of medical bankruptcy here (her part begins at the 31-minute mark); you can also watch her on a HuffPo Live discussion on a related topic (her segment starts at the 2-minute mark). PNHP has also highlighted the problem of medical debt on Facebook and Twitter.

More information on the week of action here at Strike Debt's website.

Representative John Conyers recently reintroduced H.R. 676, "The Improved And Expanded Medicare For All Act" to the 113th Congress.  More information here.

Study

Are all children equally worthy of medical care in the United States?  Apparently not, according to yet another study examining discrimination against children - published 12/5/2011 in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine - in this case, children on public health programs vs. children on private insurance - at specialty clinics affiliated with academic medical centers (AMCs).

(You see, speciality clinics affiliated with AMCs are supposed to be the unbiased providers of pediatric and adolescent care vs specialty clinics that are not.  They're supposed to be "the safety net" - and the safety net that makes our present system defensible.)

But now that idea, too, is unraveling.

Science news reports here as to how researchers posing as moms telephoned for specialty medical appointments for their children at these two types of clinics in Cook County, Illinois.  Researchers found:

1.  While non-academically affiliated clinics do discriminate more (your chances of getting your Medicaid CHIP child an appointment, 45% lower if you call a non-academically affiliated clinic),

2.  Academically affiliated clinics still discriminate, also favoring children with private insurance.  For although you have a greater likelihood of getting an appointment for your child on a public insurance program at an AMC, your child's wait time will still be 40 days longer, on average, than a child with private insurance.

Recommendations?

Researchers think targeted resource allocations for AMCs should be dependent on equitable appointment and wait times.  Science News also suggests they up payments to Medicaid providers for children.

Both sounding like reasonable conclusions to this blogger.  However, if they passed an equitable bill like H.R. 676 (and that's a bill you can really read and understand), well, we wouldn't need to horse around with any of this nonsense, would we!  That is, the entire sorry, pathetic, disgraceful subject, in the United States of America, as to whether some humans, let alone children, deserve better medical care than other children or humans, would be finished, once and for all!  Including speciality clinics that are not AMC affiliated.

Nail the coffins for that baby instead (of a human baby).  Give everyone the same medical treatment:  the medical treatment doctors are trained to provide to any human being in medical school.  Open an improved Medicare to the entire country and, throw these Pirates of the Health Care-ibbean overboard for good!

From the Austin Lounge Lizards:



By the way, out of the estimated 45,000 Americans who die every year because they lack adequate access to health care, how many are minors?

Bernie's Health Care Plan

Much made in the news since Hillary's campaign attack on Bernie's health plan - a health plan that is really nothing new ... just single payer - improved and expanded Medicare For All, and coming out of payroll taxes plus a tax paid by employers. 

Take it from Joe Cool:

#USA Here's Joe Cool to show ya #Bernie's #Medicare4All #NoOneLeftBehind #WeAreBernie --> https://t.co/eNjGVovv3z pic.twitter.com/czmfBTAPDH

— Snoopy For Bernie (@Snoopy4Bernie) January 23, 2016

This would provide Americans with a healthcare system similar to that used by Canadians.  You would not pay premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or hospital bills, and the average American would reportedly save about 5k per year (at minimum). Of course, if you wind up in a hospital, you're saving a lot more than that.  Or if you "ever" need to see a dentist.  So in this blogger's opinion, Bernie's savings estimate is rather modest.

Below, some discussion of the b.s since Hillary and her campaign know very well what single payer is - and that repeated studies have shown that single payer in the U.S. is the most cost-effective way to provide quality health care to all Americans. Even our own Congressional Budget Office said so.  The reason why Hillary is suddenly so short-sighted on this topic is because her campaign is taking so much money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Hillary's journey to the Dark Side on health care reform has been documented, much further back, too, as in Michael Moore's documentary on the American health care system, "Sicko."

Progressive Roundtable - Hillary vs #Bernie - Healthcare Bullsh**t https://t.co/RNNDjMWn6c via @YouTube

— Sauk River Review (@OldSaukRiver) January 20, 2016

Full Show 1/18/16: Hillary Continues Attack on #Bernie’s #SinglePayer Plan https://t.co/pmk6BpeWPR via @YouTube

— Sauk River Review (@OldSaukRiver) January 20, 2016

The American People deserve the best health care system possible. Health care is a human right and shouldn't be subjected to the callous profit motives of obscenely wealthy health insurance and pharmaceutical CEOS while tens of thousands of people die or suffer terribly for want of access to doctors and hospitals.

Every developed nation has REAL universal health care, except for the United States of America, and we are one of the wealthiest. Even poorer, less developed nations are doing it, successfully. So we certainly can.  That means being able to just go to a doctor or hospital without having to contend with these insurance or financial concerns - just the health issues along with ease of access.  People in other nations take these rights for granted - as they should - and are rightly appalled by the way our current system operates.

Thirty-three million Americans still don't have coverage, and many millions more are under-insured, have health care in "name only," or can't afford the premiums, co-pays, deductibles, and additional medical costs not provided by these plans.

It is an international disgrace that our Congress is so sold out to these insurance and drug interests that more American citizens than those who have died in our wars, die every year as a result of this bald-faced, unabashed, shameless, open corruption - and when those elected officials could straight-forwardly pass a 30 page bill like H.R. 676 opening an already cost-effective Medicare system, with additional improvements, even, to the whole country. 

This bill (and Bernie's plan, too, I see) includes dental - when U.S. dental conditions have been openly compared by our country's practitioners to third world countries. So Americans direly need dental coverage.

The same can be said with respect to vision - as Americans literally go blind for want of both preventive and surgical procedures now considered basic to that branch of 21st century medicine - and readily available to citizens in all other developed nations.  We saw as much, for example, when Playing For Change New Orleans street musician Grandpa Elliott had cataracts, but not the coverage for removing cataracts, and thus, he had publicly gone blind in one of the most medically advanced nations on this planet - the United States of America - while corrective procedures were a city stroll across the street, or a metro bus ride away.

When you are a citizen of a rich nation, right next door to a hospital that can correct your blindness, but doesn't, that is a kind of apartheid wall, wouldn't you say?  Invisible but very real. A big wall between the blind American and the hospital doors right in front of them - an invisible but very real medical apartheid wall.  This is morally wrong, unjust, and against every principle we wish to stand for as a nation.  

It's also pretty damn stupid to do this to a lot of people.  Even from the so-called efficient business model point of view.  Why conservatives in other countries also support their universal health care.

Grandpa Elliott playing his harmonica on the streets of New Orleans. He went publicly blind from cataracts because he did not have vision coverage for basic surgical procedures.  Eventually, in his case, as a member of Playing For Change, money was raised for his surgery. But this is not the case for millions of other, more anonymous Americans, and Americans should have guaranteed, readily available access to these medical procedures, as a matter of right, and without regard to their socio-economic status.  Health care is a human right and a civil right under the United States Constitution - whatever the U.S.S.C. wants to say.

We should elect a President like Bernie Sanders who is not beholden to these health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, but to the American People. Bernie has a long record truly supporting a real healthcare-for-all system - as shown by numerous non-industry, non-partisan studies (referenced at blog posts provided in links above).  

Again, that would be an improved, expanded Medicare for All, leaving no one behind; and since Bernie isn't taking money from these other interests, it is reasonable to predict that he would continue to vigorously stick to his long-held positions, on behalf of people over profits, once in an even higher elected office than Vermont Senator.  Let's put a real single payer supporter like Bernie in the United States presidency.

Another American protests for single payer in New York City. Single payer is supported by the majority of the American public and American health profession.  Yet the government won't pass Medicare For All, because politicians are funded into office by the health insurance and drug companies. We can stop voting for these people - and instead - vote for people who aren't taking this money and will truly represent our interests.

Playing for Change in Stand By Me: 

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Editor's Note 4.7.2016 It has been brought to our attention that the Joe Cool tweet posted is missing, since ol' Snoop was canned on twitter by a twitter CEO fundraising for Clinton's campaign. Take heart, however, Snoopy Lives! so here's another example of what they censored; we'll leave the other one up "as is" ... more evidence of what their campaign is really about.  Defeating "Health care for all" - what every other developed nation has ... but frightening stuff for the insurance and pharmaceutical profiteers, along with Mrs. Clinton and her generous "speaking fees."

Hey #NewYork Joe Cool here 2 show ya #Bernie's #Medicare4All #NoOneLeftBehind #FeelTheBern https://t.co/81F84VMQop pic.twitter.com/t1qM2uJ1p7

— Snoopy For Bernie (@SnoopyForBernie) April 7, 2016 

#HillarySoQualified Says #Medicare4All will "never ever happen" bc she's paid to say so #NotWithHer right? #NY #WY pic.twitter.com/tRPBXp2Gh9

— Sauk River Review (@OldSaukRiver) April 7, 2016

Medical Tent Proposal

Remember the simple, inconspicuous medical tent that Liberty Square demonstrators stopped N.Y.P.D. from taking down in the middle of the night?  When Reverend Jesse Jackson came by in the wee hours to link arms with that heroic group standing up for medical care for all?

Courtesy of Animal

Photographer:  Becky Turco

Occupy Wall Street stops N.Y.P.D.

from removing the medical tent.

Courtesy of Animal

Photographer: Bucky Turco

The Reverend Jesse Jackson links arms
with OWS demonstrators

to stop the removal of the medical tent

That was around October 19th-20th.

Here's a peek at what was typically going on inside that medical tent, from a Common Dreams article by Mary O'Brien, M.D.on why we need a single payer health care system in the United States.

Courtesy of Common Dreams

Photographer:  John Minchello/AP

Medical workers in Liberty Square

medical tent give people free flu shots.

As shown as one example in the photo above, medical workers gave out free flu shots, an activity the article's author participated in. 

I found myself thinking:  what a shining example of how simple it should be in a modern, industrialized society for people to get something as sane and public health minded as flu shots.  Need a flu shot?  Just walk over and get one.  How about if you're a senior without the money for a shingles innoculation?  What if your child needs something?

How much money did Occupy Wall Street save the U.S. that day - and simply by preventing untold cases of the common flu?

Even if you don't want to look at this problem from the plain moral point of view, that is.  Just social practicality - the photo reportedly taken only days before Mayor Bloomberg had the entire camp evicted in yet another Kafkaesque (sadly, increasingly American) police state power display (we are hearing about more frequently - the sailing banner saluted and waved in the breeze by our nation's mayors upon chummy conference call).

I'd guess many of you reading know the facts reported, yet again, by another reality-please pleading article.  How a Harvard study shows that 45,000 Americans die every year because they lack adequate access to health care;  how "unchecked corporate greed" trumps and tramples human need, or, as Mary O'Brien, M.D. inquires:  "Need I recite the billions in profits these companies make each year, or the outlandish salaries of their CEOs, based on skyrocketing premiums and denials of care?"

Even people with insurance face formidable barriers to care like rising co-pays and deductibles. As a result, they are putting off care, getting sicker and ending up in our emergency rooms with serious complications – often facing crushing medical bills later.

This increased “cost sharing” by patients helps explain this week’s report by U.S. Health and Human Services showing the use of medical services has slowed. People can't afford it. 

But lack of care invites serious illness or worse. That’s part of the reason why I and scores of other doctors, nurses, medical students and social workers came down to Zuccotti Park and volunteered our time to give out free flu shots.

But I confess that my desire to help went beyond the Samaritan impulse of preventing illness and aiding the sick, an impulse that, remarkably, still persists among our nation’s health professionals despite the toxic atmosphere of our for-profit health system.
I and many others were impelled to take action because the Occupy movement struck a chord with us. We’re angry that our health economy – like the overall economy – has more than sufficient resources to take care of all of us, but the resources are siphoned off by profit-driven corporations in the interest of “the 1 percent.”

Every advanced, civilized nation on the planet - except the United States - provides universal health care.  So here is my proposal for where OWS goes next:  even if people aren't going to put sleeping tents back in the public square, let's put the medical tents back up or up for the first time if your city or town didn't, and join arms in a 24/7 circle around those tents while people go in and out for free medical care unimpeded by any inteference sent by the 1%.

I'll volunteer my time to do watch shifts.  Now that's community service!

More information here and here and here on opening up an improved Medicare for the entire country. 

As Dr. Martin Luther King stated, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and most inhumane."  So for Dr. King's birthday this year, let's reoccupy Wall Street across the nation by putting medical tents back up 24/7 in the public square.  And let's pass a sane and humane national health care bill like H.R. 676.

More o.s.r. blogging here on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations for single payer.  Occupy health care.  Health care is a human right.