Real Change

The Bernie Sanders campaign will be releasing its first T.V. advertisement in Iowa and New Hampshire.  Feel the Bern in Real Change, posted below, paid for only by the hard-earned contributions of everyday Americans, not the corporations:

Hey Bernie Sanders

There's a lotta great Bernie Sanders tunes.  (Hey, the man inspires for a lotta good reasons, right?)

Here's one of my favs among those many.  Hey Bernie Sanders, by Brian Estes and performed by Brian Estes (who also does a great job with it here) and Happytown ... Feel The Bern!

What The U.S. Can Learn

The Los Angeles Times reports on a March 11th Senate hearing on single payer health care (viewable in CSPAN full here).  In the video below, and a highlight described by Michael Hiltzik, Dr. Danielle Martin, a physician and health policy professor from Toronto "bats down the myths and misunderstandings about the Canadian system" that Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) throws at her, concluding with a confrontation about the 45,000 Americans who die every year because they have no health coverage.



A full transcript of the exchange is provided at the article link.  "Premier Williams" is Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, whose decision to have a heart valve procedure near his Miami condo instead of Canada, "is widely viewed in Canada as a rich man's failure to investigate the care available to him closer to home."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), also seen in the video, asked seven experts to testify before his subcommittee on primary health and aging, and on single payer systems in Canada and other countries. Tsung-Mei Cheng, a health policy analyst with Princeton University provided a 28 page overview of single payer, and the sharp contrasts between the U.S. and other nations.  Among the speakers presenting on specific nations, Victor Rodwin spoke about France, Ching-Chuan Yeh on Taiwan, Danielle Martin on Canada, and Jakob Kjellberg on Denmark.  (Their presentations can be found in full here with links at the bottom of the page.)

A short video of some moments from the hearing:




Here's a short 2009 video of Canadians speaking about their health care system:

 

Also in recent single payer news, and via Physicians for a National Health Program, the Maine Medical Association has announced results of a state wide membership survey on single payer support.  

The survey asked:  

“When considering the topic of health care reform, would you prefer to make improvements to the current public/private system or a single-payer system such as a “Medicare for all” approach?

Nearly 65 percent of the responding physicians support a single payer "Medicare for all" approach to improving the current system, a 12 percent jump in support since 2008 and the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

At present, a March 31st 2014 deadline looms for buying insurance under the Affordable Care Act, with subsidies for qualifying persons.

More information on how to apply at the White House website. 

Vermont

Via truthout, Senator Bernie Sanders appears on msnbc (video below) to discuss Vermont's move for a state-wide single payer health care system under the Affordable Care Act.  Salvadore Aversta writes:

The ACA provided states with federal funds to institute a Medicaid expansion.  The states chose to expand the program also were able to set up their own state exchanges, which were relatively free from the problems the federal site had.  Vermont decided to take it a step further by setting up their very own single payer system.

The slogan of the program: Everybody in, nobody out.

The program will be fully operational by 2017, and will be funded through Medicare, Medicaid, federal money for the ACA given to Vermont, and a slight increase in taxes.  In exchange, there will be no more premiums, deductibles, copay’s, hospital bills or anything else aimed at making insurance companies a profit.  Further, all hospitals and healthcare providers will now be nonprofit.

*Photo credit/via The David Pakman Show, "Vermont's Single Payer Push."