Campaign for Universal Health Care 

We are working with Michael Moore and an unprecedented national coalition of activists, nurses, doctor, patients and health care activist groups to ensure SiCKO has a long-term impact on our nation’s healthcare system and politics.

It’s an incredible opportunity for patient advocates and it’s only missing one element: you.

What are you doing the evening of Friday June 29th?

From The time is now: Medicare for all - Politico.com Print View:

From The Politico, via Don McCanne's single payer "Quote of the Day" comes the announcement of Kennedy/Dingells version of Medicare for All.

Today, House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and I are introducing legislation to extend Medicare to all Americans, from birth to the end of life. In addition, our plan will reduce costs and improve quality, including more effective use of health information technology. It also puts a new emphasis on preventive care, because preventing illness before it occurs is always better and less expensive than treating patients after they become ill.

Our proposal will be entirely voluntary. Americans who wish to stay in their current employer-sponsored plans can do so, and employers can tailor their health plans to provide additional services to their employees that wrap around Medicare coverage. Those who prefer private insurance can choose any of the plans offered to members of Congress and the president.

The battle to achieve Medicare for All will not be easy. Powerful interests will strongly oppose it because they profit immensely from the status quo. But no battle worth fighting is easy -- and the struggle to fulfill the promise of this century of the life sciences for all our citizens is as worthy as any in American history.

I urge my colleagues to make good on the promise of America and see that all our citizens receive the quality health care that should be their birthright. As we showed in Massachusetts, where there is the will and the tenacity to succeed, no challenge is insurmountable. Let 2007 be the year that we rededicate ourselves to ensuring that all Americans receive quality health care.

Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat, is the senior senator from Massachusetts. He is the chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

For the full text of S1218 & HR2034, the "Medicare for All Act": http://thomas.loc.gov/ (Insert "HR2034" into the search box, click "Bill Number" and click "Search". S1218 is the same bill, but it has not yet been posted on Thomas.)

This is far less than Representative John Conyers' HR-676. It is close to John Edwards plan insofar as it leaves in place the private for profit sector, and tries to offer a competing Federal universal insurance. It is a lot more than anything Clinton or Obama have committed to. Which says a lot more about them than about this bill.

What we do now have is several senior Democrats, who are Chairs of various key committees and subcommittees in the House and Senate backing various real reform bills.

I'm still going to work for and push both House and Senate and all presidential candidates for HR 676, but I am happy to see more and more debate and plans being discussed.

OpEd From DesMoinesRegister.com:

We have in America outstanding health-care facilities, excellent doctors and world-class research. What we lack is the universal health-care coverage present in all other industrial nations that provides assurance that health care will be available to us when we need it.

Many of you reading this may say, "I've got good insurance that my employer provides." Let's hope your insurer stays in business and that you never have to change jobs or go into business for yourself.

Or if you do, hope that you don't have asthma, high cholesterol, migraine or any kind of headaches, depression or anxiety disorders or the myriad of other common clinical problems that will either make you uninsurable, raise your rates or provide exclusions from coverage.

[...]

The plans proposed by the spectrum of politicians fail because they concede to insurance firms a continuing dominant role in health care. The much-publicized plan for universal coverage in Massachusetts, for example, mandates all to buy insurance. However, a 56-year-old making $30,000 annually will have to spend $7,164 in premium and deductible payments before insurance kicks in, and still pony up 20 percent of hospital costs after that, assuming no pre-existing conditions that would either increase costs further or exclude those conditions from coverage.

Such plans are insurance in name only. They leave people unable to get care and unprotected from financial ruin. The only way to simultaneously expand coverage and lower costs is through single-payer national health insurance. Every other developed nation has some form of this, yet most spend less than half what we do per person.

Nearly a third of our $2.3 trillion in health spending this year will go for administration. In their drive to enroll healthy, profitable patients and screen out the sick, private insurers waste vast sums on marketing, billing, underwriting, utilization review and other activities that sustain profits but divert resources from care. The paperwork they inflict on doctors and hospitals costs hundreds of billions more each year.

In contrast to the roughly 20 percent overhead of insurance companies, U.S. Medicare has only 3 percent overhead. Canada's single-payer program runs for 1 percent overhead. And Canada's hospitals and doctors face little paperwork burden.

Americans get scant return for our outsized spending. We already pay the highest health-care taxes in the world, and total per-capita spending is twice that of countries with better health outcomes. We already spend enough that the sum should cover universal health coverage - we just don't get it.

It is past time for this country to have Universal Single Payer Health Care.  Contact your representative and ask them to support John Conyers Bill, HR 676, which would provide "Medicare for All"

From Daily Kos: Health Care Call in Day - TODAY - Call-in Day April 4:

On April 4, 2007, the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, please join Progressive Democrats of America and Healthcare NOW! in honoring his life and legacy by calling your Congressional representative to sign on to the only national plan to end this injustice - H.R. 676, the "National Health Insurance Act/Expanded and Improved Medicare for All."

Sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (MI) and Rep. Denis Kucinich.(OH), H.R. 676 will provide comprehensive universal coverage through a single-payer system of privately-delivered, publicly-financed healthcare - giving all Americans better healthcare at less cost. It will cover all medical expenses - doctors, nurses, hospitals, dental, optical, mental health services, prescription drugs and long-term care.

Under non-bureaucratic single-payer, our society saves close to $300 billion a year in healthcare costs - by eliminating private insurers and their wasteful bureaucracies, advertising, commissions, profiteering and multi-million dollar CEO salaries.

Please call 1-866-338-1015 and ask your Congressional representative to co-sponsor H.R. 676! To find your representative click www.congressmerge.com

Even if we can't get full Universal Coverage for ourselves, maybe we get it for our kids and grandkids, by pushing the envelope today.

Please - take just a minute and ACT!

From About PNHP | Physicians for a National Health Program:

Physicians for a National Health Program is a single issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program. PNHP has more than 14,000 members and chapters across the United States.

Since 1987, we've advocated for reform in the U.S. health care system. A large part of our work involves educating health professionals about the benefits of a single-payer system--including fewer administrative costs and affording health insurance for the 46 million Americans who have none.

Our members and physician activists work toward a single-payer national health program in their communities. PNHP organizes rallies, town hall meetings, and debates; coordinates speakers and forum discussions; contributes Op-Eds and articles to the nation's top newspapers, medical journals and magazines;and appears regularly on national television and news programs advocating for a single-payer system.

PNHP is the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program.

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