November 2008 – Page 2 – Healthcare-NOW

Massachusetts Health Reform: Solution or Stopgap?

Questions about the Massachusetts health plan? This brochure might help you sort through this recently popular “blueprint” for a national healthcare plan. Get all the details about the limits of mandates and keeping private health insurance companies in the mix. From the brochure: Massachusetts health reform (known as “Chapter 58”) has been billed as a…

Ask Kennedy To Make It Single-Payer

News articles report that Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has instructed the staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee to begin working on a comprehensive healthcare bill to be presented in the next Congress that convenes in early January. The following letter was sent to Senator Ted Kennedy on behalf of the All…

Doctors Call on Obama, Congress to ‘Do The Right Thing’ on Health Reform

This article was posted at www.PublicAffairs.net. 15,000 physicians urge enactment of single-payer system A group of over 15,000 U.S. physicians has called on President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress to “do the right thing” and enact a single-payer national health insurance plan, a system of public health care financing frequently characterized as “an improved…

Latino Caucus, California CLC, OPEIU Local Endorse HR 676

HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation, introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), has picked up three more labor endorsements. Delegates to the 19th Annual Latino Caucus of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), meeting in Allentown, Pennsylvania at the end of September, endorsed HR 676, reports Jose G. Guerrero. In California, the Napa/Solano Central Labor Council…

Big 3, UAW Ask for Health Trust Help

The following article is from DetNews.com. Cash-crunched automakers state need for payment help in their bid for federal financing. By David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — Detroit’s Big Three and the United Auto Workers are pressing the case for low-cost government loans to help automakers make required payments to trust funds to…

What Obama’s Next Steps Should Be on Health Care

The following article is from AlterNet. AlterNet asked dozens of writers, experts and activists on key issues to write about where the country needs to go, and the priorities for Barack Obama’s early days in office. By Sara Robinson, fellow, Campaign for America’s Future The most important thing for incoming Obama policy makers to remember…

Massachusetts Voters Say YES to Single-Payer Healthcare, and NO to Mandates

From MassCare.org: Dear Single Payer Supporters – In an election that has brought out the highest voter turnout in Massachusetts probably since 1928, local ballot initiatives supporting single payer and opposing individual mandates passed by landslide margins in all ten legislative districts where they appeared. With almost all precincts tallied, roughly 73 percent of 181,000…

Another Single-Payer Minute

This week at SPM we went into our video archives and found this timely short film for your pre-election viewing pleasure. Find more Single-Payer Minutes at American Patients United’s website.

Passing on Single-Payer Health Care

The following article was printed in the October/November issue of Dollars and Sense magazine. Passing On Single-Payer Health Care Union leadership is out of touch with the rank and file—and the public—on health care. By Jeffrey Muckensturm A coalition of major labor unions and liberal organizations has recently created what it calls “a national grassroots…

Healthcare in the USA Pt. 2

Despite the fact the US continues to rank poorly in worldwide health care standards, John McCain like many, maintains that the United States health care is the best in the world. The Real News Network spoke to Steven Lewis, health policy and research consultant from Canada, Dr. Don McCanne of Physicians for a National Health…