Archive for March 2009
We’re Organizing Rallies at the Presidential Health Forums
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!! As many of you have heard, the Obama Health Care Task Force is hosting 5 Regional forums on healthcare in Michigan, California, Iowa, North Carolina, and Vermont. Healthcare-NOW! currently has logistics on two (Vermont and Michigan) of the five demonstrations. On short notice, peaceful demonstrations are being mobilized outside the…
Read MoreNo Reason to Demonize U.S. Single-Payer Health
Commentary by John F. Wasik for Bloomberg.com— It’s time to stop kicking sand in the face of single-payer health care. It may be the strongest solution around to insure every American at a lower cost. After decades of industry campaigns against this model — dubbed by its critics as “socialized” medicine — it’s important to…
Read MoreGroups Protest Health Insurance Heavyweights
By Arthur Delaney for the Huffington Post— Congressman Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) led a protest Monday outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, site of the 2009 national conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade group for the health insurance industry. “We are not radicals! We are not a fringe element!” shouted Massa, who opted…
Read MoreOregon Plumbers Local Endorses HR 676
Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290 has endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The 4,000 member local has jurisdiction in Northern California, Southwest Washington and Oregon. Eric Fanning, who introduced the endorsement resolution, said after it passed: “The membership of United Association Local 290, Plumbers and Steamfitters, is fully…
Read MoreInsurers’ commitment to healthcare reform is only skin-deep
The industry claims to have had a change of heart, but its position hasn’t changed at all. By Michael Hiltzik for the LA Times— The genius of modern marketing is pouring old material into new packaging. Over the years this has given us yogurt in tubes, prechopped salad greens in cellophane bags and, most recently,…
Read MoreToday: Mass Action for Single-Payer!
As the new administration takes on the giant task of reforming healthcare, the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care must continue to keep up the heat in support of meaningful reform and the tremendous momentum for the only plan proven to work: Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. So on March 10th, 2009, we will…
Read MoreAt Jefferson, Conyers backs Obama health stand
By Michael Vitez for the Philadelphia Inquirer— U.S. Rep. John Conyers. Jr. (D., Mich.) said today that President Obama won’t support single-payer universal health insurance now because he’s got too much on his plate – two wars and an economic crisis – and he’s got to settle for the health care reform he can get.…
Read MoreNurse’s insurance nightmare makes her a single-payer advocate
By Michael Vitez for the Philadelphia Inquirer— Marilyn Cawthon has been a nurse for 30 years. “All my life I provided health care to people,” she said recently. “I thought when I needed it, it would be there and wouldn’t drive me broke or crazy.” It nearly did both. Cawthon got the heart care she…
Read MoreMedia Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare
FAIR study finds: Proponents of popular policy shut out of debate Major newspaper, broadcast and cable stories mentioning healthcare reform in the week leading up to President Barack Obama’s March 5 healthcare summit rarely mentioned the idea of a single-payer national health insurance program, according to a new FAIR study. And advocates of such a…
Read MoreTalking About Health Reform, But Not About A Cure
By John Nichols for the Nation— Health care reform is a vital and engaging concern for America – and for Americans. But you would not know it from Thursday’s White House Forum on Health Reform, which was so narrowly focused and uninspiring that it almost made Hillary Clinton’s bumbling efforts of the 1990s look good.…
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