April 2009 – Page 3 – Healthcare-NOW

Massachusetts NEA Local Endorses HR 676

The Board of Directors of the Somerville Teachers Association (STA) has voted to endorse HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The Somerville Teachers Association, an affiliate of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the National Education Association (NEA), voted at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 7th. The…

Why Has the Press Failed Us In Reporting on Health Care Reform?

An Open Letter to Bill Keller, Executive Editor, New York Times, and Clark Hoyt, Public Editor, New York Times by Benjamin Day— Dear Bill Keller and Clark Hoyt, For the first time in the span of a generation, national health care reform is back on the horizon, and I’m writing to you to step back…

City of Santa Monica Endorses Single-Payer Healthcare

On April 14, the Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to support both SB810 and HR676, endorsing universal single-payer healthcare at the state and national levels. Public speakers included nurse Geri Jenkins, co-president of the California Nurses Association National Nurses’ Organizing Committee; Progressive Democrats of America member Dr. Jo Olson, pediatrician at Children’s Hospital, assistant…

Protesters tell PBS – Put Single Payer Back on the Table

From Private Health Insurance Must Go!— Earlier today, PHIMG members gathered in front of WNET-PBS TV’s 33rd street office to voice displeasure over Frontline’s Sick Around America program. Sick Around America treated mandatory for-profit insurance coverage as the only alternative to the current U.S. health care system and perpetuated the media’s longstanding pattern of ignoring…

Single-Payer Debate on NPR

Yesterday, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, of Physicians for a National Health Program, debated Robert Moffit, of the Heritage Foundation, on single-payer healthcare and healthcare reform on NPR’s Radio Times. Here’s the NPR description and an MP3 of the hour-long debate. When Barak Obama outlined his proposal for reforming the health care system, the concept of a…

Action Alert: Today is a National Call-In Day for Single-Payer

Today is a nationwide call-in day for single-payer national healthcare. Our message is clear: “Tax payer dollars should go to people, not profits. Support single-payer national health care now.” So today, we ask that you join with thousands of others to call Congress, to support single-payer legislation in both the House (HR 676) and the…

National Lobby Day and Rally for Single-Payer in DC

Wednesday, May 13th, is the National Lobby Day and Rally for Single-Payer in Washington DC. Leading the charge is the California Nurses Association 500 nurses strong to lobby and rally for single-payer in the nation’s capital. Joined by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, we want to use this opportunity to make the single-payer…

Obama sets up formal office for healthcare reform

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama set up an executive office for healthcare reform at the White House on Wednesday, saying the overhaul was one of the biggest priorities for the first year of his presidency. Obama issued an executive order that says the U.S. healthcare system “suffers from serious and pervasive problems.” The White…

PBS Ombud Sides with Frontline Critics

By FAIR— PBS ombud Michael Getler is siding with critics of a Frontline documentary that failed to examine single-payer national health insurance as a possible alternative to the U.S. healthcare system. Citing FAIR’s study “Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare,” which documented that single-payer advocates were all but shut out of the media discussion about healthcare…

Maine State Legislature Endorses HR 676

Both Houses of the Maine state legislature, on roll call votes, have endorsed a single payer healthcare system and HR 676. Separately, a just released poll conducted by the Maine Medical Society, shows that a majority of the state’s physicians support a single payer healthcare system. The HR 676 resolution and vote in Maine, follows…