Archive for February 2010
Sidewalk Summit News Roundup
Sidewalk summits for single-payer healthcare were covered in the news yesterday thanks to the hard work of activists from all over the country. Here’s what we have found so far. Washington, DC – Healthcare Summit Ends in Deadlock; Single-Payer Advocates Excluded – Democracy Now! – Bipartisan Agreement Outside Blair House: We Don’t Like This Bill…
Read MoreHealthcare Summit Ends in Deadlock; Single-Payer Advocates Excluded
From Democracy Now! – After nearly seven hours of televised debate, President Obama’s so-called bipartisan healthcare summit ended Thursday without any substantive agreement between Republicans and Democrats. Republican lawmakers remained staunchly opposed to using the federal government to regulate health insurance. We speak to Columbia Journalism Review contributing editor Trudy Lieberman and pediatrician Dr. Margaret…
Read MoreCall for Medicare for All
PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGE FOR EVENT IN WASHINGTON, DC Since the beginning, the discussion on health reform has been flawed because of the exclusion of a single-payer system in the debate. With universal healthcare off the table, so goes a meaningful discussion on controlling costs and improving access to care. On the same day President…
Read MoreObama plan leaves millions uninsured, boosts private insurers
From PNHP – President Obama’s health care proposal, preserving as it does a central role for the for-profit, private health insurance industry, is incapable of achieving the kind of universal, comprehensive and affordable reform the country needs, a spokesman for a national doctors’ group said Wednesday. “Regrettably, the president’s proposal is built on some of…
Read MoreWhere’s the Single-Payer Advocate?
By Michael McAuliff for the NY Daily News – Reps. Anthony Weiner and Peter Welch are reprising a question that proved thorny for President Obama’s last health care summit: Where’s the single-payer advocate? Weiner and Welch — single-payer advocates who are not invited, yet — argue in a letter to the President today that someone…
Read MoreDon’t It Make Your Wide Eyes Cry, Iowa? Another Cancer Patient Grovels
By Donna Smith – Some patient stories just fill me with anger and shame. This one – from Iowa – is one of those stories. By now, we all know the plot. Patient has insurance. Patient gets sick. Patient cannot afford to keep insurance or find insurance that will cover illness. Patient goes without coverage.…
Read MorePut Single Payer Back on the Table
By Dr. Quentin Young of PNHP – One year after its much-ballyhooed launch, the Obama administration’s approach to health reform is now in serious disarray. The president’s health care summit on Feb. 25 is being portrayed as a last ditch bid to find some common ground with his “just say no” Republican opposition. He also…
Read MorePresident Obama’s Concession Proposal
By Mass-Care – At 10AM yesterday, the White House released the outlines of President Obama’s health reform proposal “incorporating and improving on ideas from the House and the Senate, along with some new ones,” in anticipation of a summit this Thursday with Congressional Republicans. Many supporters of comprehensive health reform had hoped that the President…
Read MoreFeb 25: Sidewalk Summit for Medicare for All!
NEW LOCATION: H St NW and Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC – Map here. Let’s make President Obama hear us loud and clear that we want Medicare for All! The event will be followed by lobby visits to drop information to each Congressional office about the single-payer, improved Medicare-for-All solution to the health care crisis.…
Read MoreI had to count the hours before my insurance took effect before I could go to the ER
My name is Teresa. I am a 47 year old Registered Nurse living in Southern Illinois. In December 2009, I started a new job. I was unable to afford COBRA insurance to tide me over until my new insurance came into effect 2-1-10. On January 31,2010 I was sitting in a resteraunt with 2 friends,…
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