Healthcare-NOW

Action Alert!

On November 19th, 2008, at 10 a.m., the Senate Finance Committee will hold a host a hearing in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, in Washington, D.C., titled: “Health Care Reform: An Economic Perspective” As of this time, only two U.S. Senators, Max Baucus of Montana and Charles Grassley of Iowa, are slated to offer statements,…

Single-payer system is the way to go

By Ray Bellamy Millions of families are struggling with economic hardship. Health-care costs are weighing on more Americans, contributing to about a million bankruptcies a year, and are a major factor in many home foreclosures. Distressed companies are struggling with the rising costs of providing health coverage for their employees, and there is evidence of…

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…

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…