Healthcare-NOW

Health care activists lament single-payer snub

By Victoria Colliver for the San Francisco Chronicle – Frustrated by the exclusion of government-financed medical care from the debate to revamp the nation’s troubled health system, advocates of a “single-payer” plan are increasingly turning to demonstrations and civil disobedience as a way to get their message across. During Senate Finance Committee hearings May 5…

Rep. Conyers urges single-payer system

By Laura Ungar for Courier-Journal.com – Despite resistance from President Barack Obama and some members of Congress, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan said yesterday he’ll keep fighting for a publicly financed, privately delivered “single payer” health-care system that covers all Americans. “All who are ready to fight for what they believe is right in health…

Thousands hit Seattle streets seeking changes to health care

Thousands joined a health-care rally and later a mellow, slow-moving parade in downtown Seattle, complete with belly dancers, drums, air horns, children, bicycles and lots of signs, both mass-produced and hand-drawn. Many said they wanted a single-payer national health-insurance system — the type of insurance that’s widely used in Europe and Canada. By Katherine Long…

Single-Payer Actions Planned in over Fifty Cities

Activists of every stripe take to the streets to support single-payer As the Obama administration calls for health reform to be done this year, people in support of improved Medicare for all, a single-payer national health system, take to the streets in over 50 cities around May 30th. Single-payer advocates support the removal of for-profit…

Baucus 8 Charged: It’s an Outrage Outdone Only by Their Humanity

By Donna Smith – They arrived on May 26 to the DC courthouse in business dress and on time. The single payer supporters now known as the Baucus 8 who were arrested on May 5, 2009, in your United States Senate hearing chambers came ready to be arraigned on Tuesday morning and to find out…

Disruption of Congress or Corruption of Congress?

Single Payer Trial for the Baucus 13 By Single Payer Action – Seven of the Baucus 13 were arraigned in Washington, D.C. Superior Court this morning. The Baucus 13 are doctors, nurses, lawyers and other single payer advocates who stood up before Senator Max Baucus and the Senate Finance Committee during hearings on May 5…

Single-payer mentions draw cheers at Baucus-sponsored health care talk

By Michael Moore of the Missoulian – Steve McArthur is a management consultant. Read self-employed. That means he has to buy his own insurance, a Blue Cross Blue Shield policy that costs him $584 a month and carries a $10,000 deductible. On Tuesday morning, he listened for a long time as Missoulians discussed health care…

Held hostage by the health system

By Dr. Marcia Angell – The Senate Finance Committee’s hearings on health reform earlier this month did not include testimony from any advocate for single-payer insurance. Physicians for a National Health Program, which represents 16,000 doctors, asked the committee to invite me to testify, but it chose not to. If I had been invited, this…

Bill Moyers’ Journal Discusses Single-Payer

This Friday, Bill Moyers’ Journal discusses single-payer healthcare. Guests include Donna Smith (California Nurses Association), Dr. Sidney Wolfe (Public Citizen) and Dr. David Himmelstein (Physicians for a National Health Program). You can look up the dates/times for your area here.

Nation needs health care plan based on Social Security, Medicare models

By Helen Thomas – Americans can be thankful for two humanitarian presidents whose legacies stand as emblems of caring values that enrich us as a nation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt won passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare legislation in 1965. Social Security and Medicare work beautifully…