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Latest News
Western Washington Single Payer Summit
This June 17th meeting was organized to bring together organizations in Western Washington that see the need to continue to advocate for single payer and resolve to work together as we move ahead as quickly as possible during the critical next few weeks. 56 people attended and 4 dialed in.
We were very lucky to have a skilled and experienced moderator/facilitator in Hal Stockbridge. He kept us moving the right direction, was very concerned to get everyone’s two cents, and managed to get us to a place where we were pretty much satisfied that we accomplished something – a very difficult task for a first meeting of this large group of veteran and opinionated activists. Six Work Groups were formed (see meeting report) and the next Summit meeting set for Wednesday, June 24th at Swed/Prov/Cherry Hill Campus in the James Tower Conference Center, Room B.
Organizations that sent representatives included:
Health Care for All – Wa
PNHP – Western Washington
Progressive Democrats of America – Wa State
65th Street Change Gang
United for National Health Care - Bellingham
Washington Community Action Network
Washington Public Campaigns
Washington Health Security Coalition
Washingtton Single Payer Action
David Loud - representing Rep. Jim McDermott
For a Summary of 6/17 meeting click here
For a Summary of 6/24 meeting click here
Web Home Page for United for Single Payer click here
The PNHPWW June monthly meeting was replaced by the Summit meeting described ave. For a PNHPWW June Report click here
May 30th Mothers Leading the Way March for Health Care for All in 2009
 
5000 people demonstrated for health care for all in 2009 during a noisy march through the streets of Seattle on May 30th. More than 190 organizations endorsed the march with participants from across the state. Single payer signs and supporters were very much in evidence. Click on image above for video of the march.
 David Himmelstein of PNHP and Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen discuss curerent prospecis for health cate reform and why single payer must be on the table during a must-see "Bill Moyer's Journal."
Click on image to view program - give a minute to start streaming
 Health Reform Czar Kathleen Sebelius on whether the "Public Option" is a step toward Single Payer - on NPR's Morning Edition, June 16th:
Steve Inskeep asks if the administration's program will be drafted specifically to prevent it from evolving into a single-payer plan, Sebelius says: "I think that's very much the case..."
Click here to watch a video clip of Bernie Sanders and MSNBC host Ed Shultz discuss the need to include single payer in Congressional discussions
Leadership Council on Guaranteed Health Care - http://pdamerica.org/leadership/
James Floyd, PNHPWW Board member, is in Washington DC as a fellow with Public citizen, working on health care reform. James is coordinating PNHPWW input into our Congressional delegation and also working with the Leadership Council.
"The LCGHC is a clearinghouse and umbrella coordinating organization for groups promoting comprehensive reform legislation to guarantee health care for all Americans. The Leadership Conference helps member organizations utilize their respective resources, capacity and constituencies to educate, advocate and agitate to pass H.R. 676, the National Health Insurance Act/Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. To pass H.R. 676, the Leadership Conference is committed to developing coordinated legislative, media and grassroots strategies to support health care for all Americans through a privately-provided, publicly-financed system modeled on Medicare.
The Leadership Conference is a dynamic network with participation from medical professionals and patients, senior citizens, concerned businesses, labor unions, the faith community, economic and social justice organizations and others allied with federal, state and local legislators around the country. Currently, the group is led by the California Nurses Association (CNA)/National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC), Healthcare-NOW!, the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and Physicians for a National Health Care Program (PNHP). Our goal is to promote greater coordination with all groups endorsing H.R. 676 nationwide. The inspiration for the group was the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, which worked to pass civil rights legislation in the 1960's."
New Report on Health Care Reform and the Economic Recovery for CNA/NNOC
Medicare for All (Single Payer) Reform Would Be Major Stimulus for Economy with 2.6 Million New Jobs, $317 Billion in Business Revenue, $100 Billion in Wages. The number of jobs created by a single payer system, expanding and upgrading Medicare to cover everyone, parallels almost exactly the total job loss in 2008, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study by the Clifornia Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee. For Press release click here - To Download the full report click here
A Message from John Conyers, Jr. - Author of HR 676, the “United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act)”
 "Tell Obama: Single Payer is the Answer"
President-elect Barack Obama has set up a website to gather ideas from ordinary citizens on the most important issues facing our country. Obama wants to hear from you about health care. Now is our chance to show the president-elect the tremendous support nationwide for single payer health care.
Single payer universal health care is the only solution that will take profit out of health care. We need health care reform that will:
* Create a publicly-financed, privately-delivered universal health care program covering all Americans;
* Cover all medically-necessary services without charging co-pays or deductibles;
* Eliminate corporate greed from our health care delivery system.
Tell Obama that single payer health care is the answer by clicking on:
http://johnconyers.com/transition)
Thank you for your continued support for a better democracy.
Your Friend,
John Conyers, Jr.
John Conyers' Health Care Platform - http://johnconyers.com/healthcare
HR 676 FAQ - http://johnconyers.com/hr676faq
New David Himmelstein Slideshow on Failure of Incremental Health Reform Legislation in 7 States
This new slideshow from PNHP co-founder and researcher David Himmelstein, MD, documents the failure incremental health reform legislation in 7 states - Massachusetts, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Minnesota, Maine, and Washington. It shows the hype and hope with which each was introduced and the historical failure to achieve a lasting decrease in the number of uninsured.
Click here to Download
The information You Need to Remain Up-To-Date on Health Care Reform:
This Week's Perspectives in Health Care Reform
Larry Kalb, President, Health Care for All Washington, selects the best weekly information on health care reform
Listserve free subscription - http://www.newseattle.net/HCFA-WA/perspectiveemail.html
Quote of the Day
 For invaluable daily current health care reform information and analysis read PNHP Senior Staff Policy Analyst Don McCanne's Quote of the Day
Listserve free subscription http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/quote-of-the-day
PNHPWW Lending Library
We have books on health care reform and health related topics of interest as well as some DVD's. These can be borrowed for one month, first come, first served. They can be picked up at meetings or by email request (pay postage). Some of these books are new and for sale.
For a list of Books and DVD click here
If you have books you would like to donate to the library, please do so.
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Latest Literature
Frontline “Sick Around the World” This PBS program by TR Reid looks at other HC systems in 5 countries and the different ways they guarantee coverage, finance HC and control costs. The obvious contrasts with the US are pointed out. It’s low-key, more of a “here’s the information & draw your own conclusions” rather than pushing a solution for the US. It’s well worth watching – you can stream the whole thing to your computer at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/view/main.html
"Fein Calls For Taking Profit Out Of Health" - Ollie Fein, PNHP President-Elect, on necessay health care reform
"State Health Care Reform Flatlines" - International Journal of Health Services - Woolhandler, Himmelstein and Benjamin Day on the failure of incremental state health care reform legislation
"Health Policy Placebos" - Nation Magazine, April 14th - Woolhandler and Himmelstein on the Presidential candidates' reform proposals
“Support for National Health Insurance among American Physicians: Five Years Later,” - Aaron E. Carroll and Ronald T. Ackermann, Annals of Internal Medicine, April 2008. A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine reports that a survey conducted last year of 2,193 physicians across the United States showed 59 percent of them “support government legislation to establish national health insurance,” while 32 percent oppose it and 9 percent are neutral. The findings reflect a leap of 10 percentage points in physician support for national health insurance (NHI) since 2002
Robert Kuttner on the failure of market-based health care reform - NEJM 2/07/08
The prestigious American College of Physicians (ACP), the nation's second largest medical association (124,000 members), endorsed single payer national health insurance as "one pathway" to universal coverage. This is the first time the group has endorsed single payer and represents a huge step forward in the movement for fundamental health care reform.
The ACP position paper “Achieving a High-Performance Health Care System with Universal Access: What the United States Can Learn from Other Countries” notes that single payer systems have the advantage of being "more equitable, have lower administrative costs, have lower per capita health care expenditures, have higher levels of patient satisfaction, and have higher performance on measures of quality and access than systems using private health insurance."
David Dale, MD is now President of the ACP and spokesman for the position paper. He is a UW physician. Dr. Dale will addressed our January monthly meeting.
Quentin Young on the significance of this endorsement and recommendations for PNHP'ers to follow up this opening
The Commonwealth Fund recently released a paper “A Roadmap to Health Insurance for All: Principles for Reform." This paper compares and contrasts the three major approaches to HC reform based on 10 criteria. It reaches conclusions very similar to the ACP paper noted above. Clearly, the conservative "Tax Incentive and Individual Insurance Market" approach does not measure up. The "Mixed Private-Public Group Insurance" model meets all the criteria, but not as well as the "Public Insurance" model EXCEPT for the criteria of “Minimize Dislocation, Ability to Keep Current Coverage.”
Ramon Bernal, Seattle's first student at the Latin American School of Medicine
 Cuba trains physicians from the Carribean, Central and South America, Africa, and the United States at the free Latin American School of Medicine in Havana (ELAM), the largest medical school in the world. Students make a commitment to return to their underserved communities after graduation. There are now 110 US student studying at ELAM.
Ramon Alejandro Bernal in now in Havana, becoming the first student from Seattle to receive the opportunity for a free medical education at ELAM. PNHPWW has committed to support this outstanding individual as he persues his MD degree.
Ramon returned to Seattle in August for his summer break. He spoke at our August 29th monthly meeting
Click for info about Ramon and his monthly reports from Havana as he progresses (now 17 reports with photos)
12 US ELAM students who will be touring the Southwest United States in the summer of 2009 to visit Native American and other community clinics for the underserved to discuss their experiences at ELAM, recruit more US students, and provide services. Click here for more info on their mission and itinerary
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n, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He has spent 25 years in academic family medicine. He is Past President of Physicians for National Health Program (PNHP) and a PNHPWW Board member. John has written several books that are indespensible for understanding the roots of our health care crisis, its current condition, and what must be done to achieve a just and sustainable replacement. You can find information about his books and ordering information by following these links - 