Latest News

PNHPWW May 15th Monthly Meeting

Our May 15th, 7PM, PNHPWW Monthly Meeting will be held at Swedish/Cherry Hill Campus Conference Center Auditorium (directions). This meeting will not have an outside speaker. We will evaluate and critique the Annual Public Meeting weekend events - what worked well and what can be improved upon. Also, we will talk about plans with moving ahead with the Health Care is a Human Right campaign, that will likely occupy much of our energy over the next three years.

Hopefully, in the next couple of days, we will post highlights of our APM speakers on our web site. They were all engaging, invigorating and right on target. A complete DVD will also be available at cost.

May 15th Meeting Agenda - Word.doc - PDF

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PNHPWW 2013 Annual Public Meeting

The meeting was outstanding and the speakers inspiring. We are in process of editing the video so those who weren't able to attend can view the event. This space will be updated with video from the meeting and photos from the weekend events in the very near future. The keynote speaker was be Gerald Friedman, PHD, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). He has done economic impact studies of state single payer plans for Mass, Maryland, Penna., and Colorado, as well as one for national PNHP. Andy Coates, MD, National President of PNHP and Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council also spoke. Congressman Jim McDermott opened the meeting. The 2013 John Geyman Health Justice Award was presented to Senator Karen Keiser for her legislative leadership for health justice over the past decade. Also, there was a meeting with Andy Coates, Gerald Freidman and UW Health Sciences students and another with single payer activists.

Download an APM Flyer - Color PDF B&W PDF

PNHPWW April 17th Monthly Meeting

"Outlook for Washington's Community Clinics over the Next Five Years"

We were fortunate to have as our speaker Teresita Batayola, CEO of the International Community Health Services, the state's largest non-profit providing health care to our Asian and Pacific Islander communities. On May 18th, ICHS is having its Gala Bloom 40th Anniversary Dinner at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel (for info www.ichs.com/bloom). Teresita described ICHS's history, its current services and the challenges it faces in the future. She presented a slide show with lots of details. It is available by clicking here.

We have a lot of work coming up in the next couple of weeks, culminating in our 8th Annual Public Meeting on Saturday, May 4th, 7PM, in Kane Hall on the UW campus. The theme will be "Health Care is a Human Right: Beyond the ACA." Keynote speaker will be Gerald Friedman, PHD, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). He has done economic impact studies of state single payer plans for Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, as well as one for national PNHP. Andy Coates, MD, National President of PNHP and Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council will also speak. Congressman Jim McDermott will open the meeting. The 2013 John Geyman Health Justice Award will be presented.

Other events of the APM weekend - Andy Coates and Gerald Friedman will meet with UW Health Sciences students, on Friday, May 3rd, 5-7pm at the "Crow's Nest" in the UW South Campus Center. They will also meet with single payer activists in a strategy session Saturday morning, May 4th.

Also coming up in the near future on May 1st is the May Day March and Rally for Worker and Immigrants' Rights – 1:00pm – Meet at St. Mary's Church, 611 20th Ave S - In the past, this march/demonstration has been the largest of the year. Workers and immigrants have a lot of challenges, and access to good health care should not be one of them. PNHPWW has had contingents and carried our banner. We need at least three people in order to carry it. This year, Ronnie Shure (rushure@u.washington.edu) is coordinating the contingent so please let him know if you can participate.

PNHPWW April 17th Meeting - Monthly Report- Word.doc - PDF

 

WA House Health and Wellness Committee Hearing on WHST - HB 1085

On Febuary 1st, more than 130 single payer supporters from around the state attended the House Health and Wellness Committee's hearing on the Washington Health Security Trust (HB 1085), the state single payer bil, filling the hearing chamber as well as two overflow rooms. About 20 people testified, repesenting health care professionals, business, labor, community organizations and patients. You can watch the proceedings by clicking here - the reading of the bill, and sponsor Rep Sherry Appleton's testimony, and the public testimony (copyright TVW). Supporters met afterward for an enthusiastic assessment of the hearing.

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	Washington Health Security Trust Introduced (HR 1085, SB 5224) Sherry Appleton, Representative 23th LD, introduced the Washington Health Security Trust in the 2013 session of the Washington State House of Representatives (HR 1085) and Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, 36th LD, introduced the WHST in the Washington State Senate (SB 5224). You can find the latest information about HR 1085 here and SB 5224 here. This state single payer plan would cover all Washington residents with comprehensive health care under a single plan. It has been written to qualify for a waiver under the Affordadable Care Act, for which it would be substitiuted in 2017. Click here for a summary of the WHST, as introduced in the previous legislative session. Click Here to find information about the House Health and Wellness Committee and email addresses for Committee Members to ask them to support the WHST
Representative Appleton		Senator Kohl-Welles

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For the latest news, articles of interest and opinion on health reform legislation, check the PNHP national web site at www.pnhp.org

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Recent Opinion and Information

ACA vs Single Payer - Accessibility, Affordability, Cost Control - PNHPWW
Real Danger of Obamacare: Insurance Company Takeover of Medicine - Nomi Prins
Some thoughts on What's Ahead - Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein
It's Time for Single Payer - Dr. James C. Mitchiner
Will Pay for Performance Backfire?; Insights from Behavioral Economics - Woolhandler and Ariely
Medicare Overpayments to Private Plans, 1985 - 2012 - Hellander. Woolhandler, Himmelstein
The Nuts and Bolts of Medicare Premium Support Proposals - Kaiser Foundation
Committee Responsibilities - Health Care for All Oregon
Minnesota Single Payer Economic Study - The Lewin Group
Funding a National Single-Payer System - Gerald Friedman - Prof Economics, U. of Massachusetts-Amherst
"Occupy" and US Health Care - Dr. Mary Obrien
The Wyden-Ryan Plan: Deja-vu All Over Again - Uwe Reinhart
Sustaining the Movement for the 99% - Stering Committee of the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer
A Difficult Pill to Swallow - Margaret Flowers, MD
Privatize Medicare? No Thanks! - Dr. James Mitchner
Why won't Corporate America Support Single Payer Medicare for All - Mark Dudzic
Ryan turns Knife on Medicare, Medicaid - Dr. Margaret Flowers
Pay Much Attention to the Insurers Behind the Curtain - Wendell Potter
Medicare for All is the Solution - Robert Reich
Stop the Bipartisan Assault on Medicare - Support the People - Claudia Chaufan
What Happened to Social Justice in Health Care Reform? - Arthur Sutherland
GOP's Medicare Plan would be a Windfall for Insurers - Wendell Potter

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PNHP's Slideshows - November, 2012

Long Set - 213 Slides
Short Set - 96 Slides

These slides are the latest sets from the PNHP Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The classic sets have been updated. Pick and chose to design slide shows for various audiences and presentation settings.

Download PowerPoint Slideshow
Margaret Flower's "Single Payer Basics and the Effect of P-PACA"

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The information You Need to Remain Up-To-Date on Health Care Reform:

Sign up for Don McCanne's 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

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John Geyman's Latest Book - Health Care Wars

John Geyman, 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 now written 10 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.

Health Care Wars - How Market Ideology and Corporate Power Are Killing Amercians examines how our market-based system benefits the 1% at the grave expense and suffering of the 99%. As described by Ralph Nader:

"Dr. John Geyman's Health Care Wars is a tour de force—replete with facts that are organized for reader understanding and civic arousal. Citing irrefutable evidence from unrebutted studies, in properly enraging detail about lost lives and plundered family budgets, Dr. Geyman lays down the steps needed to replace corporatized, wasteful, corrupt health sales with full Medicare for all, containing incentives for prevention, cost control and the rise of honest, competent health care as if people matter first.
.... Health Care Wars is a remarkably comprehensive, contextual and action-driven book with some marvelously insightful cartoons which show that in humor there it truth."

Health Care Wars
ISBN 978-0-9837734-8-1
228 Pages / $18.95
Available through amazon.com

John's previous book "Breaking Point - How the Primary Care Crisis Endangers the Lives of Americans" documents the crisis in primary care in the US and what we must do about it.

You can find information about his books and ordering information by following these links - Breaking Point - How the Primary Care Crisis Endangers the Lives of Americans, Hijacked - The Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Healthcare Reform, The Cancer Generation - Baby Boomers Facing a Perfect Storm, Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying, and How We Must Replace It. The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy?, Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare and Falling Through the Safety Net: Americans Without Health Insurance

John's Web Site
Click here for > John Geyman's Weekly Blog

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7th PNHPWW Annual Public Meeting - 2012

Health Care and Social Justice
How We Get There, Where We Came From, Where We Are

Quentin Young, Amy Goodman, Teresa Mosqueda
and Jim McDermott attract 800 enthusiastic attendees

Quentin Young	Amy Goodman - Part 1; Part 2	Jim McDermott	Teresa Mosqueda

Our 7th PNHPWW Annual Public Meeting featured speakers Quentin Young, MD, National Coordinator for PNHP, Amy Goodman, author and the host of Democracy Now!, Teresa Mosqueda, Legislative and Policy Director of the Washington State Labor Council and Chair of the Healthy Washington Coalition, and Representative Jim McDermott, Congressman for the WA 7th CD.
The PNHPWW Board awarded its 2012 John Geyman Health Justice Advocate Award to David Loud, health reform activist who has worked as a hospital worker, union organizer and now is Jim McDermott's staff aide for community outreach. Bob Wickline and Family provided musical entertainment.

Click on each speaker's name above to watch their complete presentation and/or click here for a 20 minute highlight summary. Thanks to Todd Boyle for providing the video.

Listen to an Interview with Quentin Young by Mike McCormick on KEXP Radio

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Here is a link to a great, succinct discussion of single payer and PPACA, in the context of the current contraception controversy, broadcast on MSNBC by Laurence O'Donnell, that is a very good organizing tool in lots of settings.

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News of Seattle Occupy Health Care Working Group

Kathleen Randall is a facilitator for the Occupy Seattle Health Care Working Group. The group meets on a regularly scheduled basis, the first and third Sundays of the month on the 4th floor of the Washington State Convention Center. If you are interested in joining, please contact Kathleen.

PNHP has organized a statement for physicians to support Occupy Wall Street - you can sign it here.

Republicans want to privatize Medicare and slash Medicaid to reduce the nation's deficit. President Obama says he wants to preserve Medicare and Medicaid, but his budget proposal looks to those programs to find savings. We agree that healthcare costs are a serious problem, but cutting Medicare and Medicaid won't help. Instead, we need to take the corporate greed and waste out of our healthcare system, and make healthcare a human right by extending Medicare to everyone.

Join us in sending this message to President Obama and your Congresspeople: Medicare is the solution - not the problem. We need improved Medicare for all NOW! - Click here to send a message

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, 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 is in his fourth year at ELAM, now acquiring clinical skills and taking care of patients.

Click for info about Ramon and his monthly reports from Havana as he progresses (now 34 reports with photos)

Click here to listen to an interview with Ramon on KBCS radio, with Jill Bolduc

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