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H E A L T H C A R E - N O W !
Healthcare-NOW! - 215-732-2131 - [email protected] - 1315 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 1
Everybody In
On January 20th Healthcare-‐NOW!'s Board organized a Strategic Planning summit in Philadelphia to assess the state of the movement and develop a strategy for growing and accelerating our organizing for single-‐payer health care in 2013 and beyond.
2013 is shaping up to be a landmark year in the future of our public health insurance plans -‐ particularly Medicare and Medicaid -‐ which have come under sustained attack through federal deficit negotiations and debt ceiling talks.
2013 will also be a crucial year for implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many provisions of which will go into effect in late 2013 and early 2014. The fate of Medicaid expansions in the states, implementation of state health insurance exchanges, the individual mandate, and whether insurance companies will evade new regulations -‐ or use them as an excuse to drive up premiums -‐ are all at stake.
The next two years will mobilize millions of residents fighting for access to care within the
current, broken healthcare system, and the single payer movement has to be there to provide solidarity and to engage these activists in the broader fight to make our healthcare system sustainable and equitable for all.
Healthcare-‐NOW! will be focusing on three broad strategies to grow the movement in the coming year:
1) Developing a Healthcare-‐NOW! Leadership Structure, which will consist of state and sometimes regional and local coordinators. HCN Coordinators will serve as liaisons to our local affiliates and spokespeople for the organization. Our coordinators will receive training and support, and will help to carry out national campaigns at the local level.
2) Increasing Our Support for Local Single Payer Organizations through improved educational materials, webinars, national actions for local groups to plug into, and trainings. HCN plans to overhaul and update its educational materials focused on policy and organizing, and launch the "Everybody InStitute" -‐ inspired by Labor Notes's Troublemaker Schools -‐ a series of regional trainings and webinars.
3) Seize National Organizing Opportunities. HCN will focus on plugging local groups into the national fights around health care, making certain that the ACA and fights to preserve public and private health insurance serve as opportunities to grow our movement!
Healthcare-NOW!’s Quarterly Newsletter on the Healthcare Justice Movement
H.R. 676 Reintroduced in Congress
On February 14 -‐ Valentine's Day -‐ Rep. John Conyers of Michigan reintroduced HR676, The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, with 37 original co-‐sponsors.
Organizing Picks Up In The States!
State single payer groups across the country took action early this year -‐ reintroducing state single payer legislation, or joining the movement to expand Medicaid. See updates from just a few of these actions here!
www.Healthcare-Now.org Issue No. 1 - Spring 2013
Healthcare-NOW! Strategic Planning and Board Meeting in January 2013
Strategic Planning for 2013!
Medicare Under Attack
With sequestration going into effect and the “grand bargain” looming, Congress is likely to push further Medicare cuts, with Rep. Paul Ryan (WI) trying to turn Medicare into voucher programs and extend retirement until 67, can anything save Medicare but single payer reform?
H E A L T H C A R E - N O W !
Healthcare-NOW! - 215-732-2131 - [email protected] - 1315 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 2
Can We Save Medicare Without Single Payer Reform? 2013 is starting off as the year of Congressional deadlock as Democrats and Republicans have reached impasses on extending the debt ceiling and how (or whether) to address the federal deficit, leading to the automatic across-‐the-‐board cuts known as "sequestration." At the heart of these fiscal debates is the growing cost of our public health insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid, and how to sustain these programs -‐ who is right on Medicare Reform: Republicans? Democrats? Or neither?
Although Medicare is the only publicly financed, universal health plan in the United States (for Seniors 65 and over), Medicare is not truly a single payer plan – it is just one public payer among many payers, and it does not simplify or reduce the administrative costs for providers.
In a December, 2012 article David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler compared the growth in health care spending under U.S. Medicare with seniors in Canada. Medicare spending in the U.S. has grown at almost three times the rate of spending for seniors in Canada! The U.S. could have saved over $2 trillion with single payer cost growth!
Republican leadership wants to shift costs onto seniors and their families by raising the retirement age to 67 or replacing Medicare with vouchers towards the purchase of private health insurance, which would drive millions of seniors into poverty. Neither party’s leadership has yet embraced the one proven way of controlling Medicare’s costs and guaranteeing access to care for the next generation of seniors: single-‐payer, expanded & improved Medicare for All!
Benjamin Day - Director of Organizing
California Single Payer Rally Dramatizes Death by Uninsurance With Caskets
On February 11 a large coalition of single-‐payer organizations in California descended on Sacramento for a lobby day. Large black
caskets were laid out on the Capitol lawn to symbolize 45,000 deaths due to lack of insurance.
Healthcare-‐NOW! Affiliate Updates
Health Care for All Texas and the Houston Area Medicaid Expansion Coalition organized a rally in Austin on March 5 demanding that Governor Perry accept federal funds to expand Medicaid to 2 million uninsured Texans. Find out more at HealthCareForAllTexas.org.
State single payer legislation has been filed in New York with currently 73 sponsors in the Assembly and 8 sponsors in the Senate.
Health Care for All Pennsylvania on March 5 released an economic impact study for single payer in Pennsylvania. The study shows that the state could save $17 billion annually. Find out more at HealthCare4AllPA.org.
Healthcare-‐NOW! Maryland hosted its annual meeting on March 4th, featuring Dr. Walter Tsou as keynote speaker. Find out more at MDSinglePayer.org.
Health Care for All Minnesota's lobby day hit the Capitol on Feb. 12. HCAMn is rebuilding and reenergizing their coalition! Find out more at HCAMN.org.
Your state update not included here? Email us at info@healthcare-‐now.org!
Major Rally in Salem, OR for Single-‐Payer Universal Healthcare
By Health Care for All Oregon -‐
An estimated 1,000 Oregonians arrived in buses and car pools from across the state to greet their legislators on the Capitol steps on Monday, Feb. 4, the first day of the 2013 legislative session. Nine buses brought health care advocates from as far
away as LaGrande, Prineville, and Ashland and the Coast, as well as from Corvallis, Eugene and Portland.
Find out more at HCAO.org.
Divestment Campaign for Health Care Investigates Holdings by TIAA-‐CREF
By Sandy Fox -‐
Healthcare-‐NOW! and Physicians for a National Health Program, began a committee in 2010 to look at divestment from for-‐profit health insurance companies.
As a participant in TIAA-‐CREF funds, the nation’s largest pension fund, I decided to investigate their holdings in the “socially responsible” stock option. I wanted to make sure that health insurance companies were not included in this fund. I was very disturbed to discover that CREF-‐Social Choice included holdings in Aetna, CIGNA, Coventry Health Care, Humana, and WellPoint.
Find out more at HealthCareNotWealthcare.us.
Don’t See Your Rep. on This List of HR 676 Cosponsors?
Call Them! 866-‐220-‐0044
Reps Christensen [VI], Chu [CA-‐27], Clarke [NY-‐9], Clay [MO-‐1], Cohen [TN-‐9], Cummings [MD-‐7], Doyle [PA-‐14], Edwards [MD-‐4], Ellison [MN-‐5], Rep Engel [NY-‐16], Farr [CA-‐20], Green [TX-‐9], Grijalva [AZ-‐3], Gutierrez [IL-‐4], Holt [NJ-‐12], Honda [CA-‐17], Huffman [CA-‐2], Johnson [TX-‐30], Johnson [GA-‐4], Lee [CA-‐13], Lewis [GA-‐5], Lofgren [CA-‐19], McDermott [WA-‐7], McGovern [MA-‐2], Miller [CA-‐11], Moore [WI-‐4], Nadler [NY-‐10], Nolan [MN-‐8], Norton [DC], Pingree [ME-‐1], Pocan [WI-‐2], Rangel [NY-‐13], Roybal-‐Allard [CA-‐40], Rush [IL-‐1], Schakowsky [IL-‐9], Scott [VA-‐3], Takano [CA-‐41], Welch [VT], Wilson [FL-‐24], and Yarmuth [KY-‐3].
