[Antiracism] [WR/HCA] National Day of Action 6/25

[WMass Jobs with Justice]

{A joint e-mailing to the WMassJwJ Workers' Rights and Health Care Action
lists. Please forward.}
 
Thursday June 25 is a National Health Care Reform Rally and Lobby Day called
by the AFL-CIO and allies. It may be the biggest health care reform rally to
date. Thousands of union leaders, members, and allies will be in Washington
DC to demand health care reform that works for everyone. More at
http://healthcare09.org/.
 
This part of the reform movement's immediate goal is to deliver affordable
health insurance to 46 million people who don't have it (universal health
insurance coverage whether private or public) with reforms that
* Include the "public option" - a real public health insurance option that
will drive down costs and guarantee quality affordable health care for all.
Such a robust public option would be a Medicare-like plan for those under
65, plus the requirement that health care providers take part in such a plan
as a condition of participating in Medicare.
* Require employers to pay their fair share to prevent companies from
shifting costs to taxpayers and firms that offer good benefits.
* Reject schemes to tax health benefits.
 
However, the members of the Western Mass. Single Payer Network want health
care resources spent better than that.  We believe we can do that only by
placing everyone in one risk pool and consolidating the bureaucratic
nightmare (dumping the private insurance industry and the clutter of public
agencies, in favor of Medicare, which operates at 4% overhead, as a "single
payer" of all health care bills). House
<http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Home&Issue_id=063b74a4
-19b9-b4b1-126b-f67f60e05f8c>  bill 676, the United States National Health
Insurance Act ("Expanded & Improved Medicare for ALL"), would do that.
 
We have decided to participate in the June 25 Day of Action by visiting U.S.
Representatives John Olver and Richard Neal.  Their staffs are expecting us.
The press is invited.  
 
Can you join in?
 
At 2:00pm we will visit Rep. Olver's office at 57 Suffolk St #310, Holyoke,
to thank him for cosponsoring and advocating for HR 676.
 
At 3:00pm we will visit Rep. Neal's office at 300 State Street #200,
Springfield.  We will deliver cards and letters from his constituents asking
him to cosponsor HR 676.  
 
If you want us to deliver a letter from you, reply
<mailto:wmspn at wmjwj.org?subject=Here's%20my%20letter%20asking%20Richie%20Nea
l%20to%20CoSponsor%20HR%20676>  now.
 
At 4:00pm we will gather at the Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council, 640
Page Blvd, Springfield, for pizza and to debrief.
 
If you can join the delegation on this journey, or if you just want to meet
us at a certain location, RSVP
<mailto:wmspn at wmjwj.org?subject=I'll%20Be%20There%206/25!>  now! Let us know
if you need a ride or can offer one.
 
We'll meet again July 7, 7pm, with the Franklin/Hampshire Health Care
Coalition (FHHCC) Steering Committee, probably at Lathrop Village Community
Room, Northampton, to plan next steps.
 
FHHCC is also looking for people to do sidewalk and Common and farmers'
market, etc., tabling for Single Payer. Contact Steve Randall,
chanrandall24 at comcast.net. 
 
For a quick and painless way to express your support for a single-payer
Medicare-for-all program, click on this
<http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-7
62a5b050809>  link to co-sign Senator Bernie Sanders's PETITION TO CONGRESS,
and then share this link with others who care:
http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-76
2a5b050809. And read on .
 
Sanders Op-Ed: The private health industry's time is up 
 
by Bernie Sanders, Christian Science Monitor 6/17/2009 
President Obama has indicated he wants a healthcare bill on his desk
sometime around October, before we worry about timetables, however, we as a
nation have to answer two very fundamental questions.

First, should all Americans be entitled to healthcare in the same way we
respond to other basic needs such as education, police, and fire protection?
Second, if we are to provide quality healthcare to all, how do we accomplish
that in the most cost-effective way?

The answer to the first question is pretty clear, and one of the reasons
that Barack Obama was elected president. Most Americans believe that all of
us should have healthcare coverage, and that nobody should be left out of
the system. The real debate is how we accomplish that goal in an affordable
and sustainable way.

To me, the evidence is overwhelming that we must end the private insurance
company domination of healthcare in our country and move toward a publicly
funded, single-payer, Medicare-for-all approach.

Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful,
complicated, and bureaucratic in the world. But in America, the people who
have to navigate that maze are the lucky ones. Today, 46 million people have
no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and
co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with
insurance, do not have access to a medical home base, more than 18,000
Americans die every year from preventable illnesses. That is six times the
number who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Despite the fact that we spend almost twice as much per person on healthcare
as any other country, our healthcare outcomes lag behind many other nations.
According to the World Health Organization, the United States ranks 37th in
terms of health system performance and we are far behind many other
countries in terms of such important indices as infant mortality, life
expectancy, and preventable deaths.

The main reason we get such bad results is that the function of private
health insurance companies is not to provide quality healthcare for all, but
to make huge profits for those who own the companies. With thousands of
different health benefit programs designed to maximize profits, private
health insurance companies spend an incredible 30 percent of each healthcare
dollar on administration and billing, exorbitant CEO compensation packages,
advertising, lobbying, and campaign contributions. Public programs like
Medicare, Medicaid, and the department of Veterans Affairs are administered
for far less.

In recent years, while we have experienced an acute shortage of primary
healthcare doctors as well as nurses and dentists, we are paying for a huge
increase in healthcare bureaucrats and bill collectors. Over the past three
decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the
number of physicians.

While healthcare costs are soaring, it should surprise no one that profits
of private health insurance companies are more than keeping pace.

>From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation's major health
insurance companies increased by 170 percent. And, while more and more
Americans are losing their jobs and health insurance, the top executives in
the industry are receiving lavish compensation packages.

It's not just William McGuire, the former head of United Health, who several
years ago accumulated stock options worth an estimated $1.6 billion, or
Cigna CEO Edward Hanway who made more than $120 million in the past five
years. The reality is that CEO compensation for the top health insurance
companies now averages $14.2 million.

The president has been supportive of a public option - a plan that people
could opt into if they are uninsured or don't like their private coverage.
But the situation is extremely fluid. How do you get to the root of a
problem when you fail to take on the private health industry?

The time is now for our nation to address the most profound moral and
economic issue we face. The time is now for our country to join the rest of
the industrialized world and provide cost-effective, comprehensive, quality
healthcare to every man, woman, and child in our country. The time is now to
take on the powerful special interests in the insurance and pharmaceutical
industries and pass a single-payer national healthcare program.
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[Health Care Action] posts events and information that support the large and
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