Healthcare NOW! - Time to Start from Scratch

January 27, 2010 by Healthcare-NOW!, 28.01.2010 04:31

Southern Oregonians are pleased with the leadership of Healthcare NOW! Great to see this breath of fresh air at a time when the pit of reform is such a dramatic disaster--rogue imc vol..

We've heard President Obama assert during his campaign that if he were starting from scratch he would implement a single-payer plan. He recently stated: "I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is unless you have what's called a single-payer system in which everyone's automatically covered, you're probably not going to reach every single individual." In addition, President Obama knows that we have to get the spiraling healthcare costs under control.

The current bills before the House and Senate can neither cover everyone nor make healthcare affordable. Only Improved Medicare for All, a national single payer plan such as HR 676, can do the job.

Time to Start from Scratch

If we don't make serious change to our healthcare financing and delivery, the United States will continue to pay more than any other country in the world and get less. Just look at this graph from National Geographic that shows how US healthcare spending is off the charts.

Send the message to President Obama now, "It's time to start from scratch. The people want real change – Improved Medicare for Everyone. Single-payer universal healthcare is the only way to get our health, our jobs, and our economy back on track." Email your message here:  http://3bl.me/c3d2t2


Healthcare-NOW!  http://www.healthcare-now.org
Organizing for a National Single-Payer Healthcare System
One Plan, One Nation

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Major Advance -- California Healthcare Reform 28.01.2010 - 21:38 From the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) For Immediate Release January 28, 2010 Contact: Shum Preston, 510-273-2276 or Charles Idelson, 510-273-2246 MAJOR ADVANCE FOR CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE REFORM as SENATE PASSES MEDICARE FOR ALL LEGISLATION NEW ENERGY FOR HEALTHCARE REFORM AFTER NATIONAL BILLS STALL To ecstatic applause from healthcare advocates, the California Senate today breathed new life into national prospects for fundamental health reform by passing on a 22 to 14 vote a major bill to guarantee healthcare in the state through creating a Medicare for all system that would cover every Californian. SB 810, The California Universal Healthcare Act, authored by Sen. Mark Leno and sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), with broad support among many healthcare, community, and labor groups, will now proceed to a vote by the Assembly, which has passed similar legislation in the past. The bill would establish a single-payer system in California, modeled on the healthcare systems flourishing in virtually all other industrialized nations, where better patient outcomes are achieved at a fraction of the cost of the U.S. system. "It is unclear what the prospects are for health reform at the national level," said CNA co-president Geri Jenkins, RN, "but this vote offers California the chance to chart a new course for the nation. SB 810 will guarantee healthcare for every family through a humane system that controls costs and allows patients and their doctors--not insurance agents--to make decisions about healthcare," said Jenkins. "People will pay less, and no longer be denied care based on their income, age, location, or pre-existing health conditions." Noting during the floor debate that, "consistently 59 per cent of California voters say yes" they want a Medicare for all system in the state, Sen. Leno added that single-payer is not just a bill for a humane health system, but also a jobs program for a state that desperately needs one: "We can't compete in a global marketplace where all our competitors have had the government take the burden of healthcare off the shoulders of their employers...as we move towards single-payer in this state, and have better universal coverage, this will attract employers to California. We are already underwater in our healthcare system. We can't keep up." Referring to opposition arguments about supposed ballooning costs under the bill, Sen. Leno pointed out that a single payer system would simply redirect current spending on healthcare, away from insurance overhead and towards a more direct and efficient way of providing care. Additionally the bill would not go into effect immediately; the current SB 810 creates a system to propose revenue streams that would then go back to the legislature for final review. Medicare for all or "single-payer" healthcare reforms, such as SB 810, would help create the kind of quality jobs so urgently needed today, and do so while providing a huge economic stimulus. A CNA/NNU study last year documented that national single-payer reform would generate 2.6 million jobs and $317 billion in additional business and public revenues. Further, CNA/NNU research last year found that six of California's largest insurance companies reject more than one-fifth of all claims, an experience many California patients know all too well. California is one of more than half a dozen states with similar state legislation this year, indicative of the desire for healthcare solutions by states no matter what happens at the federal level. Among major supporters of SB 810 are the California School Employees Association, California Physician Alliance, OneCare, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Senate Passes Medicare for All Legislation> Homepage:: http://