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An Open Letter to President Obama on Health Care Reform

January 28, 2010

By Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program

I am a pediatrician who, like many of my primary care colleagues, left practice because it is nearly impossible to deliver high quality health care in this environment. I have been volunteering for Physicians for a National Health Program ever since. For over a year now, I have been working with the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care/ National Single Payer Alliance. This alliance represents over 20 million people nationwide from doctors to nurses to labor, faith and community groups who advocate on behalf of the majority of Americans, including doctors, who favor a national Medicare-for-All health system. (read more...)

By Elizabeth Docteur and Robert A. Berenson

Comment by Don McCanne, PNHP: This resource can be useful in informing those who would reject efforts at reform because we already have "the best health care in the world." It would be a shame if we continued to waste funds to preserve a system that provides high quality care for a few when an improved financing system would enable us to improve the allocation of those funds so that we could provide high quality care for everyone. (read more...)

New uninsured figures show Massachusetts, the model for national reform, is failing to cover the uninsured

According to a press release from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) "Today’s [census bureau] numbers show that plans that require people to buy private insurance don’t work. Obama’s plan to replicate Massachusetts’ reform nationally risks failure on a massive scale".  Read the rest of the press release...

Sick and Wrong

By Matt Taibbi

Rollingstone.com
September 3, 2009

This may be the most important week in this window of opportunity for health care reform. Matt Taibbi's well researched article tells us where we are and how we got here. It's a must read for those who care. Hopefully it will motivate us to put down our Hallmark cards and join in the fight for real health care justice for all.  Read the article

Taiwan's Experience in Converting to a Single Payer, National Health Insurance System

by Tsung-Mei Cheng

Taiwan established universal national health insurance in 1995, bringing overnight the then 41 percent uninsured under the umbrella of national health insurance (NHI). Financial worry due to illnesses is a thing of the past in Taiwan. As a result of successful cost containment, national health spending grew from the pre-NHI three-year average of 4.79 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to only 6.1 percent today. Tsung-Mei Cheng explores with Taiwan’s health minister Ching-Chuan Yeh, M.D., the ethical principles that underlie the NHI and how the NHI operates: financing, risk pooling, cost containment, provider payment, and the delivery system. Challenges for the future are discussed..... (read more)

Bait and switch: How the “public option” was sold

by Kip Sullivan

The people who brought us the “public option” began their campaign promising one thing but now promote something entirely different. To make matters worse, they have not told the public they have backpedalled. The campaign for the “public option” resembles the classic bait-and-switch scam: tell your customers you’ve got one thing for sale when in fact you’re selling something very different.... (read more)

Public Option Advocates: Time to Come Home to Single Payer

By Mark Dunlea

Executive Director, Hunger Action Network of NY State

Co-chair, Single Payer New York

As the various public option proposals in Congress for national health care reform become weaker every day, there is still time for its proponents to support what they really believe in: a single payer, Medicare for all type program....(read more)

How Much Would Single Payer Cost?

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) has compiled excerpts from several studies done by the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office as well as studies done by several states. A summary can be found here.

Single Payer versus Public Option: League of Women Voter Comparison

Dr. Barbara Klein has prepared a chart for the Arizona League of Women Voters comparing Single Payer Health Care vs. Public Option Health Care.

U.S. Senator's Single Payer Medicare-for-all Petition

Sen. Bernie Sanders has launched a petition drive asking people to sign up in support of a single-payer health care program.  Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate health committee,  said, “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 health care 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 health care program.” 

The Top 10 Enemies of Single-Payer

By RUSSELL MOKHIBER

CounterPunch.org

April 16, 2009

The will of the American people is being held up by a handful of organizations and individuals who profit off the suffering of the masses.

And the will of the American people will not be done until this criminal elite is confronted and defeated.... (read more)

Why Does U.S. Health Care Cost So Much?

By Uwe E. Reinhardt

Economix Blog - nytimes.com  

November 14, 2008

Part 1: If G.D.P. per capita were the only factor driving the difference between United States health spending and that of other nations, the United States would be expected to have spent an average of only $4,819 per capita on health care rather than the $6,714 it actually spent.... (read more)

The Mark of a Moral Society

John R. Battista, M.D.

Address to the Yale Political Union  

November 3, 2008

Societies with universal health care have improved health and life expectancy relative to those that do not.  In addition, universal health care particularly improves the health and life expectancy of the most vulnerable members of society, the sick and poor, by improving or equalizing their access to health care.  Universal health care is thus particularly the mark of a moral society because it specifically improves the health of its most vulnerable members.... (read more)

An International Perspective on Health Care Reform

John R. Battista, M.D.

Prepared for Grand Rounds, Department of Medicine, Stamford Hospital , Stamford , CT  

October 8, 2008

Advocates of a single payer health reform can be heartened by its increasing support among physicians and the general population and can take solace in the belief that its passage in the United States is inevitable as other health care reform options, such as individual mandates, are tried and fail, and the health care crisis in this country continues to worsen... (read more)

Why Health Insurance Should Be Publicly Funded and Publicly Guaranteed

Extraordinarily high cost is the most striking characteristic of US health insurance, and the main reason why we have so many uninsured in this country. The United States spends twice as much per capita on health care than other industrialized countries, and 30% more than the second most expensive country in the industrialized world.

Why is the cost of health insurance so high in the United States relative to other industrialized countries? Two factors have been identified to account for this disparity: high administrative costs and the high cost of prescription medications... (read more)

National Health Insurance Quiz

Here is your chance to assess how much you know about national health insurance... (click to take the quiz)

Why Connecticut Should Publicly Fund Universal Health Insurance

The Case for National Health Insurance

United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee health insurance to its citizens through a national health insurance system.  As a result, comparing the American health system with the health care systems of other industrialized countries provides a valuable means of evaluating national health insurance and what would occur if the United States were to enact it... (read more)

Questions about National Single Payer?

Answers To Commonly Asked Questions About National Single Payer

FAQ: Universal Health Insurance for all Connecticut Residents

John R. Battista, M.D., of the Connecticut Coalition For Universal Health Care
answers commonly asked questions about a publicly funded, Universal Health Insurance Program for all Connecticut residents (updated November 12, 2007)

Most Doctors Support National Health Insurance

Press Release from Physicians for a National Health Program: Reflecting a shift in thinking over the past five years among U.S. physicians, a new study shows a solid majority of doctors - 59 percent - now supports national health insurance... (read more)

H.R. 676 Fact Sheet

"The United States National Insurance Act" ("Medicare for All") H.R. 676 was introduced by Rep. John Conyers in 2003.  A fact sheet that summarizes the legislation, eligibility and services covered can be read here.

International Models of Universal Health care

Three models of universal health care systems exist in the world today.  A description of each of these models can be read here.

How Much Would Single Payer National Health Insurance Cost?

Brief summaries of national studies done by the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Budget Office. Compiled by the Physicians for a National Health Program... (read more)

Why We Need to Dump Health Insurance Corporations

Private health insurance and Public Health do not belong together.  In addition to the redundancy, and excess, unnecessary costs of private insurance, and the horrors faced by those with and without coverage we find that private insurers are  investing in all sorts of industries notorious for causing health problems... (read more)

New Video Gives Update to Date Review of Health Care Reform

Health Care has become a crucial issue in American politics. We are at a crossroads. We need to know what the real issues are, not just sound bites from the media and politicians.

America's Dialogue II is the catalyst for these discussions. Check out this new video for an up to date review of what is happening in health care reform and the case for a publicly funded health care system.

The video is 27 minutes long and starts with a three minute introduction to the America's Dialogue organization.  The video can be viewed here (when the black screen appears be sure to click on the white triangle to start the video).

Report to the Rhode Island General Assembly finds that Rhode Island Can Afford Health Care for All - 

This report finds that complete, comprehensive health care for all Rhode Islanders is already affordable.

· Complete care means coverage for people who lack insurance coverage today.

· Comprehensive care means thorough insurance for prescription drugs, dental care, and other services that are omitted from many insurance policies today.

It's Time for National Healthcare

• I never cease to be amazed at the burden placed upon seniors, low-income people and working people that has resulted in these segments of the population losing faith in the ability of those in charge to respond to their problems, further resulting in the lowest voter turnout of any major country in the world... (read more)
  
  

We Must Act on Health Care

• The American people know we must move beyond incremental fixes. In a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted earlier this year, 57 percent of adults said "fundamental changes" are required in the U.S. health care system. Thirty percent said "completely rebuild it." Only 13 percent said "minor changes are necessary." (read more)

National Health Insurance: Liberal Benefits, Conservative Spending

• The fiscal case for National Health Insurance arises from the observation that health care's enormous bureaucratic burden is a peculiarly American phenomenon. No nation with National Health Insurance spends even half as much administering care, nor tolerates the bureaucratic intrusions in clinical care that have become routine in the United States... (read more)

Study: Uninsured Don't Get Needed Health Care

• The lack of health insurance in America leads to delayed diagnoses, life-threatening complications and, ultimately, 18,000 premature deaths each year, according to a report released yesterday by the Institute of Medicine.... (read more)

Phantoms In The Snow: Canadians' Use Of Healthcare In U.S.

• Surprisingly few Canadians travel to the United States for health care, despite the persistence of the myth... (read more)

Molly Ivins on Universal Healthcare

• Have you noticed that the health-care system is not working? In fact, it's falling apart.  The most maddening thing about the sheer stupidity of America's health care system is that the far better alternative is perfectly clear. Every other industrialized nation manages to do this better than we do. The answer is universal health insurance, a single-payer system. (read more)

Single-Payer Gets Big Steel's Support

• Not many of America's big corporations have joined the health insurance debate on the side of those of us who have long felt we need a single-payer health plan to solve our country's health system woes. But now big steel thinks it might be OK for the U.S. government to take over its health insurance. (read more)

Health Care For ALL - A conservative case

Donald W. Light

• Today's system not only fails hospitals, physicians, patients, and families, but is collapsing under the burden of its own complexity and inefficiency. It is possible to design a low-cost universal plan that maximizes choice. The time to do it is now. (read more)
  

How does U.S. Healthcare compare?

• For a great overview of health care systems around the world in comparison to the United States please visit Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network: In Every Other Country... Comparing Health Care Systems and Results
  

Connecticut Health Care Security Act

• The Connecticut Health Care Security Act (a single payer, universal health care bill) was not raised for a public hearing by the Public Health Committee by the February 8, 2001 deadline. Despite the support of three out of six members of the steering committee for a public hearing on the bill, the steering committee did not recommend raising it.  This effectively kills the bill for 2001.
  
  Read the Summary of the Connecticut Health Care Security Act and the Introduction to the Connecticut Health Care Security Act.  Also available is the complete text of the bill and Reasons To Support The Connecticut Health Care Security Act.
  
  For more information, you can also visit the legislation page of the new home of the Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care which is under construction (click here)
  

Interview with David Himmelstein

• David Himmelstein is the co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical.  He is the author of the Question 5  Massachusetts ballot initiative that, if passed in November, 2000 , would have delivered universal health care for the citizens of Massachusetts.  Read his interview with Multinational Monitor:  The Campaign for Single-Payer Health Insurance in Massachusetts and the United States 
  

Landmark Paper on Universal Healthcare

•  A LANDMARK PAPER: The Physicians' Working Group on Single-Payer National Health Insurance presented their Proposal for Health Care Reform to the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on May 1, 2001
  
  "A National Health Insurance Program is the only affordable option for universal, comprehensive coverage. Under the current system, expanding access to health care inevitably means increasing costs, and reducing costs inevitably means limiting access. But an NHI could both expand access and reduce costs. It would squeeze out bureaucratic waste and eliminate the perverse incentives that threaten the quality of care and the ethical foundations of medicine."
  
  This landmark white paper (27 pages) as well as the videocast and audiocast of the entire hearing is available at is available at:
   http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=202
  

Universal Health Care on Mass. Ballot

•  If Question 5 on the Massachusetts November 2000 Ballot had passed it would have set a deadline of July 2002 for a new system of universal health care coverage and would have enacted other reforms, such as banning the conversion of not-for-profit  health institutions to for-profit and demanding that 90 percent of health care dollars go for health care. It also would have saved Massachusetts $1 Billion.  Click here to read the report.  Click here to read about Question 5.  Also read the interview of the author of Question 5, David Himmelstein.

Study Shows Universal Healthcare is Cheaper 

•  Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative released a study by the respected Lewin Group that showed that Maryland would save an estimated $345.8 million dollars if it implemented a "single payer" system.  Click here to read the executive summary.

Medicaid HMOs Cost CT More Money

•  Health Care for All distributed a fact sheet to Connecticut legislators on April 18th, 2000: Before Connecticut Gives Away $10.5 Million to For-Profit HMOs, Taxpayers Have 2 Demands 
  
  If you would like to talk to your legislator about this, please call Health Care for All at (860) 947-2200 x304.
  
  We really want to see the HMO Accountability legislation passed but because it died in committee, it should now be included as part of the budget implementer or amended on to another bill. 

• The Connecticut Health Care Security Act is a new single payer health insurance bill that will be introduced to the CT legislature this year.  Read the latest draft of the CT Health Care Security Act (12/15/99)

• Read about the recently formed Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care and what we have accomplished so far.

• A Single Payer Health Insurance bill passed the CT House Labor Committee by a 9 to 5 vote on April 6, 1999.  However, the CT Legislature's 1999 session came to an end on June 9, 1999 without the bill being voted on by the legislature. Read the entire text of Bill #7030 or a summary of the bill. 

• New to Universal Health Care? A good starting point is a visit to our Library.  You can also search the Universal Health Care web site for specific words or combinations of words.  The site map will give you an overview of the contents of our site.

• See our calendar for upcoming meetings and events  

• If you would like to get in touch with us our contact page will provide you with our mailing address, email address, and phone number.

• Our search facility allows you to locate information on our site using keywords.

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Email Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care at: riverbend2@earthlink.net

Connecticut Coalition for Universal Health Care l PO Box 771l Simsbury CT 06070