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Single Payer
News
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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
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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
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United
States Spends Most On Health, But France No. 1 In Treatment
By Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press, 6/20/2000
The United States spends more per person on health care than any
other country, yet in overall quality its care ranks 37th in the world,
says a World Health Organization analysis. It concluded that France
provides the globe's best health care.
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Massachusetts Democrats
Endorse Single Payer in Platform
Date: August 3, 1999
"Health care is a right, not a privilege; a necessity not a luxury.
We will work to make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to institute a single payer health care system"
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American Nurses Association Endorses Single Payer
Date: June 19, 1999
"The single payer mechanism is the most desirable option for financing
a reformed health care system."
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Single Payer
in Connecticut
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Summary
of the Connecticut Health Care Security Act
John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine A. McCabe, Ph.D.
Connecticut Coalition For Universal Health Care
January 9, 2001
One page summary of the Connecticut
Health Care Security Act. This Act would insure payment for all
medically necessary services, medications, and long term care for all
residents of the State of Connecticut.
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Introduction
to the Connecticut Health Care Security Act
John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine A. McCabe, Ph.D.
Connecticut Coalition For Universal Health Care
January 9, 2001
Longer summary of the Connecticut
Health Care Security Act. This Act would insure payment for all
medically necessary services, medications, and long term care for all
residents of the State of Connecticut.
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Looking to the Future
Hartford Advocate, October 21, 1999
If leadership on the issue of universal
health coverage is going to emerge first on the state level, then what
can we expect from a legislature located in the Insurance Capitol of the
World?
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Universal
Healthcare is Cheaper
By John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine A. McCabe, Ph.D.
It’s cheaper to finance a public health care system through taxes
than it is to administer it privately
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Bill #7030 - Access to Health Care for
Working Families
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.
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The
Single Payer Solution To Connecticut's Health Care Problems
Speech Given Before The
Connecticut State-Wide Medicare Conference
UAW Hall, Farmington, CT
March 6, 1999
by John R. Battista, M.D.
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Answers
To Commonly Asked Questions About A Publicly Funded, Universal Health
Insurance Program for All Connecticut Residents
By John R. Battista, M.D., Connecticut Coalition For
Universal Health Care
November 12, 2007
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The
Case for Universal Health Care
Bill 7030
by John R.
Battista, M.D.
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New
Milford Hospital Medical Staff Endorse Universal Health Care Bill
New Milford Hospital Medical Staff voted by a margin of
over 4 to 1 to endorse Bill 7030 which would create a publicly financed
universal health care system for the State of Connecticut.
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Is
It Time for Single Payer in Connecticut?
A Voice Interview with John R. Battista, MD
By Gary Pontelandolfo
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Testimony
Before State of Connecticut Human Services Committee
John R. Battista, MD
February 23, 1999
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Bill
No. 6034
This is an excerpt from Bill No. 6034 which was the precursor to Bill No.
7030. Although 6034 is defunct the first two sections of the bill, "Findings
and Declaration" and "Intent and Purpose", are well worth reading.
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Single Payer
Health Insurance
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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)
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The
Efficiency of Universal Health Care
By Robert Kuttner
It is unconscionable that managed care systems are second-guessing
doctors, particularly for treatments that are standard rather than
experimental. But if we want to spend our available dollars more
efficiently, the first thing we need is a universal system. Such a
system would be both more cost-effective and more accountable.
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Open Letter to Nancy Johnson
By Cathy Itri
"[T]he publicity surrounding your continued dependency on PAC
contributions from the likes of Oxford Health Plans and Cigna
Corporation to finance your re-election campaigns, is creating doubt in
the minds of many of your constituents as to just where your loyalty
lays..."
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Bill
Bradley: Fake Left, Run Right
By Ramon Castellblanch
Hartford Courant, October 15, 1999
Bradley's plan would endanger long-term care, make Medicaid into a
private insurance bonanza and make the uninsured law-breakers. No wonder
that the Heritage Foundation and the HIAA cheer his proposal.
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Sick
to Death of Managed Care
Hartford Advocate, October 21, 1999
Costs are rising, options are shrinking, and more and more
people want to change the system.
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Universal Healthcare? Not from Bradley
By David U. Himmelstein, M.D., and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D.,
co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Former Senator Bill Bradley's health plan would deliver billions to
insurance companies and HMOs. But it won't deliver the universal
healthcare that Americans deserve.
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The
Case for Universal Health Care in the United States
By John R. Battista, M.D. and Justine McCabe, Ph.D
Outline of Talk Given To The Association of State Green Parties, Moodus,
Connecticut on June 4, 1999. An excellent article that is
particularly strong in countering the "myths" that Universal
Health Care is unaffordable, unworkable, and unacceptable in the U.S.
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Why Doesn't America Have Universal Health Care?
By Gerald Cavanaugh
It is not for lack of effort. But each time reform
has been attempted, powerful forces have managed to block or pervert the
good intentions, to the extent that one historian labels the whole
process "an exercise in failed reform."
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HMO News
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Lawsuit To Test Physicians Health Services Prescription Limits
Hartford Courant: December 15, 1999
The state alleges that Physicians Health Services uses price, not
quality, to determine its drug formularies - lists of medications
covered under a given insurance policy - thus posing a threat to patient
health.
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Aetna HMO Practices Under State Probe
Hartford Courant: September 29, 1999
Connecticut State Attorney General will look at whether the financial
incentives Aetna uses to keep costs down actually hurt patients by
rewarding doctors who deliver less care.
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Conn. Doctors Ask Attorney General To Examine Aetna Contract
Hartford Courant: September 30, 1999
Tired of what they describe as heavy-handed tactics that put profits
ahead of patient care, doctors in Connecticut are firing a new salvo in
their escalating battle with the insurance industry. Their target:
Hartford's Aetna Inc.
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Patients
Fear Link Between Profits, Quality Of Care
Hartford Courant: October 18, 1999
A Connecticut poll asked people to what extent they thought financial
pressures influence their own doctors' decisions about medical care.
Nearly two-thirds of those polled saw a link between money and medical
decision-making.
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U. S. Rep. Nancy Johnson gets "Weasel Award" from local access
program
NEWS&VIEWS gave Republican congressional representative, Nancy
Johnson, its "Weasel Award" for her recent "No" vote
on the Patients' Bill of Rights.
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New England Journal of Medicine Editorial
Says Evidence Against For-Profit Hospitals Now Conclusive
PRESS RELEASE - PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM
August 5, 1999
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Quality of Care
Lower in For-Profit HMOs than in Non-Profits
PRESS RELEASE - PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM
Tuesday, July 13, 1999
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Health
Mangling Organizations?
by Mike DeRosa
Corporations have hijacked the HMO idea
and have turned it into a cash cow for their interests. They have
reduced health services (especially preventive services), increased
co-payments and fees, and have negatively altered the ability of doctors
to practice medicine.
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Nader's
Letter to Senate and Congressional Leadership on HMO's (July 15,
1999)
by Ralph Nader.
Unless HMO reform addresses the
imbalances of power and the business-as- usual, profits-before-patients approach of HMO corporations, the public will
neither be safe nor satisfied.
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Corporate
Medicine Is Bad Medicine
by John R. Battista, M.D.
Corporate medicine is bad
medicine because it compromises patient care, is administratively
inefficient, and involves unethical practices.
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Open Letter to America's Pharmaceutical CEOs
By U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
September 20, 1999
You have repeatedly told the American people -- who pay significantly
higher prices for drugs than any other nation in the world -- that any
reduction in prices will cause you to drastically curtail your research.
Frankly, it's difficult for some of us to take your threats seriously.
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Medicare and
Medicaid News
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New
Report Documents How Citizens for Better Medicare Is a Drug Industry
Sham Group Designed to Mislead America’s Seniors
By Public Citizen
A study by national consumer group Public Citizen
reveals how the drug industry has created and financed a campaign of
deceptive advertisements through its front group "Citizens for
Better Medicare" (CBM)
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Many
Needy Losing Medicaid, Study Finds
By Associated Press, 6/20/2000
The massive 1996 overhaul of the nation's welfare system, which aimed
to make families more self-sufficient, probably contributed to another
national problem that hits needy people hardest - a lack of health
insurance.
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Myths and Facts about Prescription Drug Pricing
By Rep. Henry Waxman, 29th Congressional District, California
The pharmaceutical industry has launched an all-out effort to defeat
the Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act. As part of this
campaign, the drug manufacturers have enlisted a number of
organizations, such as the Healthcare Leadership Council, the Cancer
Research Foundation, and others, to participate in their campaign and
are distributing press packages containing statements from groups. While
these organizations appear to have no connection to the pharmaceutical
industry, they in fact receive extensive financial support from the
pharmaceutical companies.
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Managed-Care
Medicaid Experiment Fails in Ohio
By Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 14, 1999; Page A1
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Bad
Prescription
Why privatizing Medicare may be hazardous to your health
by Kip Sullivan
The Washington Monthly: March, 1999
At stake in the upcoming Medicare debate is not just the fairness and
sufficiency of Medicare funding, but whether health care for America's
elderly will be turned over to the insurance industry which has made
such a mess of health care for the non-elderly
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