HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, a model single payer bill in the House from 2003 to 2017.
HR 1976, national single payer bill, currently in the House, which needs to be improved to ban and convert the for-profit hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis centers, etc.
Please support the work of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care by making a donation on line here. Or you can mail your check to KSPH, PO Box 17595, Louisville, KY 40217. Annual dues are $5, but we welcome whatever you can give.
Mazzoli Federal Bldg., 600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Pl.
We will begin at 11 AM in the park in front of the Federal Building where we have permission from the city to use the site. We will set up under the trees near the corner of 7th & Chestnut so speakers and participants alike will be in the shade.
We will have speakers (brief) and music then march and/or caravan to Breewayy, the square at 6th between Liberty and Jefferson.
There we will place flowers in honor of Breonna Taylor, to connect with her profession as a healer, and to link the struggle for health care with the fight to end systemic racism. We will return to where we began and share refreshments and socialize.
University of Louisville medical students advocating for single payer health care
We will also be celebrating Medicare’s 56th birthday. We hope you will join with us in demanding that Congress take action by passing a national single payer, improved Medicare for All plan. Such a plan would end the tragic denial of care that causes so much suffering and unnecessary loss of life.
Cosponsors: (list in formation)
Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, Physicians for a National Health Program-KY, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Greater Louisville Central Labor Council, Independence Seekers, Movement for a People’s Party-KY, Clifton Universalist Unitarian Church, Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans, Metro Disability Coalition, UAW Local 862, Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, Carl Braden Memorial Center, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, La Casita Center, Louisville Fellowship of Reconciliation, Fairness, Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice, Kentucky State AFL-CIO, LIUNA Local 576, Lexington DSA
Byzantine health plans. Impoverishing deductibles. Exorbitant drug costs. Soul-crushing surprises lurking in the fine print.
The American health care system is — to put it mildly — totally perplexing, an exercise in patience and a test of financial resilience.
And that’s for its participants.
So imagine what the system must look like to people from other countries, especially those with universal health care, where citizens don’t live in fear that the next bout of the sniffles might somehow lead to bankruptcy.
In the video above, we gathered people from around the world and introduced them to the American health care system. We presented them with dizzying examples of insurance plan options. We showed them how much medical services cost. And we revealed some of the survival strategies of the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured (drug purchases in Mexico, GoFundMe campaigns, consultations with “Dr. Google”).
Jill Harmer, Antonio Wilson and Harriette Seiler at a KSPH meeting
At Last, Democrats Get Chance to Engineer Obamacare 2.0
The Biden administration is trying to make the health care law more generous and closer to its original design, but may disappoint progressive allies hoping for more.
By Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz
The New York Times, February 27, 2021
Many Americans assume that the private health insurance industry is an unmovable fixture in the U. S. health care system, but there is a growing need to re-examine that premise. Over recent decades, its performance has been increasingly profit-driven to the point of now becoming unaffordable for patients, their families, employers and taxpayers.
In 2006 Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care hosted a hearing at a downtown Church in Louisville. Many told their stories of suffering and tragedy caused by a broken health care system. Dr. Ewell Scott explained how to fix it. Thanks to Harriette Seiler for preserving and editing this 18 minute segment, part of a video made by Sonja De Vries.
Dr. Barbara Casper speaks at the Sidewalk Town Hall in front of Senator McConnell’s Office, March 15, 2018
Louisville, KY. On Wed., Jan. 20, 2021, Dr. Barbara Casper presented a virtual program on national single payer health care to residents in internal medicine.
She explained how an improved Medicare for All would cover everyone, remove financial barriers to patient care, save money, and allow physicians to practice their profession free from the control of insurance companies.
At least 32 participated in the slide presentation and the discussion that followed.
Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care is pleased to offer such virtual programs, free of charge, to any Kentucky organization or group that is interested.
To make arrangements please email Kay Tillow at nursenpo@aol.com.
Dr. Wayne Tuckson, a specialist in colon and rectal surgery and past president of the Greater Louisville Medical Society, is the host of Kentucky Health, which airs several times a week on the Public Broadcasting System.
For a recent TV show, Dr. Tuckson interviewed Dr. Eugene Shively, a surgeon who resides in Campbellsville, on the issues of rural health. Dr. Shively is featured regularly on Single Payer Radio at https://www.forwardradio.org/singlepayerradio .
Rural Healthcare: Who pays and who benefits
Eugene Shively, MD, Emeritus Professor of Surgery, University of Louisville
The Kentucky Health interview of Dr. Shively by Dr. Tuckson can be viewed here.
In November, the Vermont Medical Society passed a resolution expressing its support for universal access to high quality health care through a single-payer national health program. On Dec. 10, the Congressional Budget Office reported that a single-payer health care system could cover everyone yet cost $650 billion less per year.
The Courier Journal reported on the impact of systemic racism on the health of African Americans. The 12 years of life lost to residents in the West End points to the dire need for quick and effective action. The solutions explored omit the most decisive one — the need for every person to have physicians of their choice and all necessary health care, free at the point of service.
Until age 65, Black people are 50% more likely to be uninsured than white people. Life expectancy at birth is 3.5 years shorter for Black people. And 86% of the difference in life expectancy is due to conditions that respond to medical treatment and prevention. Mortality rates quickly match across races after age 65 when everyone is covered by Medicare.
Getting everyone covered is vital — not a complete solution but a necessary foundation to tackle the problem.
The passage of Medicare in 1965 eliminated segregation in hospitals and helped end racial disparities for seniors. A universal, not-for-profit, single-payer system — an improved Medicare for all — will save millions of lives.
