In Frankfort on February 7, 2007, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed HR 81, a resolution endorsing HR 676, the National Health Insurance Act. Introduced by the Honorable Joni L. Jenkins (D), District 44 (Jefferson), the resolution was adopted by voice vote. Kentucky is the first state in the union to pass such legislation.
Left to right: Rep. Joni Jenkins, Sponsor of HR 81, Peggy Kidwell, Harriette Seiler, Dr. Garrett Adams, Kay Tillow, Rev. David Bos
The resolution itemizes health care issues facing the state and the nation, and concludes with the following statement:
NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
Section 1. The House of Representatives of the Kentucky General Assembly respectfully urges the United States Congress to enact H.R. 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, sponsored by Representative John Conyers in the United States House Of Representatives for the 110th Congress.
Section 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives is directed to transmit a copy of this Resolution to the President of the United States and the members of the Kentucky Congressional Delegation.
The full text of the resolution is available in a Word document at
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/07RS/HR81/bill.doc.
Kay Tillow
A standing ovation and prolonged applause followed Dr. Quentin Young’s announcement that PNHP’s Dr. Quentin Young Health Activist Award was being given to Kay Tillow, Coordinator of Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare. The award reads, "In the finest tradition of activism for social change, she has brought the single payer vision to new constituencies."
Earlier in the day on November 4, 2006, 250 members heard Tillow address the annual meeting. She described her work convincing labor unions across the United States of the importance of formal endorsements of Congressman John Conyers’s United States Health Insurance Act, HR 676.
As a result of her work, hundreds of American unions with hundreds of thousands of members have signed resolutions supporting a single payer national health insurance plan for the United States.
Her grassroots vision of achieving formal HR 676 endorsement resolutions from labor, all the way from small individual union halls to state UAW’s, has been an inspiring victory in the single payer movement. It provides a powerful political tool to convince policy makers that the single payer plan is the solution to our nation’s health care dilemma.
Kay Tillow is the Executive Director of the Nurses Professional Organization and Coordinator of Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare.
Following Kay Tillow’s award, Drs. Rob Stone, Chris Stack, and Aaron Carroll were recognized for bringing the single payer vision to new constituencies in Indiana.
On October 12, the Louisville Metro Council passed a resolution endorsing HR 676, Congressman John Conyers' single payer U. S. National Health Insurance Act. The vote was 14 to 9. Health and Human Services Chair and District 3 Councilwoman Mary Woolridge sponsored the resolution and guided it through committee and floor debate. Woolridge spoke passionately of her concern for the 85,000 residents of Louisville Metro who suffer from having no insurance.
--via The Louisville Courier-Journal
Mandatory insurance among plans debated
By Laura Ungar
The Courier-Journal
Celeste Vanskike has worked at preschools for 25 years but can't afford health insurance -- meaning she's had to put off doctor visits and leave a thyroid condition untreated.
"Here I am, I've got a good work ethic and I'm barely eking out an existence. … And there's so many of us out here without insurance," said the 56-year-old Louisville woman, who earns less than $20,000 a year. "More has to be done. It has to be brought to light."
Yesterday, the Kentucky Medical Association focused its annual meeting on the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans and more than half a million uninsured Kentuckians.
Called "Breaking the Barriers," the meeting attempted to dissect the problem and present possible solutions, including a Massachusetts program mandating residents have insurance, an American Medical Association plan promoting "incremental" health-care reform, and a national health-care system like the one in Canada.
"For a number of our members, the issue of the uninsured in the state is a bigger problem" than the rising cost of malpractice insurance, said Daniel W. Varga, chief medical officer for Norton Healthcare and outgoing president of the KMA.
Dr. Stephanie J. Woolhandler, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, said America is morally bound to care for the uninsured. According to the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit organization that advises the government on medical issues, about 18,000 Americans die each year because they lack insurance.
"We don't just live in an economy," she said. "We live in a society and we have a responsibility to protect and care for each other."
Kentucky below average
About 14 percent of Kentuckians, and a similar portion of Indiana residents, lack health insurance. Although these figures are below the national average, speakers said the problem in Kentucky is compounded by poverty and one of the unhealthiest populations in the nation.
There's also an increasing number of middle-class, underinsured Kentuckians facing some of the same problems as the uninsured in getting the care they need, said Michael E. Samuels, a University of Kentucky professor and rural health expert.
He pointed to statistics from a recent telephone survey of 2,100 households by the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center. It showed that 54 percent of uninsured residents and 21 percent of insured residents skipped a medical test because of cost.
Steffie Woolhandler
Steffie Woolhandler. MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) came to Louisville September 14 and 15, 2006 to address the General Session of the Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Medical Association.
On arrival she met with the editorial board of The Courier-Journal. They discussed the economic and humanitarian concerns of an American health care crisis of 47,000,000 citizens without health insurance and an equal number with inadequate coverage, "paper thin", as Dr. Woolhandler calls it.
She told the editors about her research demonstrating that more than half of bankruptcies in this country are a result of medical debt -- bankruptcies affecting middle class Americans, three-quarters of whom were insured when they first became ill. "They paid their premiums in good faith," she said, only to discover that they had skimpy coverage that would not cover their illness costs, forcing them to face the ignominy of bankruptcy.
She explained why health care "markets" inevitably fail to provide adequate medical services, and how a one-risk pool, government-financed national health insurance plan could provide high quality comprehensive care for everyone. She stated that $300 billion in wasteful administrative expense in the present complex system could be saved, enough to fully fund a single payer national plan in the U.S..
Dr. Woolhandler at the Louisville Free Public Library
She spoke at the Louisville Free Public Library in the evening to approximately 150 guests of Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare and PNHP-Kentucky. Dr. Woolhandler described a worsening health care crisis with ever decreasing quality and increasing costs. She said that the average U.S. expenditure is $7,000 per capita, compared to the average of other developed nations (who provide national health programs) of $3,500, yet we have worse healthcare outcomes in many respects. "The only place we lead other [developed] countries is in overhead costs", said Dr. Woolhandler.
The crisis is rooted in the current for-profit financing of health care. There is a solution. It is comprehensive reform based on non-profit, public financing with private delivery of health services.--Garrett Adams, MD, MPH, Hearing Moderator
In everybody's family, there's a testimonial like those we heard today . . . what's happening now is breaking people's lives.-The Hon. Gerald A. Neal, Kentucky State Senator
If anyone isn't angry about this, they just aren't listening! -Gerry C., small business owner
Her out-of-pocket expenses were 77 percent of her gross income--and she had insurance!-Edgar Lopez, MD, commenting on a neighbor's experience
As chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, I represent the uninsured and the underinsured in our community-Mary Woolridge, Metro Louisville Councilwoman
On this issue, I believe the people are out in front of the politicians. -John Yarmuth, Congressional candidate, KY -3rd district
Co-pays are higher, coverage is decreasing--soon we will all be among the have-nots.
--J. Wayne Crabtree, Louisville Metro Health Department
The current state of America's health care system has received some coverage recently in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
On January 30th, The Louisville Courier-Journal published an article by Laura Ungur entitled 'Support swells for universal health care'. Here's an excerpt:
A 2002 report by the Institute of Medicine, which advises the federal government on health issues, said 18,000 adults die each year because they lack health insurance. Overall, the United States has a lower life expectancy than several countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, that have national systems.
"The health-care system is in a deepening crisis," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. "The public is quite fed up."
There are signs that the idea of a national system has increasing support here:
A poll last year by the Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of Americans favor national health insurance, even if it means higher taxes.
Read the whole article here.
On February 17th, The Courier-Journal also published an editorial letter by Dr. Garrett Adams, Kentucky Coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program, entitled 'Health care: the single payer vision'. You can read the editorial in full either on the Courier-Journal's site or on our Voices page.