Join Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare at the Louisville Pride Festival on Saturday, September 14th from 11 AM to 7 PM and help us advocate for a healthcare system that puts people first. A Special Thanks to The Louisville Workers Brigade for sharing their Booth.
As a volunteer, you’ll have the opportunity to:
Educate attendees about the benefits of single-payer healthcare.
Gather signatures in support of our campaign.
Network with like-minded individuals and organizations.
HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, a model single payer bill in the House from 2003 to 2017.
HR 3421, Improved Medicare for All, 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.
Labor Day weekend Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care staffed a booth at the World Fest. Enthusiastic supporters lined up to sign the petition urging candidates and elected officials to “boldly support national single payer health care legislation.”
Photo: Jill Harmer uses her fluent Spanish to explain Medicare for All.
As they signed they told their stories. One couple decides each year whether or not they can afford to buy insurance or take the chance of going without. They currently have an ACA plan purchased on the Exchange that costs them $1,400 monthly for the two of them and their daughter.
A woman in a Medcaid/Medicare Advantage plan related how her insurer denies the physical therapy she desperately needs.
People loved the “Enhanced Medicare for All” bumper stickers and the T-shirts.
In late July at the John & Will Gage concert at Bounce Pickleball Courts, at the Germantown Dainty Festival, and the WFPK Wednesday concert, KSPH volunteers distributed over 400 Medicare Birthday flyers and were welcomed by folks who said “I’m with you on this!”
Our thanks to our KSPH recording secretary, Harriette Seiler (yellow hat), who prepared the flyer and braved humid 90’s to take the message to the public.
There is new hope. The people want Enhanced Medicare for All!
It’s a tradition! Kentuckians celebrate Medicare’s July 30 Birthday every year and call for an Improved Medicare for All so that everyone will have healthcare as a birthright.
* A few years ago we lit up the sky at the Big Four Bridge above a concert of thousands.
* We’ve delivered cupcakes to Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and John Yarmuth. * We’ve marched across bridges.
Each time more learn of the wonders and possibilities of a publicly-funded health plan and of the need to enact a national non-profit single payer plan—an Enhanced Medicare for All.
Join us this year as we distribute flyers.
(We’ll also have bumper stickers and petitions.)
There are two opportunities to be a part of it:
1. Sunday, July 28, from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm at 1515 River Shore Drive, Goodbounce Pickleball Court, Louisville, just before the free Will and John Gage Concert that is from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Bring chairs if staying for the concert; food truck is there with food and drinks on sale.
2. Wednesday, July 31, at 5:00 pm as the gates open for a free concert beneath the Big Four Bridge. The concert begins at 6:00 pm. https://www.lpm.org/waterfront-wednesday
You’re invited to be a part of spreading the message and the hope of a more healthy, humane future for our country. Let us know you’re coming. Call Kay at 502 636 1551 or email nursenpo@aol.com.
If you’re not in Louisville, we invite you to set up your own celebration. Let us know and we’ll send the flyers.
Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care has produced our first ever bumper sticker.
We hope to show the massive, popular support for a national, not-for-profit, single payer plan by covering the commonwealth with the demand for “Enhanced Medicare for All.”
Help us to display the message and build the movement!
One bumper sticker is free—with the commitment to use it. We’re happy to make more available—a donation to help us to cover the printing and mailing costs will help.
Email Kay Tillow at nursenpo@aol.com with “Bumper Sticker” in the subject line or write to us at KSPH, P. O. Box 17595, Louisville, KY 40217. Phone: 502 636 1551.
On Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, Garrett Adams, MD, founder of Physicians for a National Health Program-KY, was among the panelists featured at a showing of the “Power to Heal,” a documentary that tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country in a matter of months.
The event, a part of a film series, was a collaboration between the Louisville Free Public Library, the UofL Office of Diversity and Inclusion Health Sciences Center, and the mayor’s office “Lean into Louisville.”
The producer of the film, Dr. Barbara Berney, PhD in Public Health joined by video from San Francisco.
On the left is Karen Krigger, MD, Professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine and Director of Health Equity, HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Louisville, who chaired the program. Seated is Dr. Luz Fernandez, residency director of the University of Louisville family medicine and president elect of the KY Academy of Family Physicians, who was also a panelist. Dr. Garrett Adams is on the right.
There are two more films in the series, “Rustin” on Feb. 18, and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” on Feb. 25. Info here and here.
KSPH has purchased a copy of “Power to Heal” and offers to show it free of charge to any organization in Kentucky. Write to nursenpo@aol.com.
A stalemate between one of Kentucky’s largest health care providers and three major health insurers is affecting thousands of Kentucky retirees enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans.
Baptist Health last fall ended its contract agreement with Humana for physician services covered by Medicare Advantage, the Kentucky Lantern reported in October. That means doctors’ visits are considered “out of network” and patients would have to pay more for services.
And effective Jan. 1, Baptist also ended agreements with United HealthCare and Wellcare for Medicare Advantage coverage for services including physician and hospital care — meaning all such care is considered out of network.
Baptist has cited denials of care and delays in payment which the Medicare Advantage companies dispute.
Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care mourns the unexpected January 23, 2024, passing of our steering committee member and activist Larry Hovekamp. We send condolences to his sister Elaine, his family and many friends. We honor the memory of Larry for his decades of marching and fighting for single payer healthcare so that everyone would have care regardless of their ability to pay.
Standing up by sitting down. Larry is pictured here in an October 2009 sit in on the marble floor of the Humana Building protesting the denial of care. This was part of nationwide demonstrations in the effort to place Improved Medicare for All, a national, not-for-profit, single payer plan, on the nation’s agenda. Larry was with us despite needing a cane to walk because of a serious car accident.
