HR 3069, 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.
HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, a model single payer bill in the House from 2003 to 2017.
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.
On Dec. 2, 2025, Claudia Fegan, MD, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D. C. She put forward the solution, Improved Medicare for All, a national single payer program, free from profit.
This was a full committee hearing on: Making Health Care Affordable Again: Healing a Broken System.
Dr. Fegan’s testimony begins at 59:29. The video is at the link.
Dr. Edward Roberts founded the Post Clinic in 1996 because he wanted to help patients with free health care in Mount Sterling. Linda Blackford
Inside Mount Sterling’s city limits, past the food pantry and vast Victorian piles on Main Street, there’s a quiet street with a brick building with a small sign that says simply: “Post Clinic.” But inside the nondescript building, medical personnel are hard at work filling cavities, making X-rays and diagnosing such Kentucky ailments as high blood pressure and diabetes. But money never exchanges hands. Since its founding in 1996, the Post Clinic has lived up to its founders’ desire to help people get medical care for free.
Drs. Ellen and Edward Roberts, both had practices in Mount Sterling, but wanted to do more for patients who couldn’t afford their regular services.
“Medical debt is the greatest driver of bankruptcy in Kentucky,” Edward Roberts said recently as he gave a tour of the clinic wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with “Single Payer Health Care.”
November 2 to 4 was a fantastic fall weekend in Bowling Green. KSPH staffed a table and talked to scores of workers. Many signed the petition for National Single Payer, Improved Medicare for All, free from profit. The theme of the convention was “Stand Up, Fight Back.”
On October 18, 2025, Kentuckians gathered in over 25 cities and towns to express their concerns. In Louisville where thousands protested, Jill Harmer and Harriette Seiler passed out over 900 Improved Medicare for All flyers. In Morehead, over 300 demonstrated at Fountain Park where speakers competed with the constant car honking in support. Morehead is the home of one of Kentucky’s 35 hospitals that are at-risk of closure in the face of Medicaid cuts and inadequate funding. Kay Tillow addressed an enthusiastic crowd calling for the enactment of a national single payer health care system, free from profit and covering everyone. Such an Improved Medicare for All system would save and sustain those hospitals by funding operating costs. Many signed the single payer petition.
On Oct. 3 and 4, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care took their message to the Fairdale Fair where country music singers with ample amplification played in the carnival atmosphere.
Paul Hoppe, known as Mike in Fairdale, hails from there and did the work to set up and staff the booth. Jill Harmer, working from her wheelchair, reached out to everyone with a smile. She used her fluent Spanish to tell a family of the free clinic where she does translation.
While a few were distracted by the media barrage blaming immigrants for everything, more were concerned about health care and many signed the single payer petition.
Jill Harmer spreading the word about Enhanced Medicare for All, a national single payer system, at the Fairdale Fair.
Health care is at the heart of this and every contract fight. In Chattanooga, Volkswagen workers, who voted for the UAW in April 2024, are battling for a contract and taking a vote on strike authorization. In a UAW survey, VW Chattanooga workers said inferior health care benefits and skyrocketing out-of-pocket expenses have contributed to widespread financial hardship, debt and, in many cases, a decision to forgo necessary medical care altogether. In a statement earlier this year, the UAW affirmed its commitment to fight for Medicare for All.
Every working-class person deserves decent health care. No one should have to choose between seeing a doctor and putting food on the table. But that’s exactly what our current health care system does. It robs workers of dignity, drains union power at the bargaining table, and leaves too many of us behind. That’s why the UAW supports the Medicare for All Act—because no one should have to rely on the generosity of their boss to see a doctor or get the care they need.
Autoworkers know this all too well. During the Great Recession, Big Three automakers slashed retiree health care for new hires as part of bailout-era concessions. Now, a new generation of autoworkers are retiring years before they qualify for Medicare—but without employer-provided health care. As a result, they’re left in limbo, scraping by or skipping care entirely, too old to work but too young to die. Meanwhile, the companies are raking in record profits, lining shareholders’ pockets, and abandoning the very workers who make this industry run.
We need a system where everyone, union or not, has access to high-quality, comprehensive health care. Right now, unions like the UAW are forced to spend massive bargaining power just to defend what should be a basic human right. Companies try to force us to leave wage gains, retirement security, and work-life balance on the table just for our members to be able to have health insurance. Imagine what we could win if we didn’t have to fight tooth and nail just to see a doctor.
Take Volkswagen. The company made $92.4 billion in operating profit over the last four years and hauled in $351 billion in revenue in 2024 alone. Yet in Chattanooga, where workers are bargaining for their first contract, 73% say they’ve had to choose between health care and essentials like rent or food—or gone into debt or bankruptcy to afford medical bills. This is corporate greed at its ugliest: executives cashing checks while the working class gets left behind. And it’s happening across the industries the UAW represents.
We commend Senator Sanders, Representative Jayapal, and Representative Dingell for their leadership on this legislation and applaud vocal champions like Representative Ocasio-Cortez who are pushing to make Medicare for All the law of the land. Because until we take profit out of our health care system, workers will continue to pay the price—with their paychecks, their health, and their lives.
Kentucky has 35 hospitals slated to close because of Medicaid cuts in the budget reconciliation act passed on July 4. On Friday, August 22, 2025, KSPH visited the county exhibits at the gigantic Kentucky State Fair sharing info on how single payer will save rural hospitals by funding operating expenses.
The message was enthusiastically received by people from Pikeville, Leitchfield, Whitesburg, Maysville, Greensburg and Goshen.
On Saturday, August 23, KSPH staffed a booth at the Rally for Medicaid and Medicare in Jefferson Square Park, downtown Louisville.
Paul and Phyllis Hoppe constructed the impressive booth.
Paul still had reserves of energy to speak with scores of people about single payer.
Ralph Hearn, Member of the KSPH Steering Committee
Harriette Seiler covered the crowd with tiny flyers. Charlie Casper did the same with bumper stickers.
Jill Harmer joined the singing Raging Grannies, topping off the rally.
Rally speaker, former Congressman John Yarmuth, told of enacting the Affordable Care Act. He added: “We should have aimed higher and passed Medicare for All.”
Here is a sample resolution to Save Rural Hospitals. Present it to your town council, county, or organization.
After 30 years of service to a rural Nebraska community, the Curtis Medical Center will close. Troy Bruntz, CEO of Community Hospital which owns the Center, announced that the cuts to Medicaid in the budget reconciliation act of 2025 were the immediate cause. Those federal budget cuts have “made it impossible for us to continue operating all of our services, many of which have faced significant financial challenges for years,” said Bruntz.
The closing of the Curtis Medical Center is just the beginning of the projected damage. About 15 million are expected to lose health care coverage from the Medicaid cuts and other provisions in the budget reconciliation bill passed on July 4.
In addition, the Shep’s Center, a North Carolina rural research institution, predicts that 338 rural hospitals will close leaving vast holes in rural health care.
But before the new cuts kick in (conveniently, most take effect after the midterm election in 2026), rural health care is already in terrible shape. Rural Americans live sicker and die younger than the rest of the country. On average their lives are cut short by 3 years.
Now this massive hospital closure in our future threatens to make a failed system worse. Studies show that when a rural hospital shuts down, the mortality rate rises by 5.9%!
Former surgeon Mike Flynn, host of Single Payer Radio in Kentucky, has an excellent opinion piece in “Louisville Medicine” on the horrific role of private equity in health care.
Dr. Flynn is an Emeritus Professor in the University of Louisville Surgery Department. “Louisville Medicine” is the publication of the Greater Louisville Medical Society.
