Hear Economics Professor Gerald Friedman, Ph.D., speak on the funding of a single payer, improved Medicare for All health care system.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

7:00 pm

First Unitarian Church

809 S. 4^th St., Louisville 40203

Preliminary remarks by Karen Krigger, MD, Family Medicine

 

 

Professor Friedman was a Phi Beta Kappa member and Magna Cum Laude graduate of Columbia University. He obtained his doctorate from Harvard University, where he received a Certificate of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

He has written extensively on the funding of single payer health care systems.

In his study “Funding HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act — How we can afford a national single-payer health plan,” he outlines the costs and benefits of Rep. John Conyers’ national single-payer legislation.

He has provided expert testimony in the US Senate on his study of the financial analysis of single payer national health insurance.

Sponsored by: Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, PO Box 17595, Louisville, KY 40217, www.kyhealthcare.org, nursenpo@aol.com, 502 636 1551

While in Louisville, Dr. Friedman will speak at other major events:

“Medicare for All — What future physicians need to know”

Wed. Oct. 23, 2019

12 Noon

U of L Medical School Instructional Bldg, Rm 102, 500 S. Preston, Louisville

Sponsored by U of L Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP).

Grand Rounds:  “Medicare for All – What physicians need to know”

Thursday, October 24, 2019

8:00 am

Ambulatory Care Building, 550 S. Jackson St.

Sponsored by the U of L Department of Medicine

Gerald Friedman to speak at the W. Chestnut St. Baptist Church

“Medicare for All Means Health Equity for All”

Thur. Oct. 24, 12 Noon, 1725 W. Chestnut St.

Grand Rounds:  “Medicare for All – What physicians need to know”

Friday, October 25, 2019,

8:00 am

Bottigheimer Auditorium,

Jewish Hospital, 200 Abraham Flexner Way

Sponsored by U of L Department of Family Medicine and Geriatrics

 

This is Sarah Riley Parker, second year student at U of L Medical School. A couple of weeks ago she spoke at the Kentucky Medical Association annual meeting, urging this physicians’ organization to support national single payer healthcare. Her resolution was an awesome step towards educating and winning these Kentucky doctors to support the health care reform that works! Her resolution received about 10% of the vote.

Sarah is from Murray, Kentucky, and is passionate about bringing excellent care to rural communities. She is also the President of the Louisville Chapter of Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP).

Thousands of workers brought their families to the United Labor Day Picnic at the Louisville Zoo.   Many stood in line to sign the petition for a national single payer health plan, an improved Medicare for All.  Mike Carrick, Larry Hovekamp, Antonio Wilson, Harriette Seiler, and Kay Tillow staffed the booth which was graciously shared with us by the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council.

On Sunday, August 25, 2019, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care attended the Bernie Sanders rally to spread the word about the upcoming October 24 event with Professor Gerald Friedman speaking on “The Economic Case for Medicare for All” at the First Unitarian Church, 809 S. 4th St., Louisville, at 7:00 pm.

Christine Perlin, Mike Perlin, Harriette Seiler, Mark McKinley, Doris Bailey Spencer and Kay Tillow distributed flyers and circulated petitions for national single payer health care/improved Medicare for All.

We met people from as far away as Richmond and Lexington.  Many eagerly signed the petition and some asked us to make a single payer presentation in their community.

On Thursday, August 8, 2019, in Wilder, Kentucky, the Women’s Network hosted a program on single payer health care.  Joan Gregory introduced speakers Kay Tillow and Harriette Seiler who presented the case for a national single payer plan—an expanded and improved Medicare for All.

Over pizza and Stromboli in a back room at the Magic Mushroom, the group of over 30 pondered the issues involved and asked their questions.

Why not just let everyone who wants to, buy into Medicare and let the others keep their private insurance?

Shouldn’t this be combined with nutritional and lifestyle programs that assure good health?  What about those who have their savings invested in health care stocks?   How do doctors stand on single payer?

Many signed the petition and took further information.  Some asked for copies of the data presented.  The welcome was warm and the discussion spirited.  The Women’s Network is a civic-minded organization active on vital issues across the state.

 

KSPH offers this free presentation to any group in Kentucky.  We’ve been from Pikeville to Paducah, Paris, Florence, London, Vicco, Murray and many more places.

We’d love to come to your town.  Just call us at 502 636 1551.

 

On July 4, 2019, single payer activists worked to spread the message to a crowd that gathered for a concert at Louisville’s Waterfront Park.  Many voiced their

support and signed petitions for a National Improved Medicare for All.

The group distributed tiny “Forward to Single Payer” flyers and “Medicare for All” cards.

The discussions reflected the urgency of the problem.  People spoke of the price of insulin, of sky high deductibles, and of friends and family who could not afford care.

 

Reprinted from the Courier-Journal – 06/30/2019

READERS’ FORUM

Dr. Crouch should support Medicare for all

Dr. Robert Crouch proposes “Stop Surprise Medical Bills” legislation to shield patients from bills for out-of-network health care. (“Surprise Medical Bills Must Stop” June 22, 2019)

We should recall that the concept of in- network and out-of-network is a creation of the for profit health insurance industry. I disagree with Dr. Crouch when he says he cannot control surprise billing of his patients. As an officer of the Kentucky Medical Association, he can take a look across the border to our

Canadian neighbors, find out about their health care system, and advocate that the United States adopt an improved medicare for all, which completely eliminates private health insurance companies from essential services. Every penny of our healthcare dollar should go to providers, not to corporate middlemen who have so successfully interposed themselves between physician and patient in this country.

Corporations exist to provide dividends to shareholders, with hundreds of intelligent employees coming up with new schemes, such as networks, to do just that. One is just playing whack-a-mole by coming up with a piece of legislation that may limit a particular type of corporate outrage.

Of course, a patient going through a health crisis is in no position to know the contractual arrangements between the person giving them an anesthetic, the insurance company and the hospital, and is probably too weak to complain when he spends the years of convalescence dealing with hospital bills, collection agencies and foreclosure. Less deserving of sympathy are the “hospitals and physicians (who) have become overwhelmed”, trying to keep up with the shifting requirements of health care corporations. Some pain, yes, but ‘let the free market sort this all out.

We have tried that, in an increasingly complex system that costs us twice as much as nations with national health programs, programs which cover everyone, and do not leave tens of millions un – or under insured as in this country. To advocate for his patients, Dr. Crouch should support improved Medicare for all.

Christine Perlin-Gump

Louisville, 40205

Statement of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care to the Ways and Means Committee Hearing on Pathways to Universal Health Care

We thank Chairman Neal for scheduling this hearing, boldly calling on members of the Committee and those giving testimony to propose solutions to the problems of a health care system in crisis—a system that costs far too much yet leaves millions to suffer needlessly for lack of care.

Our organization has been working since 2004 to bring Kentuckians together to push for a national health program that will solve this crisis for our state and for the nation.  We have worked since that time to educate ourselves, communities across the state, office holders, and candidates on sound health care policy that can bring high quality care to everyone.

With this testimony we share what we have learned, and we urge the Committee to act upon it to enact a national single payer health care system, an improved and expanded Medicare for All as spelled out in the plan of the Physicians’ for a National Health Program (PNHP).₁

Marcia Angell, MD, former Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, has pointed  out that that we cannot simultaneously (a) increase care and (b) cut costs unless we change to a single payer system that removes the profits and the insurance companies.₂  Under our current health care system, all efforts to rein in the costs result in cuts to care.  Plans designed to cover more people and improve care end up dramatically increasing the costs.

That opposite movement of cost and care informs us that as long as the profits of the insurance companies and investor-owned facilities are involved in health care, we cannot improve and expand the care without costing us more than our already outrageously expensive annual health care bill.

More:  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/26/1867550/-Organize-single-payer-around-the-model-proposal

On June 12, 2019, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on Pathways to Universal Health Coverage.  You can watch the video here.

Don Berwick, MD, MPP, former director of the Center for Medicare and Medcaid Services, was among the witnesses.  He said “The United States ranks 56^th in the world in infant mortality and 43^rd in life expectancy.”  You can read his testimony here.