On July 15, 2016, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care presented an updated single payer program to Professor Roger Meese’s Health Care Management class at the University of Louisville Business School. The new power point program was developed by Harriette Seiler with some assistance from Charles Casper, Jill Harmer, and Kay Tillow. We’re now ready to take the program everywhere from university classes to Rotary Clubs, to union halls or anywhere else. If your group would like a presentation, just give us a call at 502 636 1551 or email us: nursenpo@aol.com.

Harriette Seiler speaking to the class at U of L Business School

On May 21, 2016, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care was there to support Multiple Sclerosis patients and distributed 500 flyers about single payer to the participants in the Walk.  MS patients struggle to get needed drugs and care that cost far beyond what their insurance plans pay.

On May 10, 2016, KSPH brought single payer health care to the heart of Louisville’s medical center. The Courier-Journal, Business First, and Greater Louisville Medical Society covered the story.

Speakers celebrated the publication of PNHP‘s new single payer proposal in the American Journal of Public Health and urged doctors, medical students, and the public to sign on as endorsers to this single payer plan–many did. (Please join the movement by signing on to the proposal here.)

Speaking for the Physicians’ Proposal for a Single-Payer Health Care Reform were:

Peter Esch, M.D., Geriatrics, Internal Medicine
Barbara Casper,M.D.,FACP, U of L Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Palliative Medicine, and Medical Education,
Edgar Lopez, M.D., FACS, Plastic/Reconstructive Surgery,
Morris Weiss, M.D., Cardiology
Steve Lippmann, M.D., Psychiatry
Brandi Jones, Rising 3rd year U of L Medical Student, Past President of students for a National Health Program, and
Mallika Sabharwal, First year U of L Medical Student, President of Students for a National Health Program

Medical Students Mallika Sabharwal, Brandi Jones, Rina Perlin

Peter Esch MD; Charlie Casper, KSPH PR Director; Edgar Lopez MD; Aaron Burch, Louisville Medicine Reporter

Tuesday, May 10, 2016
11 AM to 1 PM
500 block of Preston St. between Muhammad Ali and Chestnut
Downtown Louisville near the U of L Medical School

Join Kentucky physicians and medical students for a single payer action in the heart of Louisville’s medical center.

The event will celebrate the publication of the physicians’ call for sweeping single-payer reform in the American Journal of Public Health and call on the medical community and the public to sign on to the plan.

At 12 noon there will be a press conference with speakers:

Peter Esch, M.D., Geriatrics, Internal Medicine
Barbara Casper,M.D.,FACP, U of L Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, Palliative Medicine, and Medical Education,
Edgar Lopez, M.D., FACS, Plastic/Reconstructive Surgery,
Brandi Jones, Rising 3rd year U of L Medical Student, Past President of students for a National Health Program, and
Mallika Sabharwal, First year U of L Medical Student, President of Students for a National Health Program.

Physicians, medical students, nurses, and activists will be available to answer questions and provide additional information, including the basics of the proposal and copies of the Journal of Public Health editorial. Individuals will also have the opportunity to sign the national document as co-endorsers.
Please join us for this important event sponsored by Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare KSPH.

Further information here and here.

Rising Up Like the Irish for Single Payer Health Care

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care marchers were greeted by thumbs up and applause from the crowds viewing the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  

L to R:  Mark McKinley, Enid Redman, Larry Hovekamp, Rose Nett, Fred Nett, Harriette Seiler, Brandi Jones, Mallika Sabharwal, Rick Stevens.

We carried the message from either view.

We distributed 800 fliers on single payer, improved Medicare for All, HR 676.  The parade celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Irish Easter uprising.

Medical students Mallika Sabharwal and Brandi Jones led the way.  Both of them are leaders in the University of Louisville chapter of Students for a National Health Program.

The February 22, 2016, event sponsored by Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care was a “huge” success.  The library’s Centennial Room was packed by an audience eager to know more about single payer health care.

A panel of prominent community leaders shared their hopes and concerns for health care.  They are pictured L to R, State Representative Jim Wayne;  Medical Student Brandi Jones, President of UofL SNaHP;  Karine Barillas, M. Ed, Director of La Casita Community Center;  Barbara R. Casper, MD, FACP, UofL Professor of Medicine.

The audience then joined in a lively discussion on single payer health care.  KSPH will show the film for interested groups.  Call Kay at 502 636 1551.

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care invites you to join us to view the documentary film, “Fix It.”

The film by Vincent Mondillo and Richard Master examines the economics of the US healthcare system from the perspective of  business owners and makes a compelling case for scrapping our complex and  expensive multi-payer system for a single-payer, improved Medicare for  All.  Legislation that would enact such a solution, HR 676, has been introduced into Congress by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.  There are currently 60 cosponsors of HR 676 including Kentucky Congressman John  Yarmuth.

The filmmakers state:  “This documentary takes an  in-depth look into how our dysfunctional health care system is damaging our economy, suffocating our businesses, discouraging physicians and negatively impacting on the nation’s health, while remaining un-affordable for a third of  our citizens.”

The nonpartisan film includes interviews with some of the nation’s  leading health policy experts like Dr. Don Berwick, former administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Dr. Theodore Marmor, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at Yale University.

Richard Master, CEO, of MCS  Industries, Inc. in eastern Pennsylvania, notes that his company now has to pay  $1.5 million a year to provide health care for his company’s workers and  dependents but that 33 cents of every premium dollar has nothing to do with health care.  He states:  “We spend more on health care than any other country, and we have far less to show for it.  More than 17% of our  national GDP is now eaten up by health care costs, far more than any other country.”

The filmmakers interview Dann Konkin, president of a Canadian industrial screen printing company who decided against opening a facility in the U. S. after finding out how much he would have to pay to provide health insurance.

Master concludes, “It is time we realize we don’t have to tolerate a system–a $3 trillion system–in which one of three dollars is wasted.  A  system in which just a few sick employees can take down a company.  A  system that starves the rest of our economy to the point that we don’t have enough money for our schools and roads.  Please join me and many others in the fight for a simplified, single-payer health care system.”

More details on the website “Fix It” www.fixithealthcare.com.