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.
It was Twelfth Night in Louisville’s Central Park when Shakespeare enthusiasts gathered despite the heat and humidity. Medicare lovers were there as well to celebrate Medicare’s 60th Birthday with the distribution of flyers advocating the enactment of an Enhanced Medicare for All. People agreed, pocketed the leaflets, and signed the petition.
On July 31, 2025, there was a hearing on Affordable Health Care in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at 22:08 to 30:08. Dr. Adam Gaffney speaks at 47:02 ending at 52:42.
Both are excellent in explaining Improved Medicare for All!
From the eloquent speakers to the singing Raging Grannies, to the commemoration of lives lost to a cruel health care system, Kentuckians raised their voices to demand an end to profit in health care and the enactment of a single payer plan to cover us all. That was Sat., May 31, when Louisville was part of a National Day of Action involving 30 cities.
Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care had put out a call to action:
“As we battle to stop the catastrophic attacks on health care, education, public workers and services, civil rights, unions, social security, immigrants, research, the environment, and even science, we refuse to be cowed by fear and hate. The ferocity of the attacks requires a bold response. The demand for Improved Medicare for All, free from profit, and covering everyone can unite us and inspire the nation to rise to its best potential.”
You can see some of the Louisville event here:
Ron Hargrove’s 3 min video of interviews from May 31:
This is a new beginning, a bold, urgent, nationwide demand to enact Improved Medicare for All, free from profit.
Our thanks to all who came, to our speakers Dustin Reinstedler, Hamza Jamal, Dr. Karen Krigger, and Gail Henson, to the 17 Kentucky cosponsors, to Paul Hoppe who built the magnificent structure that held the banner and organized essentials, to Jill Harmer who brought the Raging Grannies, to Harriette Seiler who organized the sound, the permit, and so much more, to Charlie Casper who called the media and organized the commemoration, to Dr. Kitrina Kearfott who staffed the table and spoke to the media, to Kirk Gillenwaters who brought union members, and to Ron Hargrove and Dalton Nolan who made wonderful videos. To Dr. Garrett Adams and all who spread the word, carried chairs, tables, did set up and clean up, we are grateful.
Over 140 organizations are cosponsoring this event in 25 cities across the country. Actions are planned in Louisville KY, Pittsburgh PA, Kittaning PA, Houston TX, Barrington NJ, Arlington VA, Detroit MI, Charleston WV, Charlotte NC, Burlington NC, Greenville NC, Seattle WA, Spokane WA, Portland OR, Tillamook OR, Corvallis OR, Santa Barbara CA, San Francisco CA, San Diego CA, and New York City with more on the way.
Louisville Rally
12 Noon
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Mazzoli Federal Building, 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Pl. 40202. Join us!
Speakers: KY State AFL-CIO President, Dustin Reinstedler; Dr. Karen Krigger, Professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine; Hamza Jamal, UofL Medical Student; Gail Henson, member of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky and Co-President of the local Louisville League
Socializing at 1:00 pm with pizza provided!
(The time for the rally has been changed to 12N to avoid conflict with the Social Security Rally.)
In Kentucky cosponsors include:
Kentucky Poor Peoples Campaign, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Kentucky State AFL-CIO, Greater Louisville Central Labor Council, Kentucky Unitarian Universalist Justice Action Network, Louisville Showing up for Racial Justice, Derby City Coalition of Labor Union Women, United Auto Workers Local 862, Laborers Local 576, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Louisville Workers Brigade, Louisville Fellowship of Reconciliation, Kentucky Green Party Group, Kentuckiana Raging Grannies, League of Women Voters of Kentucky, Louisville DSA, Forward Kentucky
Former NALC Branch 84 President Michael Plaskon speaks in this 90 second video.
Call To Action May 31, 2025: Demand Health Not Profit!
We call on communities across the country to join in a National Day of Action on Saturday, May 31, 2025, to put National Single Payer Healthcare on the nation’s agenda.
Our health care system is broken beyond repair. Insurance companies and for-profit middlemen create barriers to care and massive administrative waste. These result in unnecessary suffering and deaths. For over 60 years, piecemeal reforms have resulted in higher costs and the worst health outcomes among comparable nations.
We demand the recognition by our government that health care is a human right.
We demand the elimination of private health insurance and the banning of for-profit delivery of care.
We demand the enactment of a publicly financed, national single payer program that would provide comprehensive coverage to everyone.
We demand that health care delivery be transformed from profit-seeking ventures into services organized to serve the people of our country, a system in which all caregivers are freed from corporate control.
The National Day of Action will bring people together locally and nationally from neighborhoods, unions, faith groups, businesses, and all types of civic organizations to join the demand to remove profit from health care. We must focus our collective anger towards corporate health insurers to bring real reform: put National Single Payer on the nation’s agenda!
On Fri., March 21, 2025, Louisville rallied at the Mazzoli Building to demand protection of federal services and workers. The mood was intense–the wounds are deeply felt. Even the Pegasus seemed to cry out against the injustice!
A TSA worker spoke of the illegal withdrawal of their union rights. Others told of the damage to the veterans from the VA cuts. This fight is just beginning. Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare was there in solidarity.
