On July 30, 2026, Medicare’s 61^st birthday, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care delivered a demand for passage of Improved Medicare for All to Congresspersons in four Kentucky Congressional Districts.

The deliveries took place at the Prestonsburg office of Rep. Hal Rogers of the 5^th Congressional District, at the Lexington office of Rep. Andy Barr of the 6^th CD, at the LaGrange office of Rep. Thomas Massie of the 4^th CD, and at the Louisville office of Rep. Morgan McGarvey of the 3^rd CD.

Pikeville’s Mountain Top News covered the event in Prestonsburg and interviewed medical student Justin Garrett who said, “In the U. S., we have more money in health care but worse outcomes–Medicare for All would do a lot for every American.” Garrett is president of the Students for a National Health Program at the medical school in Pikeville. His delegation brought a birthday card signed by dozens of medical students as well as a birthday cake and balloons.

Advocates in all four districts brought a letter supporting Medicare for All which has been signed by over 335 organizations nationwide and urged the Congresspersons to support HR 3069, the single payer legislation that will assure health care to everyone in the United States, remove all economic barriers to care, and save our rural and other hospitals that are under threat of closure.   

The letter says, in part:

Now is the Time for Medicare for All

If we do not inspire, energize, and organize the largest grassroots movement in history, including
the multiracial working class, everyday Americans, and everyone else hurt by our broken health care system, by demanding real material changes like Medicare for All, then we risk losing
millions more people to the false promises of authoritarians and their corporate allies.

An Open Letter to those seeking to reform our health care system: Dream Bigger, Be Effective:

Our Democracy is struggling, and the status quo is not working. Too many corporate-backed politicians continue to push for a “business as usual” approach while wages stagnate, public goods and services erode, and billionaires amass grotesque amounts of wealth.

The letter continues:

The reality that far too many live today is one of debt and struggle. Working people feel a deep sense of alienation and powerlessness due to the state of our economy, which is rigged to
benefit corporations and wealthy elites. How can one feel optimism for our future when over 40% of us are carrying around the burden of medical debt? How can we plan for our futures when we can’t afford to go to the doctor or cover rent?

…It’s time to challenge the corrupt CEOs who profit off despair. To show people real solutions that can work. No one can fix our rigged economy overnight. Our structural inequality is decades in the making.
But one piece of the solution is to take on one of the largest industries in our country: health care.

(Below: Paul Hoppe, member of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care Steering Committe, delivering the Medicare for All message to a worker at Rep. Thomas Massie’s very small office in LaGrange. Melissa Lucas, MD, of Lakeside Park in Massie’s District 4, sent a letter that Paul delivered. Her letter states:

Dear Representative Massie,

I am a constituent from district 4 and it’s time for me to write you about our healthcare crisis. As a recently retired physician, I have grappled with our current dysfunctional system daily and can tell you there is no fixing it. We have the most expensive bad healthcare system in the industrialized world and tinkering around the edges will only make it worse.

In particular, Medicare Advantage siphons off billions directly to private corporations who provide nothing of value to American taxpayers. I personally wasted hours of time trying to get insurance companies to reverse their denial of medical services and provide the medical care they had already been paid for. Medical care delayed is often medical care denied. Insurance companies profit handsomely while bankrupting our Medicare Trust Fund.

The answer to this egregious waste of taxpayer money is a single payer healthcare plan free of profit. Responsible estimators predict we can save 650 billion annually and increase coverage to everyone and improve quality. A majority of the public is now in favor of a single payer system.

I urge you to support House Bill 3069-perhaps even cosponsor it. Do not waste more time trying to tweak our current system. Be a leader in healthcare reform!

Sincerely,

Melissa Lucas, MD)

More of the national letter:

We must dream bigger. In fact, 90% of Democratic voters and 63% of all voters support Medicare for All. Americans believe the government should guarantee health care to everyone, and anything less means tens of millions of people in the U.S. continuing to suffer from the lack of necessary care and the prospect of medical debt if they do seek care.

We can’t give in to half measures; we must fight for exactly what people need and deserve.

Medicare for All is the only way that we can guarantee everyone’s care and finally take the profit-motive and corporate influence out of health care.

…We urge members of Congress to stop listening to the political consultants and start listening to the people. Americans understand we must get corporate greed out of our health care system once and for all. Meet the moment: Join the fight for Medicare for All

We may face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to legislate on health care in 2029. We need to rally behind the boldest possible reform, Medicare for All, that brings together the broadest possible movement, not overly complex incremental measures that prop up the same systems ….

The American people are hungry for bold ideas that reform fundamental institutions that have failed them for too long. And they are looking for leaders who will take on powerful interests and fight for working people.

Now is the time to organize and inspire! Support for Medicare for All grows daily in our communities and in Congress. It’s our best path forward, and it’s rooted in real promise: everybody in, nobody out.

The full letter is here:   https://medicare4all.org/wp-content/uploads/Final_2026_M4A_organizational_sign-on_letter_335.pdf

The actions are a part of similar efforts in scores of cities across the country from Seattle to Portland, Maine, and from Grand Rapids to Houston.  A map of cities where actions occurred is here:  https://act.medicare4all.org/event/doa/

Contact us:
nursenpo@aol.com
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kentuckians_for_single_payer
Single Payer Radio – All Programs
@KY4singlepayer

Read and sign on to the Physicians Proposal for Single Payer Health Care. Join PNHP.

Slides from Drs. Steffie Woolhandler & David Himmelstein

Health Justice Monitor with Don McCanne MD and Jim Kahn MD.
Answers to questions on single payer.

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 July 21, 2026, Harriette Seiler and Kay Tillow dodged statewide thunderstorms and tornadoes to arrive in Morehead for a program on “Nothing Less than Improved Medicare for All Can Heal the Nation.”

Improved Medicare for All, free from profit, is also called national single payer and would provide coverage, publicly funded, for everyone in the United States removing all copays, deductibles, and premiums assuring that there are no financial barriers to care.

The slide show was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Morehead is located in eastern Kentucky in the 5th Congressional District where 16 of its rural hospitals are at risk of closure according to a list released by Senator Edward Markey.

All of these hospitals would be saved and sustained with the passage of a national single payer plan, free from profit, which would provide for global bugdeting of needed hospitals and other health care infrastructure. Studies show that when a rural hospital closes, the mortality rate rises by 5.9%.

The Coalition of Labor Union Women passed a resolution calling on the Congress to save our rural hospitals by enacting single payer health care. Learn more about the campaign to save rural hospitals with single payer here. The legislation for Improved Medicare for All in the House is H.R. 3069, sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Rep. Debbie Dingle.

A similar presentation, free of charge, is available to any Kentucky organization. Just let us know at nursenpo@aol.com.

If you’d like to get involved in the unfolding battle to enact national single payer for our country, join our meetings on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 5:00 pm eastern. Email Kay at nursenpo@aol.com to get on the list to receive the zoom link.

If you haven’t yet signed the Declaration of Independence from the Medical-Industrial Complex, please do so.

Here’s the video with the “Now is the Time for Medicare for All” hearing from July 22, 2026 featuring Rep. Jayapal and many other advocates and representatives.

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care thanks Iva Markicevic Daley for making the arrangements, organizing the publicity, and mastering the computer/projector technology for the program.

“Nothing less than Improved Medicare for All can heal the nation”

The public is invited to join us on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 5:30 pm, at the Rowan County Public Library, 175 Beacon Hill Rd, Morehead, KY 40351, for a presentation on Improved Medicare for All, a national single payer plan, free from profit, that will provide high quality coverage for all and remove all financial barriers to care while saving our rural hospitals. 

The United States spends twice as much on health care, per capita, as other wealthy nations, yet many go without care because of cost–even millions who have insurance.  Fifteen million more are expected to lose coverage as new laws kick in.

Learn of the energetic, new push to achieve a national Medicare for All, free from profit, in the United States.

Presentation by Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care followed by discussion and Q & A.

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care is affiliated with Physicians for a National Health Program http://www.pnhp.org

http://www.kyhealthcare.org

nursenpo@aol.com, 502 636 1551

On June 24, 2026, hundreds traveled to the Capitol Annex in Frankfort to express outrage at the cuts that were closing the Lee Specialty Clinic, a Louisville institution vital to the care of adults with disabilities.

Family members and supporters testified at a meeting of the Medicaid Oversight Advisory Board, passionately expressing the dire consequences that closing Lee Clinic would cause to their loved ones.

The following day, Governor Andy Beshear announced a transfer of funds to assure one more year to the Lee Clinic.

But the crisis of care in Kentucky will continue with many losing coverage because of cuts to Medicaid and exchange subsidies–hence the need to build a passionate push for national single payer.

You can watch the video of the hearing.  Public comment begins at 1:06.  Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care testifies at 1:41.

Harriette Seiler and Kay Tillow spread the Enhanced Medicare for All message with flyers and brochures.  The families truly appreciated the KSPH solidarity.

Hundreds stopped by to tell about their struggles to get or to pay for health care and to sign a petition for a national single payer plan, an Enhanced Medicare for All, free from profit.

Above left, U. S. Senate Candidate Charles Booker signed the petition for Enhanced Medicare for All, free from profit. Above right, a young single payer supporter who traveled from eastern Kentucky to attend the May Day event in Louisville. Above center, Harriette Seiler, Secretary of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, and Paul Hoppe, host of Single Payer Radio, talked health care with all who passed by.

On April 25, 2026, Forward Radio, Louisville’s community radio station, 106.5 FM, celebrated its 9th Birthday at the Southern Louisville Christian Ministries. That’s 9 years of bringing to the public the programs and voices that have been locked out of the mainstream media. For all of that time, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care has been broadcasting Single Payer Radio, magnifying the stories of the patients, physicians, and others who suffer from the for-profit control of U. S. health care.

Single Payer Radio, hosted by Paul Hoppe, Dr. Mike Flynn, and Dr. Eugene Shively, shines a light on health care and keeps alive the promise of a day when our country enacts an Enhanced Medicare for All, free from profit, covering everyone with high quality care.

Hasten the day by sharing the programs on social media and telling your friends to listen in.

Programs are archived here

On this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we declare it is time for the people to rise up, organize, take control of the health care system, and run it in the interest of the public instead of in the interest of profit.

Join the call for healthcare justice by signing the Declaration. Organizations sign here. Individuals here.

It’s time for comprehensive, universal, national Medicare for All, free from profit!

Declaration Of Independence

The Coalition of Labor Union Women, at its national convention in November of 2025, passed this resolution.

National single payer, an Improved Medicare for All, will provide operating expenses for rural hospitals and end the disastrous health care deserts in rural areas and small towns. In Kentucky, with 35 hospitals at risk of closure, this is a life or death matter.

Your city, county, organization, or union can help by passing a similar resolution! More info: Kay Tillow 502 636 1551, nursenpo@aol.com.

https://nationalsinglepayer.com/…/nationalsi…/campaigns

In the United States, where we have the highest costs yet the poorest health care performance in the industrialized world, single payer efforts were derailed in the early 90’s and again in 2010.

As we head into the midterms and beyond that election, there will be a renewed push for national single payer, an improved Medicare for All, free from profit.

All other wealthy countries, and some not so wealthy, have established universal health care through some form of single payer system.  To do it here, we must have an informed public and an energetic movement.

In this National Single Payer webinar, Dr. Adam Gaffney begins at 3:00 minutes and finishes at 42:45.  Please share it widely.

Dr. Gaffney has made the slides available.  If you would like to have them, please make the request to nursenpo@aol.com with SLIDES in the subject line.

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GofAmlDXQA