Baptist Health and a federal investigation cite plans’ denial of care and refusal to pay

By: Deborah Yetter – October 25, 2023

On Wed., Oct. 11, 2023, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health (KSPH) protested at the Humana Headquarters in downtown Louisville demanding 

*an end to denial of care

*the right to choose your doctor

*an end to forced placement in Medicare Advantage

*an end to ACO REACH and the privatization of Medicare

*enactment of a national, not-for-profit single payer plan–Improved Medicare for All.  

The action was waged in solidarity with New York City retirees fighting the city’s effort to take away their traditional Medicare who demonstrated on the same day at the Aetna and United Healthcare corporate offices in Hartford, Connecticut.  There were demonstrations in a dozen other cities, including Detroit and Denver, at the offices of other health insurance companies.

Harriette Seiler, Secretary of KSPH, was featured on WHAS TV, Channel 11.  Humana Medicare Advantage and other Humana plans in Kentucky recently failed to reach agreement with Baptist Health physicians forcing thousands of Kentuckians to have to find new doctors or pay out-of-network fees.  This crisis impacts Kentucky state retirees, county retirees, school board retirees other than teachers, and retirees and employees of Local 862 who work at two giant Ford plants in Louisville. Later on Oct. 11, UAW Local 862 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant joined the strike for a contract. Restoration of retiree health benefits and pensions are UAW demands in the current negotiations.

Kirk Gillenwaters, President of the Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans and a member of Local 862, addressed the issues on WDRB TV.

Jill Harmer, KSPH Steering Committee Member; Bill Londrigan, President of the Kentucky AFL-CIO; Jeff Wiggins, Secretary-Treasurer of the KY AFL-CIO;  Kay Tillow, Chair of KSPH, and Garrett Adams, MD, past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, were among those who addressed the crowd through a powerful sound system.

Chants of “Patients, Not Profits, Medicare for All,” and “Everybody In, Nobody Out” rang out above the noise of the construction on the Humana Building.

WDRB TV aired a story on Humana’s new CEO and included at the end additional coverage of the protest at Humana.

We are grateful to UAW retiree and skilled videographer Ron Hargrove for his creation of two videos from the demonstration.

Wed. Oct. 11, 2023

11:30 am – 1:00 pm 

Humana Headquarters

500 W. Main St.

Downtown Louisville 

*  to protest the denial of care, 

*  to demand the right to choose your doctor,

*  to express solidarity with retirees fighting forced placement in Medicare Advantage, 

*  to demand health care for patients not profits–Improved Medicare for All.

On Wednesday, Octobert 11, 2023, there will be demonstrations at Aetna and United Healthcare in Hartford, Connecticut, at Humana in Louisville, and in 10 cities around the country to protest the private insurance companies for their denial of care, their taking away of the right to choose your physician, their fleecing of the Medicare Trust Fund, their forcing retirees into Medicare Advantage against their will, and their role in privatization of Medicare.

Further info:  www.kyhealthcare.org, 502 636 1551, Sponsored by Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care

Hear Marianne Pizzitola, President of NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees tell what’s wrong with Medicare Advantage.

On Sunday, September 17, 2023, the First Unitarian Church featured “Single Payer Health Care–What America Needs Now.” Jill Harmer, PhD, a Clinical Psychologist and a member of the Steering Committee of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care (KSPH), made the event possible and presented the sermon. Devi Pierce, MD, who practices in southern Indiana, spoke of the destructive impact high costs and prior authorization have on her patients. The video “What Does U.S. Health Care Look Like Abroad? | NYT Opinion,” was a part of the church’s program.

Jill included in her single payer message an appeal to join in the campaign against the privatization of Medicare that is happening through Medicare Advantage, ACO REACH, and other projects promoted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Kay Tillow of KSPH joined Jill for a lively question and answer session.

Mt. Sterling physicians, Dr. Edward Roberts and Dr. Robert Toon, sponsored a September 12, 2023, showing of the documentary, “The Power to Heal,” at the Gateway Regional Arts Center in downtown Mt. Sterling. The film, narrated by Danny Glover, describes how the passage of Medicare in 1965 became the vehicle by which an active civil rights movement, in less than four months, transformed the nation’s hospitals from our most racially and economically segregated institutions into our most integrated.

Publicly funded Medicare not only brought care to our nation’s seniors but it ended segregation in hospitals with its insistence that only hospitals certified as in compliance with civil rights law could receive these funds.

Following the film, Paul Hoppe and Kay Tillow of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care and Dr. Roberts engaged with the audience in a lively discussion entertaining the possibility that Medicare could once again be the basis of transformation to a more just health care system. A local doctor told of the privatized Medicare Advantage plans’ refusal to authorize payment for tests essential to care. Many signed the petition in support of the national, not-for-profit, single payer system–an Improved Medicare for All plan–advocated by Physicians for a National Health Program.

“The Power to Heal” is based on a book by David Barton Smith. Listen to the interview with David Barton Smith on Single Payer Radio.

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care offers to show the hour long film to any organization that is interested. Please contact nursenpo@aol.com, 502 636 1551, to make arrangements.

Further information on the documentary can be found here.

On July 30, 2023, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care hosted a showing of “The Power to Heal” in celebration of Medicare’s 58th birthday. The film, narrated by Danny Glover, tells how the 1965 passage of the Medicare law, together with a dedicated grass roots civil rights movement, ended the widespread segregation of US hospitals. Hospitals had to be certified as open to African Americans and integrated before that could receive Medicare money.

Medicare not only brought health care to seniors but more justice to the nation.

KSPH calls for a further transformation of Medicare to end profits in health care and enact a national, single payer system–an Improved Medicare for All.

Thanks to Paul Hoppe who supplied the technical expertise for the film projection as well as the cupcakes imprinted with a Medicare Card and to Charlie Casper and Harriette Seiler who did the work to make the event a success. Thanks to Ralph Hearn and the KYARA for spreading the word, to Mark McKinley for the Radio Show with David Barton Smith, and to Steve Katz who traveled from Lexington to be with us.

KSPH offers to show the film anywhere in Kentucky. We are currently working on arranging a showing in Mt. Sterling. Please write or call: nursenpo@aol.com (502) 636 1551.

Representative Pramila Jayapal has introduced into Congress the Medicare for All Act of 2023, a national single payer bill.  Physicians for a National Health Program is circulating a letter inviting organizations to sign on to show support for the legislation.

We encourage you to ask your organization, and other organizations, to sign on to the letter.

Here’s the direct link to the form where organizations can sign on to support.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfQri5MMtcYckbwc4Ub8eiohFZ0cmLFVF3-NTpvAdDY2j3r2A/viewform

(The form has a link to the full letter as well, so they can read through that before signing.)

In solidarity for single payer,
Kay Tillow, Chair, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care

Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care invites you to join us in celebrating Medicare’s 58^th Anniversary with a free showing of the documentary The Power to Heal narrated by Danny Glover.

In less than four months Medicare transformed the nation’s hospitals from our most racially and economically segregated institutions into our most integrated. Hospitals, which had for a half century selectively served people on the basis of race and wealth, were forced to care for all.

Medicare not only brought health care to our nation’s seniors but it ended segregation in hospitals with its insistence that only integrated hospitals could receive these funds.

Join us:

“The Power to Heal”

Sunday, July 30, 2023, 2:00 pm

Louisville Free Public Library

301 York Street
Louisville, KY 40203

(Medicare Birthday cupcakes will be served.)

As we celebrate the birth of the Medicare program as a force for racial and health care justice, our country’s health care needs another transformation–not just for seniors but for all ages.

We demand the passage of an Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.

Join us as we renew the struggle to win national, not-for-profit, single payer health care for the nation.  

Remove the profiteers and make health care a human right. 

Support Improved Medicare for All.  Everybody in, nobody out!

Sponsored by Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, www.kyhealthcare.org, 502 636 1551, nursenpo@aol.com. 

Co-sponsored by the Kentucky Alliance for Retired Americans. 

“The Power to Heal” is based on a book by David Barton Smith. Listen to the interview with David Barton Smith on Single Payer Radio

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that oversees those national health care programs, has the dubious distinction of being light years ahead of other government regulators in excusing fraudulent conduct. CMS doesn’t just allow healthcare companies to repeatedly commit fraud and abuse with fines amounting to a tiny fraction of the profit; CMS goes much further.

CMS formally authorizes the violation of anti-corruption laws by granting “fraud and abuse” waivers to the corporate entities involved in experimental programs within its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI or Innovation Center).

It’s true. CMS has an official webpage named “Fraud and Abuse Waivers” that lists the programs entitled to their absolution.

Full story:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/healthcare-privatization-medicare