April 30, 2010

MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact:

Devin Oller, 925.286.6882, devin.oller@gmail.com

Chuck Pennacchio, 215.828.5055, cpennacchio@gmail.com

Pennsylvania Medical Students to Endorse Single Payer Bills SB 400 and HB 1660 on Harrisburg Capitol Steps, Monday, May 3rd, 9:45 a.m.

AMSA-PA Calls for Immediate Passage of Economic Impact Study Resolution, SR 267, to Determine Precise Cost Savings, Job Growth, and Healthcare Outcomes

Medical students from Penn State, Penn, and Temple will convene a press conference on the State Capitol steps, Monday, May 3, 2010 to rally their support behind the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act (SB 400/HB 1660), a cost-saving, job-generating, outcomes-based bill that would provide comprehensive health care for all Pennsylvanians through a single risk-pool mechanism - a publicly-funded, privately-delivered healthcare system.

Health care for all would be paid for by a fair-share 3% personal tax that replaces the current average costs of 8% for premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. Businesses would pay a fair-share tax of 10% on payroll, as compared to a current average of 22% on businesses for premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. Moreover, additional cost savings accrue with 90% streamlined administrative overhead, bulk-purchasing of prescription drugs, reduced "defensive" medicine procedures, and anticipated cuts in property taxes, auto insurance premiums, workers compensation, and more.

Aside from meeting family, business, and all citizens' health care needs, including mental, dental, preventive and primary care, SB 400 and HB 1660 would provide two years of severance pay and job retraining for individuals who become unemployed because of changes to the system. The careful transition of some 65,000 displaced insurance workers will complement the predicted growth of 140,000 new health delivery jobs.

As future physicians, we recognize the need for a sustainable plan that puts the health of all Pennsylvanians first, while expanding jobs, business opportunities, and the ability for providers and patients to address medical needs on the basis of clinical evidence and evaluation. With a public option absent from the most recent federal healthcare bill, it is upon the states to take the role of providing high-quality, affordable coverage for all their residents.

We will be asking our senators and representatives, as a matter of economic and moral urgency, to pass Senate Resolution 267 in order to authorize an economic impact study on SB 400 and HB 1660. SR 267 has broad bipartisan support from 34 of our 50 state senators and is a critical first step to establishing the economic logic of this bill - a cure for that which ails our broken healthcare system and those who suffer economically, physically, and mentally.

Creating a just and humane healthcare system...

"Declaration of Health Independence and Security"

Inasmuch as the national healthcare reform effort did not produce a result that will provide the basic human right to healthcare to all in the United States, the work of reaching that goal remains ahead. Those of us who support a single-payer system as the only way to assure true universality for healthcare rights have not stopped our work following the passage of national health insurance reform. And many of us working on single-payer are doing so in our individual states rather than waiting for a national resolution to the escalating health crisis in the United States.

In Wayne, Pennsylvania, on April 10, 2010, in conjunction with a regional conference of the Progressive Democrats of America, citizen representatives of 14 states gathered and decided to begin a more coordinated collaboration aimed at passage of state-based, single-payer health reform legislation. An additional four states have expressed interest in moving forward with the shared collaboration between states.

At the Wayne meeting, those assembled drafted a "Declaration of Health Independence and Security," and we will be working in the coming weeks and months to gather as many signatures as possible from individuals, groups and coalitions for this declaration in order to clearly communicate our shared intent to secure healthcare for all as a basic human right currently being denied.

Please click here to add your name to the "Declaration of Health Independence and Security." We will gather together supporters on July 4, 2010, to formally present our declaration within our own states.

Additionally, the participants at the Wayne meeting decided to move forward in the formation of a broader group to collaborate on their state-based single-payer legislative campaigns. To that end, four working groups have been formed to support the collaboration's work going forward. Those four groups are: organization (for the collaboration), media and education (regarding state-based single-payer), legislative (effort on state single-payer bills), and resources (to make sure the collaboration provides the synergy that best serves all the states in the collaboration). To join a working group, contact me at Donnas@calnurses.org.

Our shared effort on state-based reform in no way signals an end to our resolve to pass national improved Medicare for all, and our work with partner organizations continues on all fronts.

So join us in this effort. Let's grab and build on this historic momentum coming from the meeting in Wayne. Let's get the Declaration widely distributed and signed by as many people and groups as possible. The work to create a just and humane healthcare system in this nation is ahead of us--onward to that place.

In solidarity,

Donna Smith
PDA Healthcare NOT Warfare Co-chair

Indiana, Westmoreland, and Allegheny County Citizen Leaders Re-Request Senator Don White Bring Super-Majority-Endorsed Healthcare Economic Study Bill Up for Vote, Meeting set for mid-afternoon at Senator Don White's Indiana, Pennsylvania office.

PRESS RELEASE FROM HEALTHCARE4ALLPA

SR 267 EIS endorsed by 34 of 50 State Senators; Bill to be studied, SB 400, "Family and Business Health Security Act," embraced by business, labor, religious, and medical professionals across PA; SB 400 would guarantee affordable, quality, healthcare for all.

In a meeting at Senator Don White's Indiana, PA, district office, and with prepared comments in hand, Westmoreland-based Healthcare for All PA leader and social worker Bob Mason said that, "Senate Resolution 267 will prove or disprove, once and for all, whether the "Family and Business Health Security Act will do a better job than the National Health Bill or any other competing legislation."

Longtime Pittsburgh-based pediatrician and business owner, Dr. Scott Tyson, offered, "Having performed our own due diligence with preliminary studies directed by a Penn State statistician and a Franklin and Marshall economist, we have every reason to believe that SB 400 — unlike any other legislation, national or state-based — will save hospitals, reduce costs, retain healthcare professionals, improve healthcare outcomes, create 100,000-plus new jobs, end medical bankruptcy, and attract new businesses."

State Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio noted, "The National Health Insurance reform is rehash of the Massachusetts Bill enacted in 2006. By every standard measure — cost, coverage, delivery, health outcomes, jobs impact — the Massachusetts experiment has been an unmitigated disaster. Unless we act quickly in Pennsylvania, our nation will be saddled with a macro version of the Massachusetts meltdown."

Catholic Priest Father Bernie Survil of Westmoreland, stated, "Healthcare reform is not a political issue; it is a policy issue. Let's start treating it as one. It's time to adopt a proven, state-based solution that shows the way to affordable, quality, guaranteed, moral healthcare for all."

Finally, Southwest Pennsylvania organizer Dr. Mary Pat Donegan remarked, "The buck starts and stops with Senator Don White. He chairs the Banking and Insurance Committee where our legislation sits. According to all the other GOP leaders in the State Senate (Scarnati, Corman, Pileggi), this is Senator White's call. Moreover, Senator White — and the testifiers against SB 400 — said they welcomed more discussion, debate, and study during the December 16, 2009 Banking and Insurance Committee hearing. Let's get on with it."

Editor, Gettysburg Times:

I would like to thank John Messeder and Dick Watson for their comments regarding the Pennsylvania bills presently available in the House (HB 1660) and the Senate (SB 400) entitled "The Family and Business Healthcare Security Act." These bills would provide healthcare for all Pennsylvanians and save taxpayers of Pennsylvania $2.2-plus billion a year. This bill would provide the framework for "Improved Medicare for All." As John Messeder stated, "Why is universal healthcare bad and Medicare good?" "What is the justification for crying that providing medical insurance for all is a sure path to socialism, and in virtually the same breath, promising those who already have government-provided medical aid that the program will not be touched?"

With this bill enacted, Adams County governments including school districts would save over $16 million a year in healthcare premiums. Gettysburg area school district alone would save $2.1 million a year, again in healthcare premiums. Can you imagine how this would help in the present budget difficulties of our local, township, county, schoolboard, and state governments? At all levels of government across the state of Pennsylvania, this bill would save over $2.2 billion a year in healthcare premium expenditures. Car insurance premiums and property insurance premiums would go down as well, since these policies would no longer have to cover the expenses of injuries suffered. The positive ripple effect of this legislation is staggering.

Ask 14 congress members to withhold support for a healthcare bill unless language is restored allowing states to create healthcare solutions.

Several states' legislatures are close to enacting single-payer healthcare bills. This is a complete healthcare solution that eliminates the for-profit insurance industry, lowers the cost of pharmaceuticals, reduces bureaucracy, and provides universal coverage. As President Obama explains: "Now, the truth is that, unless you have a – what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody is automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual."

We're not creating such a system in Washington. We're creating something far more limited and compromised, expensive and wasteful. The healthcare bill now in play in Congress may constitute a tremendous step forward, or a tiny one, or a public bailout of the sickness industry that will do more harm than good. The bill includes some good measures but empowers profiteers who are crafting most of the details and whose stocks rise every time passage appears possible.

One good measure that is no longer included was the so-called public option, which -- in its final form -- was to be controlled by privately determined rates and reach fewer than 5 percent of Americans, according to the President, or less than that, according to the Congressional Budget Office. With that fight now lost, should the more progressive members of Congress simply vote for a bill that may do more harm than good, and allow the pattern of ignoring progressive demands to be more firmly established?

What if there were something far less controversial than the public option that could bring healthcare to far more people? And what if this something had already passed in committee and been unceremoniously stripped out of the bill without a fight? Would it be worth a winnable fight right now to put this measure back in?

"It's about jobs, jobs, jobs, stupid."

This was the answer I recently received from a state Senator when I tried to talk to him about single-payer health care legislation currently before the the General Assembly, HB 1660 and SB 400. The good senator was not being unkind or flippant; he was just trying to emphasize where the voters' minds are as the 2010 elections approach.

While I understand his point of view, this narrow understanding of the benefits of substantive health care reform - both in financial savings and in creating jobs - is a disservice to the constituents he serves. Publicly-funded, privately-delivered health care for all delivers economically, morally and democratically in a way we Keystones Staters haven't imagined in a very, very long time. Pennsylvania's next governor should move this legislation forward.

My discussion with our unnamed lawmaker took place during the recent Democratic State Committee meeting in Lancaster, where Casey Democrats, Rendell Democrats and progressive Democrats united in unanimously passing a resolution in support of this legislation. At a forum hosted by the Democratic Women's Caucus, all five gubernatorial candidates paid al least positive lip service to single-payer. Three of the five publicly vowed to sign this legislation if it comes to their desk. One, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, promised to help get a single-payer bill to his desk.

The days of trying to fit issues into neat little packages tied up with bows are over in politics. Our citizens have wised up and know the importance of education; the difference between a living wage and minimum wage; the necessity of health care that is high quality, comprehensive, accessible and affordable for all. These issues and so many more are interchangeable and interconnected to the point that speaking about one is speaking about the other.

If you are a single-payer advocate (full disclosure: I am), Lancaster Pennsylvania had a surreal tinge to it this past weekend. Fellow advocates were converging upon the Host Hotel and Conference center from as far away as Erie along with Democratic State Committee people, undaunted by a near-record snow fall and seemingly unconcerned about how they would get home again, or when.

The setting was the Winter Meeting of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee, hardly a glamorous affair, but this weekend held out the possibility for an historic breakthrough in the long and often frustrating (critics and naysayers might even say futile) battle to bring universal healthcare to Pennsylvania, and after that to the entire United States of America. Tommy Douglas had pulled it off for our neighbors to the North more than a half a century earlier en route to being voted the "greatest Canadian" of all time for bringing single-payer healthcare to Canada, beginning with his home Province of Saskatchewan. The United States remains the only advanced industrialized nation in the world without universal healthcare for its citizens. Why not make it unanimous, and why not start in Pennsylvania where our very democracy was born? Those were the kinds of thoughts circulating through the heads of many of the people gathered in Lancaster last weekend.

Pass legislation without corporate intervention

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Pennsylvania's secret: Senate Bill 400 and House Bill 1660 would give comprehensive care to all Pennsylvanians for less than the cost of most Americans' for-profit insurance.

Pennsylvania health care bills save. They are House and Senate versions based on Medicare-for-All similar to that demanded and received by most of the industrialized world. Single-payer saves billions of dollars by eliminating for-profit insurance, whose costly bureaucracies disqualify people from care.

Why isn't Congress passing a single-payer system? Our Congress won't or can't control insurance companies because legislators take large donations from lobbies that demand support; they are afraid insurance companies and the media will sow disinformation (remember "Harry and Louise" ads about the Clintons' plan or current death panel hype); and perhaps insurance company employees would be put out of work.

Meanwhile costs drive millions into bankruptcy and 45,000 die yearly without life-saving health care. So Congress is building a bulky national plan that gives the insurance companies thousands of customers subsidized by billions of taxpayer dollars.

Some say, "I've got my insurance, so why pay for others?" If religious teachings that we are our brothers' keepers don't move us, consider that untreated people can and do infect the rest of us. We're already paying for the destitute who receive treatment, usually belatedly and more expensively, in emergency rooms.

And insurance is becoming more costly, as shown in statistical trends: People find insurance costs rising until they can no longer pay their bill or their insurance increasingly denies them meaningful coverage. This nation must find a reasonable way to cover the ever-increasing number of uninsured.

The Pennsylvania bills are estimated to save the commonwealth more than $335 million yearly in employee health care expenses (more than $18 million in Centre County).

Read the full Op-ed here

The answer to our chronically sick health care system is simple: state-based Medicare for all. Right here in Pennsylvania. Right now.

Also known as the one-payer system, the Single Payer Solution, and civilized health care for all, Pennsylvania's House Bill 1660/Senate Bill 400 is poised to lead our nation out of the health care funding crisis and the attending crises of hospital closures, physician and nurse shortages, medical bankruptcy, the uninsured, the under-insured and, of course, unnecessary death, pain and suffering among our compatriots.

Pennsylvania Single Payer serves as a model to be adopted at the national level. That's right. Publicly funded, privately delivered, comprehensive, quality health care for all. Everybody in, nobody out. Everybody pays their fair share (3 percent of income) compared with the 8 percent laid about by the average Pennsylvanian last year.

Businesses and municipal, county and state governments pay 10 percent of payroll, not the 20 percent to 40 percent that bleeds us dry. Think about reduced property taxes, auto insurance premiums and workers compensation costs.

Think single payer.

On October 8, 2009, the City Council of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania endorsed The Family and Business Health Care Security Act (HB1660 / SB400). Carl Romanelli, the Luzerne county regional coordinator for HealthCare4ALLPA, had asked the Council to support the bills at their September 22 meeting, explaining that in addition to providing health coverage for all Pennsyivania citizens, HB1660 and SB400 would provide significant savings at the municipal, county and state levels. "In Luzerne County alone, the savings would be in excess of $45 million," he explained. "Every municipality across the county would see a savings of between 50 and 60 percent [over current health care expendatures]."

In their resolution, the Council states, "Now, therefore, be it resolved, that Wilkes-Barre City Council supports enactment of The Family and Business Security Act as a Pennsylvania-based solution to the healthcare crisis, and that good faith assistance to this solution be provided by the Pennsylvania General Assembly."

 * 

*HealthCare4ALLPA is not affiliated in any way with, nor does it necessarily endorse the views or actions of, KeepAmericaNow.

The demonstrable savings to Pennsylvania taxpayers under the Family and Business Healthcare Security Act (SB 400/ HB 1660) continue to mount. With the release of data from Cambria, Lancaster and Montgomery counties $206,804,503 has been added to the savings under proposed single payer legislation. This brings the total with the release of 32 counties to $1,407,259,099 that Pennsylvania county governments, cities, municipalities, and school boards will save on what they are currently paying for employee health care costs.

Pennsylvania governmental agencies are literally spending billions of dollars to provide health benefits to their employees. These benefits are provided by private, for-profit health insurance companies which annually increase their premiums to the point where, according to a 2007 study by the Pennsylvania Economy League, it is creating "fiscal distress to our municipalities" and has become a "crushing burden" to them. Under SB 400/HB 1660 the taxpayers of Pennsylvania will be relieved of this ever-increasing "crushing burden." Under this single-payer healthcare system a Medicare-type agency operated by the State of Pennsylvania will provide public funding for our privately delivered healthcare, and every employer will pay a 10% payroll tax which will help fund our new healthcare for all system. This 10% wellness tax represents a dramatic cost savings as it replaces what businesses are currently paying private insurance companies for benefits that are often inferior than the comprehensive benefits provided by this legislation which will also eliminate co-pays, deductibles, and the cost of prescription drugs.

It is simply not true that health care for all will cost too much money. The reverse is true. Passage of this legislation will reverse the collision course with financial disaster many of our counties and municipalities are facing because of the ever-rising cost of privately delivered for-profit health insurance. There is no better form of economic stimulus than publicly financing of private health care.

Currently, there are over 1.5 million people in Pennsylvania who have no health insurance, another 2.0 million are underinsured and, due to the economic crisis, those numbers are increasing.

The Family and Business Health Care Security Act, SB400 and HB1660, currently before the General Assembly, provides affordable, comprehensive health care for every Pennsylvanian including extensive services.

SB400 and HB1660 would replace profit-driven insurers, with a publicly funded, privately run system, paid for by using existing state and federal funds, a 3% earnings tax and a 10% payroll tax.

The bills, when passed, would save the County's municipalities, the County government, and the school boards of Lancaster County more than 62 million dollars savings annually.

Washington DC isn't the only place where Single Payer is on the table. States have a role to play too, indeed, perhaps a commanding one. We who demand Single Payer need to work together at all levels!

On October 20, the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg will resound with the cheers and chants of thousands of Pennsylvanians and enthusiasts from border states eager to get the benefit of having a neighbor with Single Payer Health Care for all its citizens. Movements like this one tend to spread.

It began with Saskatchewan in Canada. It was the first province to bring comprehensive universal health care to all its citizens as a right instead of a privilege. Neighboring provinces flipped from resistance to eagerly adopting their own versions of Single Payer"and now Canada has it as a national policy. The advantages of Single Payer for doctors and patients alike had been demonstrated.

So it begins in America with the October 20 rally in Harrisburg. State by state, we will have the health care that we need so badly. Joining the throngs in the Rotunda will be Donna Smith of SiCKO, Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America, Katie Robbins, Kevin Zeese, and Russell Mokhiber of the Baucus 8, Chuck Pennacchio of Healthcare4allPA.org (the sponsoring organization) and dozens of Single Payer Celebrities, and thousands of other Single Payer advocates. They will represent dozens of supporting organizations from Pennsylvania, other states, and the nation.

Virtually identical medical care bills have been proposed in the state legislature. The bills would make the state the sole payer of medical expenses, using money individuals and employers would give to the state rather than commercial insurance companies.

"There are too many unanswered questions on that for me," Rep. Dan Moul, R-91, said Friday, "but if they want to do a study on it, I would support it (the study)."

Rep. Will Tallman, R-193, said he, too, would support a study, but said, "House Republicans are not fond of turning health care over to a government agency."

The problems, say supporters of House Bill 1660 and its counterpart in the other legislative chamber, Senate bill 400, is that too many people do not have health insurance, and the insurance is too expensive for those who have it.

An organizational rally was held Sunday at Memorial Park by the Indiana County Health Care for All group.

At right, Father Bernie Survil, of Greensburg, addressed the crowd of about 55 people.

Colleen Donovan, co-organizer, spoke to the group as they met to gauge public interest in the topic and to help try to separate myth from reality in the health care discussion. For more information, go towww.healthcare4allpa.org

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Meaningful health care reform died when President Obama took a single-payer option "off the table" argues Dr. William Davidson Jr. Many would say that hope for meaningful health care reform ended this week with the apparent demise of President Obama's "public" option.

In reality, meaningful reform died many months ago when Obama took single payer reform "off the table" and along with it the American people lost their chance to learn about the only system that could maintain high quality care at an affordable price for everyone.

Instead, President Obama gave the American people mandated insurance and a "public" option.

Mandated insurance was a "bone" that he threw to the insurance industry in hopes it would allow his "public" option to survive. In this Mr. Obama greatly underestimated the influence that the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists have over Congress and not surprisingly the public option, if it survives, will be in a form so emasculated that its impact on reform will be minimal at best.

President Obama needed to take his case for reform directly to the American people as most members of Congress, dependent as they are on powerful lobbyists for their political survival, are incapable of promoting real change.

By promoting halfway measures and policies of appeasement President Obama was incapable of capturing the hearts and minds of the American people who could have provided the backbone allowing members of Congress to stand up to the powerful interests vested in the status quo.

Bob Mason began advocating for changes in the nation's health care system about seven years ago. As a social worker, he felt it was his duty to fight for social justice issues such as health care reform.

But in the last few years, Mason, 60, and his wife, Theresa, 57, also a social worker, found themselves in the same boat as their clients who can't afford insurance co-pays or have limited office visits.

They nearly went bankrupt when Theresa Mason was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Bob Mason dropped his health coverage a year ago after his premiums increased 40 percent. His wife's policy may be next.

"Over the last seven years, I've been going from advocating for others to also advocating for myself," said Mason of Trafford, who is a founding member of Pennsylvania United for Single-payer Healthcare and Healthcare 4 All Pa.

The organizations held a small rally and news conference Wednesday morning in front of the Westmoreland County Courthouse, urging passage of The Family and Business Healthcare Security Act, which would create a single-payer health insurance fund in Pennsylvania.

Mason said Westmoreland County's municipalities and school districts would save nearly $43 million a year on health care costs for their employees under a single-payer system.

At the August 11 meeting of the Lancaster City Council, Jerry Policoff, Communications Director of Healthcare4ALLPA, requested an endorsement from the Council for PA House Bill 1660 and PA Senate Bill 400. Both of these bills are aimed at providing a single payer health insurance system for all Pennsylvania citizens. The City Councils of both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have already passed official endorsements for this legislation, Policoff noted.

PHILADELPHIA - In Pennsylvania and around the nation, recent town hall meetings held by elected officials to discuss health care reform have turned into free-for-alls, with politicians and proponents being shouted down by those who say government has no role in the matter. Why is it happening and who's responsible?

Chuck Pennacchio with Health Care for All Pennsylvania says the town hall gatherings are being crashed by opponents of government-driven health care reform.

"Those are people who desperately want to beat back any kind of reform where the government would play an increased role in either funding or providing health care."

Click here to read the entire story on Public News Service.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

The City Council is considering a resolution supporting these bills which, if passed, will make Pennsylvania the first state to enact single-payer healthcare - universal, comprehensive healthcare for all.

The Philadelphia City Council passed a similar resolution unanimously in February, and the Pittsburgh City Council passed it last week.

Municipalities, struggling to balance their budgets without raising taxes and/or cutting services, are beginning to realize that single-payer healthcare delivers the double benefit of providing healthcare to everyone while substantially reducing the costs they now sustain in covering their own employees with private insurance company policies.

The presentation will be made on August 11, 2009, starting at 7:30 PM at the Lancaster City Council Public Meeting held in Southern Market Center - 100 S. Queen St., Lancaster, PA, 17602.

The first poll is out asking about Single Payer support. Time Magazine commissioned a poll from SRBI, which found that 55% of Americans want a major overhaul. 60% think the insurance companies are doing a fair or poor job of providing services. 55% think the American health care system is fair or poor. 90% want tax breaks for small businesses to make health insurance more affordable. 80% want pre-existng conditions covered. 63% want coverage for all Americans, even if the government needs to subsidize it. 56% want a public option.

The Single Payer question read:

Would you favor or oppose a program that creates a national single-payer plan similar to Medicare for all, in which the government would provide healthcare insurance to all Americans?

49% of the respondents said "yes".

Believe it or not, that's a huge number. First, because most people don't actually know what "Single Payer" means. Second, because the opposition is out in force. And third, because based on other answers in the poll, it's likely that the sample was skewed.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

The Single Payer bill furthest along in the legislative process belongs to the state of Pennsylvania, where the House bill was resubmitted last week, with 36 co-sponsors. You can read the whole bill here. (Don't worry, it's only 27 pages)

Basically:

The plan shall provide health care coverage for all citizens of this Commonwealth and for certain eligible visitors. The agency shall work simultaneously to control health care costs, achieve measurable improvement in health care outcomes, promote a culture of health awareness and develop an integrated health care database to support health care planning and quality assurance.

I'll answer in detail after the jump, but this is NOT socialized medicine.

(Pittsburgh, PA) Pittsburgh City Council voted unanimously today to pass a "Will of Council" which calls on the State Assembly to pass SB 400 and HB 1660, 'The Family and Business Healthcare Security Act' and for Governor Rendell to sign it into law. When passed, this Act will provide comprehensive, quality healthcare to city employees and all residents of Pennsylvania. The City of Pittsburgh would realize an estimated $20,966,457, nearly $21 million in savings if it is passed this year. Over a five-year period, it is estimated the City of Pittsburgh would save over $162 million. These savings would end the city's fiscal crisis and eliminate the need to send Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to Harrisburg to seek support for unpopular measures, such as raising the Pittsburgh wage tax for those who work in Pittsburgh but live elsewhere. For more information on legislation go to www.healthcare4allpa.org

Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA healthcare executive, is interviewed by Marty Moss-Coane on Radio Times. He describes his time with CIGNA, and what led to his decision to leave his position. In the second half of the show, he responds to a question posed by Chuck Pennacchio, Executive director of HealthCare4ALLPA, and comes out in support of state-based single payer initiatives, including HB1660 and SB400 in Pennsylvania.

Click here to listen to the July 21 edition of WHYY-FM Radio: Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane.

Listen to Chuck's question to Mr. Potter, and Mr. Potter's response, contained in the .mp3 file below.

The current health-care reform debate is not being conducted with the openness and honesty that President Barack Obama advocated as a candidate. There are three major problems.

First, our attention is being diverted by speaking of "health-care reform." While many things could be improved in our system, what most people worry about is not the care but paying for it.

They have good reason to worry. Any change of jobs or employer ownership imperils health coverage; if they happen to get sick during an uninsured period, the illness will likely bankrupt them. Half of bankruptcies comes from medical expenses and, even worse, most of those were insured!

The second problem is the use of code words like "a uniquely American solution." This devalues any reference to the experience of other countries. Of the 77 largest economies in the world, 76 have some kind of universal health coverage, and the average cost of health care here is at least twice as expensive as in any of those 76 countries.

The third problem is that the single-payer plan, favored by up to 76 percent of Americans surveyed, is not being considered.

Single payer is an expanded version of Medicare for all. Here are the facts about this option: much less cost, covers everyone, same doctors, same hospitals, full drug coverage, wellness-friendly, no coverage gaps, no co-pays, no co-insurance, no exclusions, no deductibles, no lifetime caps, no sneaky traps, no job enslavement for health insurance. It's the only financially viable plan. Plans now on the table nibble at the $1 trillion level.

Visit http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single_payer_resources.php

It is not just at the national level that these benefits could be achieved. SB400 and HB1660 would establish a single-payer system in Pennsylvania to cover everyone at less cost to individuals and businesses. Visit www.healthcare4allpa.org for more.

When policies were proposed to President Franklin Roosevelt during the Depression, he would say, "That sounds good. Make me do it."

So also now. Gov. Ed Rendell has said he would welcome either of the Pennsylvania bills if they came before him; Obama has also said single-payer works well where it is in place.

Supporters of a single-payer plan are part of a strong majority in the country. We must insist that our national and state legislators respond to the will of this majority. If enough speak up, the majority will rule.

John Rose
Lickdale

State health care solution is PA House Bill 1660

Adult Basic is a health insurance program run by the Commonwealth for adults who do not receive coverage through their employer, make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but who are unable to afford to purchase insurance on their own.

Currently there are about 46,000 adults on this program.

At the end of last year the waiting list had grown to 145,000.

At the end of May it had swelled to 255,289.

Pennsylvania Representative Todd Eachus, Majority Floor Leader, represents Luzerne County. He worked hard to get House Bill 1 passed in the Pennsylvania General Assembly which would have added another 130,000 to the roles of Adult Basic. The bill is not expected to be passed in the Senate due to the cost.

Too bad that Representative Eachus does not support House Bill 1660. Not only will this legislation give comprehensive health care to every Pennsylvanian, it will save taxpayers in our commonwealth billions.

Just to give an example, Luzerne County municipalities and school districts will save a combined total of $45,104,198 on employee costs while every citizen of Luzerne County would have comprehensive health care.

Under HB 1660 there would be no co-pays and no deductibles.

When is the majority leader in the House going to look around and back true health care reform?

Who is he supporting if not the working people of Luzerne County?

We don't need representatives who want to slash programs and raise taxes; we need leaders who can work for our best interests.

Cindy Purvis

Erie

Chuck Pennacchio is the featured guest on the July 2, 2009 broadcast of The Union Edge, a daily talk show hosted by
Charles Showalter that deals with issues affecting working families.

Like a flower blooming in time lapse photography, Allen Minch's sequenced photographs of the June 11 single-payer (PA Family and Business Health Care Security Act - HB1660/SB400) rally at the Capitol rotunda showed the blossom of a movement. After the initial trickle of supporters, carloads and busloads arrived filling the ground floor surrounding the steps, spilling up the steps and into the balcony. What the pictures don't reveal is the loud clamor of citizens eager to raise their voices in support of an idea whose time has come.

The folk strains of Anne Feeney and the hard-hitting, gritty, in-your-face rock of Mike Stout opened the event and set the tone for the tumultuous outpouring of support.

As we reported last month, shouts of "Single-Payer Now!" rose to the rooftop and echoed through the halls of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The energy and enthusiasm of the more than 400 who traveled to the Capitol from all corners of the state were absolutely contagious.

Musician Mike Stout wears many hats. The entertainer is also a businessman and union member. He offers the following observations on the rally. "The crowd was fired up, militant, and ready for more action down the road... Our movement at that moment was a fist instead of a bunch of limp fingers. Organizers and speaker after speaker announced their intention to come back in the fall with 3, 5, or 10 times as many people. This is what will grab the attention of our elected representatives and unglue their ears and pockets from the insurance and big Pharma lobbyists."

An assortment of speakers representing a variety of constituencies addressed the gathering. They all remarked on how impressed they were with the enormous and enthusiastic crowd and agreed that the health insurance industry is largely responsible for our current crisis.

True Healthcare Reform Is Single Payer

True healthcare reform will not happen on the National level here in the US because the politicians in Washington are bought and sold by the Corporate special interests, and one of the biggest of these are the Health Insurance Companies.

We have two bills here in Pennsylvania that I have helped get front and center to Republicans and Democrats alike. The Bills are House Bill 1660 and Senate Bill 400. We call it Civilized Healthcare for all. Everybody in. Nobody out.

The woman in the introductory picture is holding a check made out to the state of Pennsylvania for $353,000,000. This how much money the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will save by enacting this legislation.

Once we do it, you will want to do it, too.

Faced with the prospects of rising health care costs, West Reading Borough Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to support a single-payer system.

The move is symbolic, but backers hope it will get the attention of lawmakers in Harrisburg.

Health care costs are eating up a significant portion of municipal budgets, said Councilman Michael W. Morrill, a proponent of health care reform.

Businesses also are faced with skyrocketing costs to provide insurance for their workers, he said.

Bills before the state House and Senate would institute a single-payer system funded through a 3 percent personal-income tax and a 10 percent payroll tax for municipalities and businesses, Morrill said.

That would provide significant savings and better coverage than private insurance, he said.

"We need to take this issue into our own hands and ask ourselves how can Pennsylvania provide better coverage for everyone with lower costs," he said.

Michael Doyle voted against the measure without comment. James Gallen and Philip Wert were absent.

West Reading pays more than $400,000 a year for health insurance, about 22 percent of its budget, Morrill said. A single-payer system would cost the borough about $193,000 a year, he said.

Morrill invited Ron Stouffer and Rosie Skomitz, volunteers with Health Care 4 All PA, to the meeting to explain the advantages of a single-payer system.

Stouffer said money from payroll and personal-income taxes would be put into a state fund to pay doctors and health care providers. In most cases, Pennsylvanians' access to health care would greatly improve, he said.

WITF FM (89.5 FM amd 93.3 FM, serving the Susquehanna Valley in South Central Pennsylvania) featured Chuck Pennacchio, Ph.D on Tuesdat June 16 on its program Smart Talk. Listen to the full broadcast here