| Feb. 4, 2010 Dear PNHP colleagues and friends, This Friday evening (tomorrow, Feb. 5), Bill Moyers Journal on PBS at 9 or 10 p.m. Eastern time (check local listings) will include a 10-minute segment featuring Dr. Margaret Flowers, congressional fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program and a leading advocate for single-payer health reform. Tune in if you can. Dr. Flowers' appearance on the show follows her actions this week in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in which she tried to deliver a letter to President Obama that opens with the following words:
"Dear President Obama,
"I was overjoyed to hear you say in your State of the Union address last night: 'But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.'
"My colleagues, fellow health advocates and I have been trying to meet with you for over a year now because we have an approach which will meet all of your goals and more." The full text of Dr. Flowers' letter outlining the merits of single-payer Medicare for All appears here. In the course of attempting to deliver it, she and Dr. Carol Paris, also of Maryland, were briefly arrested outside the hotel where the president was speaking to House Republicans. (Incidentally, a feature article in the Feb. 3 edition of the Baltimore City Paper profiles Dr. Flowers, Dr. Paris, Dr. Eric Naumburg and Charles Loubert, a retired counseling psychologist, all of whom engaged in civil disobedience over the past year to promote single payer.)
Almost simultaneously, Dr. Quentin Young, PNHP's national coordinator, had a letter published in The New York Times: ***
To the Editor, President Obama's State of the Union address had a high point when he pledged that anyone with a "better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know."
Thank you, Mr. President. The answer is the reform supported by 65 percent of the public and even 59 percent of physicians. It's remarkably simple, and the nation has already had 44 years of successful experience with it in financing health care for our elderly and the totally disabled.
It is, of course, Medicare-for-all, single-payer, not-for-profit national health insurance. Its superiority lies in excluding profit-seeking insurance companies and Big Pharma from controlling and undermining our health system. This is your answer, Mr. President.
Quentin Young
Chicago, Jan. 28, 2010
The writer, a doctor, is national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program. ***
PNHP members are encouraged to (1) submit similar letters to their local papers and (2) call their members of Congress and President Obama to urge them to take a new look at single payer. The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121; the White House opinion line is (202) 456-1111 and the fax there is (202) 456-2461. This is a window of opportunity that we can take advantage of.
Meanwhile, Dr. Oliver Fein, PNHP's president, just wrapped up a whirlwind visit to Portland, Ore., where he had several radio interviews; met with religious and labor leaders; lectured at Providence Portland Medical Center, Oregon Science and Health University and Portland State University; met with congressional staffers; participated in a citywide forum with health policy experts; met with the editorial board of The Oregonian newspaper; and was the featured guest a highly successful benefit -- a "Single Payer Soiree" -- for the local PNHP chapter. If you'd like to host Dr. Fein in your area, please let us know.
Finally, you can help the cause of single payer by voting for PNHP's "Improved Medicare for All" idea in Change.org's "2010 Ideas for Change in America" competition. Voting on the Internet for this idea takes only a few seconds. The top 10 ideas will be presented to key officials in the Obama administration and then promoted to Change.org's community of more than 1 million people. A similar proposal last year from our ally Healthcare-NOW made it into the winner's circle. Please vote today.
Cordially,  |  | Ida Hellander, M.D.
Executive Director | Mark Almberg
Communications Director |
There is Still Time For Real Reform, Listen to the American People Open Letter to President Obama on Health Care ReformPresident Barack Obama|
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500Dear President Obama,I was overjoyed to hear you say in your State of the Union address last night:"But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know."My colleagues, fellow health advocates and I have been trying to meet with you for over a year now because we have an approach which will meet all of your goals and more.I am a pediatrician who, like many of my primary care colleagues, left practice because it is nearly impossible to deliver high quality health care in this environment. I have been volunteering for Physicians for a National Health Program ever since. For over a year now, I have been working with the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care/ National Single Payer Alliance. This alliance represents over 20 million people nationwide from doctors to nurses to labor, faith and community groups who advocate on behalf of the majority of Americans, including doctors, who favor a national Medicare-for-All health system.I felt very optimistic when Congress took up health care reform last January because I remember when you spoke to the Illinois AFL-CIO in June, 2003 and said:"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program." (applause) "I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."And that is why I was so surprised when the voices of those who support a national single-payer plan/Medicare for All were excluded in place of the voices of the very health insurance and pharmaceutical industries which profit off the current health care situation.There was an opportunity this past year to create universal and financially sustainable health care reform rather than expensive health insurance reform. As you well know, the United States spends the most per capita on health care in the world yet leaves millions of people out and receives poor return on those health care dollars in terms of health outcomes and efficiency. This poor value for our health care dollar is due to the waste of having so many insurance companies. At least a third of our health care dollars go towards activities that have nothing to do with health care such as marketing, administration and high executive salaries and bonuses. This represents over $400 billion per year which could be used to pay for health care for all of those Americans who are suffering and dying from preventable causes.The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. You said that you wanted to "keep what works" and that would be Medicare. Medicare is an American legacy of which we can feel proud. It has guaranteed health security to all who have it. Medicare has lifted senior citizens out of poverty. Health disparities, which are rising in this nation, begin to disappear as soon as patients reach 65 years of age. And patients and doctors prefer Medicare to private insurance. Why, our Medicare has even been used as a model by other nations which have developed and implemented universal health systems.Mr. President, we wanted to meet with you because we have the solution to health care reform. The United States has enough money already and we have the resources, including esteemed experts in public health, health policy and health financing. Our very own Dr. William Hsiao at Harvard has designed health systems in five other countries.I am asking you to meet with me because the solution is simple. Remove all of the industries who profit off of the American health care catastrophe from the table. Replace them with those who are knowledgeable in designing health systems and who are without ties to the for-profit medical industries. And then allow them to design an improved Medicare-for-All national health system. We can implement it within a year of designing such a system.What are the benefits of doing this?* It will save tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of American lives each year, not to mention the prevention of unnecessary suffering.* It will relieve families of medical debt, which is the number one cause of bankruptcy and foreclosure despite the fact that most of those who experienced bankruptcy had health insurance.* It will relieve businesses of the growing burden of skyrocketing health insurance premiums so that they can invest in innovation, hiring, increased wages and other benefits and so they can compete in the global market.* It will control health care costs in a rational way through global budgeting and negotiation for fair prices for pharmaceuticals and services.* It will allow patients the freedom to choose wherever they want to go for health care and will allow patients and their caregivers to determine which care is best without denials by insurance administrators.* It will restore the physician-patient relationship and bring satisfaction back to the practice of medicine so that more doctors will stay in or return to practice.* It will allow our people in our nation to be healthy and productive and able to support themselves and their families.* It will create a legacy for your administration that may someday elevate you to the same hero status as Tommy Douglas has in Canada.Mr. President, there are more benefits, but I believe you get the point. I look forward to meeting with you and am so pleased that you are open to our ideas. The Medicare-for-All campaign is growing rapidly and is ready to support you as we move forward on health care reform that will provide America with one of the best health systems in the world. And that is something of which all Americans can be proud.With great anticipation and deep respect,Margaret Flowers, M.D.
Maryland chapter, Physicians for a National Health Program |
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