Single Payer update from MD PNHP
Dear Friends,
Maryland PNHP would like to provide you with an update and information about upcoming events.
With passage of federal health legislation, our work has now shifted to a few areas:
1. Education about the continued need for health care reform through Grand Rounds and community events.
2. Increasing membership in Maryland PNHP including more student involvement.
3. Building relationships with members of Congress to educate them about the benefits of Single Payer.
4. Education about the National Commission for Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and possible recommendations to weaken our social insurance programs.
5. Development and implementation of a strategy to pass the Maryland Health Security Act.
6. Fundraising to support our work.
1. Our wonderful 2010 interns, Jarva Chow and Richard Bruno, reached out to hospitals around the state to offer Grand Rounds. So far we have presented at Cecil County and at St. Joe’s. If you have contact with a person who organizes Grand Rounds at your hospital, please let them know that we can present on the new federal legislation.
2. Our Maryland PNHP doctors are now involved in single payer groups that are meeting regularly in Baltimore City, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Montgomery County and St. Mary’s County.These groups have been active in tabling, phonebanking and meeting with state legislators. If you would like to join one of these groups or start a group of your own, please contact either Margaret Flowers at mdpnhp@gmail.com or Eric Naumburg at enaumburg@hotmail.com.
3. Congressmen Conyers and Kucinich and Senator Sanders published an open letter to the single payer community promising to reintroduce single payer legislation in 2011. Former Legislative Director, Ron Hikel, and I have been meeting with Health Legislative Assistants of members of Congress who co-sponsor HR 676 to ask for their continued support in 2011. If you are able to meet with our Maryland members of Congress, particularly after the election in November, to do the same, please let us know and we can provide you with materials for your visit.
4. You may be aware that the Deficit Commission is looking at changes to Medicare such as raising the age of eligibility, raising co-pays and deductibles or moving to a voucher system. Dr. Flowers testified before the Commission in June. Here is a copy of her testimony. There will be a Congressional Briefing on Thursday, September 23rd co-sponsored by Reps. Grijalva and Woolsey (co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus) to look at the Deficit Commission proposals as they relate to Medicare and why an improved Medicare for All would address both the financial and health care crises. The briefing starts at 2:30 pm in Room 1334 of the Longworth House Office Building. All are invited to attend.
5. The Maryland Health Security Act, our Maryland state single payer bill, will be reintroduced in the next state legislative session. A State Single Payer Strategy Session will be held on Saturday, September 25th from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm to prepare for the upcoming session. The event will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis. All are welcome. We encourage you to attend and get involved in one of our three work groups. More information is available at www.mdsinglepayer.org.
6. There are two fundraising campaigns going on at present. One is to raise the necessary funds in order to commission an Economic Impact Study for the Maryland Health Security Act. This information will provide a powerful tool in the upcoming legislative session so that we can show how state single payer would save on health care costs and address the budget shortfalls expected to hit our state Medicaid plans. We are over halfway to our goal and need to raise $14,000 more. Once we have the funding, the study will take about 6 weeks. If you are able to contribute or hold a fundraiser/phonebanking night for the Economic Study, please contact Eric Naumburg at enaumburg@hotmail.com.
The second campaign is to assist our efforts at the national level. PNHP is working to have broader outreach, recruitment, increased leadership trainings and increased opportunities to educate about single payer. If you are able to hold a house party to support this effort, please contact Margaret Flowers at mdpnhp@gmail.com.
I leave you with this quote from Dr. Philip Pollner:
“As doctors who have taken the Hippocratic oath, now engaged in a continued epidemic which jeopardizes the health of millions of our patients, it is bestowed on us to uphold a time-honored Medical Prescription (single payer) - to administer it to the public, especially to those affected who will suffer the consequences of mindless government policies. The solemn oath which obliges doctors to protect patients against everything that threatens their lives assumes a greater dimension when facing a health crisis such as this. Our appeal to the people will be listened to for we share a crucial link, and who long recognize the truthfulness of doctors and the Medical Prescription. No longer can we avoid the historic lesson, that change in public policy requires rousing millions of people to understand the momentous stakes of mistaken reform plans, and that the insurance industry is not going to pack-up and leave without a groundswell of more public outrage.” Sept. 19, 2009
Please join us in this exciting and necessary work! There are many opportunities to get involved. Thank you.