2011 Prezi Presentation on Single Payer

Sam Metz Presentation Money in Money Out Presentation 

23 pages that present the financial facts of our current health care system and how we can fix it.

Download this PowerPoint File

Vermont became the first state to pass a single payer law. 

Vermont's New Universal Health Care Law: a Model for Health Reform Based on Human Rights
By Anja Rudiger | June 2, 2010 | The Huffington Post

Links to Web Sites With a Wealth of Information 

HR 676 Text  All 18 pages of HR 676, United States National Health Insurance Act (or the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act)

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) The name says it all.

Mad as Hell Doctors  A group of Portland doctors taking their single payer message to the road to attract media attention to our cause. They depart Portland on Sept 8th.

Health Justice 1Payer.net  A Single Payer Action Site (founded by Ralph Nader)  Free. Easy E-Fax Service. Send faxes to the president and congresspeople.

Please Cut The Crap.com  The name speaks for itself.

American Health Care Reform.org A site with great information supporting Single Payer, including a page that lists Health Industry atrocities

Fix America’s Health Care.org A wealth of Single Payer and Public Option info and links, including links to the text of healthcare bills being debated.

Sojourners Guide to the Health-Care Reform Debate. An 8-page PDF document on faith and healthcare.

HR676.org  A great site for information about Single Payer.

Medicare For All  A great site for information about Single Payer.

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National Single Payer Medicare-for-All Is an American Plan of Healthcare That Guarantees Quality Care for All Americans

By Herman M. Frankel, M.D. and Derrick Duehren 8/30/09

What is so scary about this?

Single Payer (HR 676) Is on the Table

On 07/31/09, in response to public pressure, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised that the full House of Representatives will debate and vote on the national single-payer plan of payment for medical care. (See the YouTube video http://tinyurl.com/nt3v2t and also Rep. Weiner introducing the Single Payer Plan http://tinyurl.com/nvku94.)

A national single-payer system of payment for medical care is an expanded Medicare-for-all program. It is affordable because it replaces the current arrangement in which private insurance companies stand between patients and doctors; use part of each medical care dollar for advertising, dividends to investors, executive bonuses, gifts to politicians, lobbying, fees to lawyers to find ways to deny care, and other overhead expenses; and make it necessary for physicians, nursing homes, and hospitals to pay the costs of repeatedly begging or battling for permission to provide needed medical care.

Documentation of President Barack Obama’s Position

Barack Obama was applauded at the 2003 AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Conference for saying “I happen to be a proponent of a universal single-payer health care plan.” http://tinyurl.com/lsfrjc  

On March 5, 2009, in his opening comments at the White House Forum on health reform, President Barack Obama said this: “Our inability to reform health care in the past is just one example of how special interests have had their way, and the public interest has fallen by the wayside.” http://tinyurl.com/dhcnwt

At his 07/22/09 news conference, President Barack Obama said this: “I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that unless you have a what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual.” http://tinyurl.com/lpgdfh

At the top of his website during the 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama posted these words, words that stand today at the top of his current website: “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington . . . I’m asking you to believe in yours.” http://tinyurl.com/dlaoag and http://my.barackobama.com/page

Documentation of Public Support

The September 2007, CBS News poll reported that 55 percent of Americans “think having one health insurance program covering all Americans that would be administered by the government and paid for by taxpayers” “would be better for the country” than “keeping the current system where many people get their insurance from private employers and some have no insurance." http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm

The October 2007 Gallup poll reported that 54 percent of Americans favor “establishing a national healthcare system funded by the government, similar to the ones in Canada and Europe.” http://tinyurl.com/ny7nd8

The December 2007 Associated Press/Yahoo poll reported that 65 percent of Americans believe that “the United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers.” http://tinyurl.com/lgzebr, Page 15

The January 2009 CBS News/New York Times Poll reported that 59% of Americans (up from 40% in 1979) said that “the government in Washington should provide national health insurance,” and that this is not “something that should be left to private enterprise.” http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm

A national single-payer program of payment for medical care (or HR 676, with 93 co-sponsors in Congress) has been endorsed by the following (see the full Oregon list at www.SinglePayUSA.com):

·         59 percent of practicing physicians nationwide. http://tinyurl.com/c4fgsj

·         The Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Academy of Family Practice, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals

·         The Oregon Education Association, and the Oregon affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers

·         The US Conference of Mayors (a nonpartisan organization of approximately 1100 mayors representing cities with populations of 30,000 or more) http://tinyurl.com/5sz87b.

·         The AFL-CIO of Oregon, 38 other state AFL-CIO’s, and more than 475 other union organizations including more than 20 in Oregon http://tinyurl.com/koqwjz.

·         More than 40 city, county, and state governments, including Lane County (http://tinyurl.com/kwele6) and Multnomah County in Oregon (http://tinyurl.com/lrvl9u).

The Single Payer Bill is Only 16 Pages

HR 676 is only 16 double-space pages. Read it for yourself http://tinyurl.com/db5qgx.  It is a simple, open, and transparent plan that is paid for with income taxes (a median family of four income of $56,200 would pay about $2,700 in payroll taxes for all health care costs - with no deductibles or copays.)

Contact Congress

Call, email, fax, or write letters to our congressmen.  Their websites contain their local contact information.  (Search for "Rep or Senator _____” using Google or any other search engine.  Faxing is best – it engages them in handling your note.)  Express your wishes about single-payer briefly and in your own words.  It OK to contact them EVERY DAY (or night). Portland phone numbers:

Senator Jeff Merkley............. Phone: 503-326-3386............ Fax: 503-326-2900

Senator Ron Wyden.............. Phone: 503-326-7525............ Fax: 202-228-2717

Rep. David Wu...................... Phone: 503-326-2901............ Fax: 503-326-5066

Rep. Earl Blumenauer........... Phone: 503-231-2300............ Fax: 503-235-4005

Derrick’s Progressive News

Put Derrick’s Progressive News in the subject line of an email to Derrick@Duehren.com to receive a free, well-written, fact-based progressive-issues email.  Derrick pulls important progressive-issue news, video links, and emails together in a fact-checked organized email that is sent out irregularly, as significant subject matter appears.  Derrick also produced this flyer, with Herman M. Frankel, M.D.


–Van Jones

"I have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream."

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963 March on Washington

We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal: liberty and justice... for all. Americans who are willing to work hard and play by the rules should be able to find a decent job, get a good home in a strong community, retire with dignity and give their kids a better life. Every one of us—rich, poor or in-between, regardless of skin color or birthplace, no matter their sexual orientation or gender—has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our covenant, our compact, our contract with one another. It is a promise we can fulfill—but only by working together.

Today, the American Dream is under threat. Our veterans are coming home to few jobs and little hope on the home front. Our young people are graduating off a cliff, burdened by heavy debt, into the worst job market in half a century. The big banks that American taxpayers bailed out won't cut homeowners a break. Our firefighters, nurses, cops and teachers—America's everyday heroes—are being thrown out onto the street. We believe:

  • AMERICA IS NOT BROKE. America is rich—still the wealthiest nation ever. But too many at the top are grabbing the gains. No person or corporation should be allowed to take from America while giving little or nothing back. The super-rich who got tax breaks and bailouts should now pay full taxes—and help create jobs here, not overseas. Those who do well in America should do well by America.

  • AMERICANS NEED JOBS, NOT CUTS. Many of our best workers are sitting idle, while the work of rebuilding America goes undone. Together, we must rebuild our country, reinvest in our people and jump-start the industries of the future. Millions of jobless Americans would love the opportunity to become working, tax-paying members of their communities again. We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis.

To produce this Contract for the American Dream, 131,203 Americans came together online and in their communities. We wrote and rated 25,904 ideas. Together, we identified the 10 most critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream:

  1. INVEST IN AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE.
    Rebuild our crumbling bridges, dams, levees, ports, water and sewer lines, railways, roads and public transit. We must invest in high-speed Internet and a modern, energy-saving electric grid. These investments will create good jobs and rebuild America. To help finance these projects, we need national and state infrastructure banks.

  2. CREATE 21ST-CENTURY ENERGY JOBS.
    We should invest in American businesses that can power our country with innovative technologies like wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal systems, hybrid and electric cars, and next-generation batteries. And we should put Americans to work making our homes and buildings energy efficient. We can create good, green jobs in America, address the climate crisis, and build the clean energy economy.

  3. INVEST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION.
    We should provide universal access to early childhood education, make school funding equitable, invest in high-quality teachers, and build safe, well-equipped school buildings for our students. A high-quality education system, from universal preschool to vocational training and affordable higher education, is critical for our future and can create badly needed jobs now.

  4. OFFER MEDICARE FOR ALL.
    We should expand Medicare so it's available to all Americans, and reform it to provide even more cost-effective, quality care. The Affordable Care Act is a good start and we must implement it—but it's not enough. We can save trillions of dollars by joining every other industrialized country—paying much less for health care while getting the same or better results.

  5. MAKE WORK PAY.
    Americans have a right to fair minimum and living wages, to organize and collectively bargain, to enjoy equal opportunity and to earn equal pay for equal work. Corporate assaults on these rights bring down wages and benefits for all of us. They must be outlawed.

  6. SECURE SOCIAL SECURITY.
    Keep Social Security sound, and strengthen the retirement, disability, and survivors' protections Americans earn through their hard work. Pay for it by removing the cap on the Social Security tax, so that upper-income people pay into Social Security on all they make, just like the rest of us.

  7. RETURN TO FAIRER TAX RATES.
    End, once and for all, the Bush-era tax giveaways for the rich, which the rest of us—or our kids—must pay eventually. Also, we must outlaw corporate tax havens and tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. Lastly, with millionaires and billionaires taking a growing share of our country's wealth, we should add new tax brackets for those making more than $1 million each year.

  8. END THE WARS AND INVEST AT HOME.
    Our troops have done everything that's been asked of them, and it's time to bring them home to good jobs here. We're sending $3 billion each week overseas that we should be investing to rebuild America.

  9. TAX
    WALL STREET
    SPECULATION.

    A tiny fee of 1/20th of 1% on each Wall Street trade would raise tens of billions of dollars annually with little impact on actual investment. This would reduce speculation, "flash trading," and outrageous bankers' bonuses—and we'd have a lot more money to spend on
    Main Street
    job creation.

  10. STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY.
    We need clean, fair elections—where no one's right to vote can be taken away, and where money doesn't buy you your own member of Congress. We must ban anonymous political influence, slam shut the lobbyists' revolving door in D.C. and publicly finance elections. Immigrants who want to join in our democracy deserve a clear path to citizenship. We must stop giving corporations the rights of people when it comes to our elections. And we must ensure our judiciary's respect for the Constitution. Together, we will reclaim our democracy to get our country back on track.

Take Back the American Dream

Our movement is growing, and we're gathering October 3-5 in Washington, D.C. for the Take Back the American Dream conference. Will you join us?

Dear American Dreamemer

I have an invitation for you. I want you come to Washington, D.C. with me October 3-5, 2011, for an event I couldn't be more excited to announce: the first-ever national gathering of the American Dream movement.

Maybe you haven't yet heard, but something big is happening in America. Beneath the corporate media's radar screen, it is growing faster and buzzing more than anything we've seen in recent memory.

We call it the American Dream movement. That's an apt term for the hundreds of thousands of good people who are fighting everywhere to rebuild the American Dream.

This year, we've watched this people-powered phenomenon grow out of the courage and inspiration from Wisconsin and spread across the country. From massive protests in the state legislature in Ohio to 45,000 Verizon workers on strike today, people nationwide are standing up.

This summer, hundreds of thousands more of us came together in person and online to craft our plan for fixing our broken economy. We created a comprehensive jobs agenda: "Contract for the American Dream." It has already been endorsed by 270,000 thousand people.

Now it's time for us to gather in person, to learn from each other, get inspired, and show everyone that we will not back down. On October 3-5 we're going to do all that and more at the Take Back the American Dream conference hosted by our friends at the Campaign for America's Future.

Will you join me for Take Back the American Dream? Click here to register.

We'll have movement leaders, local volunteers, students, teachers, unions, community groups, and more all coming together to help strengthen our new movement.

We can't wait any longer for politicians in Washington, D.C., to save us. The tea party promotes policies that would kill our dreams. The American Dream movement promotes policies that will save them. Please join us in the nation's capital to begin the process of taking America, not back, but FORWARD.

We will all look back at this event and remember it as a huge step forward for showing that what's going on right now is the birth of a movement—the American Dream movement.

This will be a powerful moment, and I hope you'll join me October 3-5.

Click here to register now.

Thank you.

JOIN

A good site for corrections to the myriad lies coming from the conservative ‘think tanks’ and the healthcare industry.