elections

Medicare for All Town Hall Meeting Tuesday Sept. 29th

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10 DOCTORS – 28 CITIES – 18 STATES – 30 DAYS

1 MESSAGE:

“SINGLE PAYER NOW!”

FROM  OREGON  TO  PITTSBURGH AND THEN ON TO

THE WHITE HOUSE!

THIS “CARE-A-VAN” OF DOCTORS IS TRAVELING ACROSS THE COUNTRY DEMANDING SINGLE-PAYER FROM THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS.“We’re mad as hell because our health care system is run by people who profit from illness”, says Dr. Paul Hochfeld, “The rest of the civilized world has test driven single payer and it works. But elected officials in America won’t even allow a discussion.”

THE “MAD AS HELL DOCTORS” WILL BE IN PITTSBURGH FOR A

 TOWN HALL MEETING      

 TUESDAY, SEPT. 29TH, 7 PM  

At the Letter Carriers Union Hall, (Branch 84), 841 California Avenue, on the North Side.

(On California Ave. between Brighton Rd. and the large Post Office Facility, off-street parking available.)

REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

http://www.MadAsHellDoctors.com

Sponsored in Pittsburgh by the
Western Pennsylvania Coalition for
 Single Payer Healthcare

For more information: 412-371-6650
http://www.WPaSinglePayer.org

Get Mad.      Stay Mad.     Make History.

Economy, labor

First-Hand Report: Demanding Jobs at the G20

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g20-jobsmarch

Pittsburgh Diaries: Day One
March for Jobs in ‘The Hill’

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

The ‘G20’ is a big deal in Pittsburgh, with multiple stories in the local press and TV, even though many everyday citizens are wondering what it’s really all about and whether it’s worth all the fuss and expense.

“I know all the big shots from around the world are coming, I see that on the news” my dad told me last week. “But what do they actually do behind all those guards and closed doors?”

It’s a good question. The ‘big shots,’ of course, are all the top political and economic leaders of the world’s nineteen largest economies, with the European Union added to make twenty. And lots of people would love to be a fly on the wall when they start wrangling over who’s really to blame for the latest financial meltdown and how to recover from it.

I told my dad, for starters, that they’re cooking up schemes to have the rest of us pay off the gambling debts of Wall Street speculators while they ship more jobs overseas. That’s why the unions are going to be in streets, along with the environmental people, the antiwar movement, and everyone else. He’s dubious that it will do any good, but I told him I’ll be in the thick of it, and I’d let him know what happens.

Continue reading First-Hand Report: Demanding Jobs at the G20 →

elections

Behind Pittsburgh’s Becoming the G20 Meeting Site

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g20-tentcity

Photo: Protesters’ ‘Tent City’
Camp for G20 Events

Progressive Activists,
Big Business Converge
on Pittsburgh’s G20 Meet

Jeb Sprague
Inter Press Service

PITTSBURGH, Sep 20 (IPS) – As media and government delegates prepare for the G20 Summit to be held Sep. 24-25 in Pittsburgh, local business and activist groups are promoting clashing visions of days to come.

Hit hard over the last quarter of the twentieth century with a collapsing steel industry, recession and falling population, Pittsburgh is still a decent place to live – often highly rated because of low housing costs.

On one side, Pittsburgh government and business leaders say they have reshaped the city to connect with globalization as a hi-tech, financial and medical industry hub.

On the other side, labor, community, youth and environmental groups are fighting for green jobs and clean energy, while calling into question how government and corporate leaders have dealt with the global financial crisis and urban renewal. Continue reading Behind Pittsburgh’s Becoming the G20 Meeting Site →

Community, Economy

Justice Sotomayor Issues Challenge to a Century of Corporate Law

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By JESS BRAVIN

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125314088285517643.html

WASHINGTON — In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.

During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court’s majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.

But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong — and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.
elections

Cong. Kucinich: Single Payer National Healthcare is only Affordable Solution

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Medicare_for_allKucinich: Take Insurance Industry Profits to Pay for Universal Health Care

Posted Sep 18, 2009 07:00am EDT by Aaron Task

Related: AET, CI, WLP, UNH, ^HCX, ^DJI, ^GSPC

Sen. Max Baucus’ health-care bill got the cold shoulder from Republicans, but the Montana Democrat isn’t making any friends on the (true) left of the political spectrum either.

“The people of the United States deserve a lot better than this,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) says of the Baucus plan. “Unless you have a public option there is no way that you can drive down the cost for health care because the insurance companies won’t have any competition.”

We can have it all, according to Kucinich: Universal health care without higher taxes or soaring deficits. How? By taking the profits away from the insurance industry and using them to pay for health care.

“If we take that money” — $800 billion a year by Kucinich’s reckoning – “and put it into care we cover everyone,” he says. “So of course we can afford it. When people know a plan exists where there’s no more premium, co-pays and deductibles, where everyone is covered and where no one has to go broke…I think people will listen.”

You may say Kucinich is a dreamer, but he’s a political realist too and understands the current environment doesn’t support his vision. Still, he’s disappointed with President Obama for supporting what Kucinich calls a “minimalist” approach to health-care reform.

Go here for video of Kucinich interview: http://tinyurl.com/qrko86

health care

A Message to Progressive Democrats from the Congressional Progressive Caucus

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logo“Medical Security Is The Name Of The Game”

September 17, 2009, Washington, DC

On Thursday, September 17, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-chair Rep. Raul Grijalva, sent the following message to the members of Progressive Democrats of America:  

As co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), I want to thank the PDA community for its ongoing support of Medicare for All. Who knows where we would be in this debate without your moral and compassionate voices railing against the status quo.

These have been trying times, in Congress, as the CPC has worked to muster support for a real and robust public option against a well-funded corporate opposition. The CPC is confident that we will influence this debate and we remain committed to a robust public option that:

  • Enacts concurrently with other significant expansions of coverage and must not be conditioned on private industry actions.
  • Consists of one entity, operated by the federal government, which sets policies and bears the risk for paying medical claims to keep administrative costs low and provide a higher standard of care.
  • Be made available to all individuals and employers across the nation without limitation.
  • Allows patients to have access to their choice of doctors and other providers that meet defined participation standards, similar to the traditional Medicare model, promotes the medical home model and eliminates lifetime caps on benefits.
  • Has the ability to structure the provider rates to promote quality care, primary care, prevention, chronic care management and good public health.
  • Utilizes the existing infrastructure of successful public programs, such as Medicare, in order to maintain transparency and consumer protections for administering processes, including payment systems, claims and appeals.
  • Establishes or negotiates rates with pharmaceutical companies, durable medical
    equipment providers and other providers to achieve the lowest prices for consumers.
  • Receives a level of subsidy and support that is no less than that received by private plans.
  • Ensures premiums are priced at the lowest levels possible, not tied to the rates of private insurance plans.

I urge you to continue to rally citizens and your representatives to support the Kucinich and Weiner amendments. Although Congress does not appear to have the stomach to pass HR 676, there’s every reason to believe that we can secure Medicare for All, once states begin to pass their own single-payer bills.

The CPC will do its best to ensure that the public option is as close to Medicare as we can get it. I hope you will do your best to continue to build support for the Kucinich and Weiner amendments.

Girjalva serves on the PDA Advisory board.

elections, health care

Sen. Baucus Declares War on American People – $20 billion in Fines to Uninsured – Tax on Healthcare Benefits

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 Seven Important Facts in the Baucus Bill’s CBO Report
By: Gregg Levine Wednesday September 16, 2009 8:00 pm

http://www.firedoglake.com

Today, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) released the Chairman’s mark of his health care reform bill along with a CBO report on the legislation. I’ve found seven interesting and important issues in the report.

1. It looked like Baucus purposely left himself a small possible giveaway to liberals. His bill in fact saves $49 billion, which could be used to increase subsidies by that amount while still keeping it budget neutral. A little “look, liberals won something”:

According to CBO and JCT’s assessment, enacting the Chairman’s proposal would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $49 billion over the 2010–2019 period

2. It appears that the CBO agrees with almost every health care reform expert and also concluded that Conrad’s small state-based co-ops are worthless.

The proposed co-ops had very little effect on the estimates of total enrollment in the exchanges or federal costs because, as they are described in the specifications, they seem unlikely to establish a significant market presence in many areas of the country or to noticeably affect federal subsidy payments.

Continue reading Sen. Baucus Declares War on American People – $20 billion in Fines to Uninsured – Tax on Healthcare Benefits →

health care, labor

AFL-CIO Convention Endorses Single-Payer National Health Care

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AFLCIOAFL-CIO Convention Endorses Medicare for All

September 16, 2009, Pittsburgh, PA

In a historic vote that adds the nation’s leading voice of American workers to a broad national campaign, the AFL-CIO voted unanimously at its national convention here today to endorse the enactment of single-payer, universal healthcare for all Americans.

The resolution was sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and the Alameda County (California) Central Labor Council.  

In urging its support, CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro, an AFL-CIO National Vice-President, noted the recent death of Crystal Lee Sutton, the real-life union organizer from the film Norma Rae who died last week after a long battle with cancer, exacerbated by her own three-year fight with her insurance company.

Continue reading AFL-CIO Convention Endorses Single-Payer National Health Care →