All Eyes Are on Pennsylvania

Name sponsors of the legislation, Senator Jim Ferlo (D) and Representative Kathy Manderino (D) were joined by co-sponsor Representative Bill Kortz (D) in delivering impassioned messages to the rally attendees.

Billed as the keynote speaker, Sen. Ferlo expressed his passion oratorically and physically, pounding the podium for emphasis with such gusto he nearly sent two CS2 cassette recorders flying. He spoke of inclusiveness, advising, “Don’t write anybody off as we build this movement.”

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Pennsylvania representative asks Ario to probe AHIP, Humana lobbying

The chairman of the Pennsylvania House Insurance Committee has asked the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to investigate health insurance industry lobbying, especially the TV advertisements of America’s Health Insurance Plans, on national health care reform.

Single Payer Healthcare Reform In Pennsylvania

via squidoo.com

We rallied for Single Payer Healthcare reform at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg PA on October 20, 2009. (Pictured here is the Rotunda, as seen looking straight up from the inside of that historic building!

Pennsylvania may well be the first State to enact Single Payer in America. The commonwealth wil save 2 plus billion dollars the first year it is put into place.

Dave Johnson blogging the G20 protests:

It appeared that the police might have outnumbered the demonstrators. I have iPhone video which I can try to post that shows just how many police there were, just where I was. One the one hand there were people looking for trouble, who broke lots of windows and threw bricks at the police last night. On the other hand it is highly intimidating and creates an atmosphere where people are afraid to join peaceful protests.

What are the chances that the people throwing bricks were agent provocateurs.

History-Making Rally, Tues., Oct. 20, 10-12 noon, State Capitol, Harrisburg, PA

HealthCare4ALLPA, a non-partisan, state-wide, all-volunteer citizen campaign educating Pennsylvanians and State Legislators on theSingle Payer Solution(HB1660 and SB400), calls for a massive rally on the steps of the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, PA, on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM. Join thousands of single payer supporters --patients and providers, workers and owners, mothers and fathers, children and retirees, and with diverse co-sponsors:

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Pennsylvania Legislature has 2 bills on health plan

If Congress fails to pass a federal single-payer program, a single-payer system could happen quickly in Pennsylvania, California and Illinois, Knoche said. The Canadian national health care system started in a single province and spread individually to all others.

Single-payer health care in several states could help move the national political will toward a national system, Knoche said.

PhillyBurbs.com

He also repeatedly told seniors that he does not support a Medicare-for-all type health system.

"We can't have a single-payer system," he said. "We can't afford it."

As you know this is a lie. HR 676 would SAVE the taxpayers $400 billion a year.

If you live in Murphy's district, please contact Murphy and tell him that HR 676 would save us $400 billion a year. Please write a letter to the local newspapers explaining the same.

68% of American Public Supports Single Payer Healthcare Reform

Our grassroots organizing campaign to get an economic impact study to pass HB 1660, a Single Payer, guaranteed healthcare program for all Pennsylvanians, also called “Family and Business Healthcare Security Act” has reached higher ground as three separate events converge that bode extremely well for the eventual passage of the bill.

Here is a summery of these three events:

1) Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh based Highmark Blue Shield were poised to merge and take over health insurance coverage here in Pennsylvania.

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Booman

Jpol, asked a great question about why Sestak opposed Kucinich's amendment on PA single-payer health care. Sestak has some strange explanation about how he opposes single-payer because it doesn't allow for more than one payer.

Sun Gazzette

Pennacchio's citizens advocacy group is backing legislation known as the Family and Business Health Security Act that calls for elimination of insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

The plan would be funded through a 10-percent business payroll "health and wellness tax" and a 3-percent personal income tax.

Those fees, he said, would go into the Pennsylvania Health Trust and be used exclusively for health care delivery, including just 5 percent for administrative costs.

The plan also calls for eliminating waste and inefficiency in health care and promoting education.

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Battle for Health Care Is Not a Spectator Sport

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. ...

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Pa. House sends health insurance bill to Senate

HARRISBURG - A bill to open Pennsylvania's government-subsidized health-insurance program to 85,000 more lower-income adults won House approval yesterday.

But the chances of this bill reaching Gov. Rendell's desk appear bleak.

While passage had been a priority of House Democrats, who symbolically numbered it House Bill 1, only a single Republican representative crossed party lines in the 104-96 vote.

Rallying for a single-payer plan

Pennacchio: Everyone, everyone to a person said we could never get state Senator Don White, who is the gatekeeper for health care in the state senate to give us a hearing. Don White is giving us a hearing before Banking and Insurance in the fall.

A spokesman for the Indiana County Republican says proponents and critics will be invited to debate the single-payer idea. But he says the senator is not convinced that a single-payer plan is a workable solution to expand healthcare access in Pennsylvania.

Do you vote in Pennsylvania? Ask Joe Sestak to support HR 676, Medicare for All.

RALLY FOR SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE FOR ALL – HELP US FILL THE CAPITOL STEPS ON JUNE 11TH!!!

Single Payer Rally 6/11/09, Harrisburg PA Capitol Steps, 11 am EST

SINGLE-PAYER RALLY–Pittsburgh–Targeting the two biggest health insurers in Southwestern PA.

When: Friday, May 29th

Where: 11:30 am - 12:15 pm - Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield headquarters, Fifth and Liberty Aves, downtown

12:15 pm - 12:30pm –Procession with signs to UPMC headquarters, Grant Street, downtown for rally there 12:30 pm - 1:15 pm

Contact: Sandy Fox
Sponsor: Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare

Protesters in Cranberry pressure Altmire to support single-payer health care

"We don't need insurance companies to provide medical care," said Sandy Fox, president of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single-Payer Health Care. "We need health care providers to provide medical care."

Critics use the term "socialized medicine" to describe a single-payer system, but Mary Pat Donegan, Western Pennsylvania's coordinator of Health Care 4 All PA, said that would not be the case.

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Philadelphia Day of Action

Time: May 30th, 12 pm to 1:30 pm
Location: Cigna Headquarters, 16th and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Contact: Jeff Muckensturm at jeff [at] healthcare-now [dot] org.

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National Nurses Movement has a wonderful diary at MyDD about all the single payer bills in the states (but leaves out the legislation in Maryland). Please read about all the good news in California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, and Washington.

Clearly single payer is a political winner, witness the increasing momentum in an atmosphere where the national media has airbrushed out all discussion of single payer.

The most important thing is to make sure that whatever Obama does, no federal legislation prohibit the states from creating their own single payer systems.

March 26, 2009, Levittown, PA

We Won’t Get the Health Care Reform We Need Unless We Fight For It.

When: Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 7:00pm
Where: United Christian Church, 8525 New Falls Rd., Levittown, PA 19067
Contact: Robin Stelly at 267.240.9819

Please bring a non-perishable food item to help the Emergency Relief Association Food Pantry, which assists families who are struggling during this difficult time.

Pennsylvania Is Ground Zero for Passage of Single Payer

I just got off the phone with Chuck Pennacchio, who is our tireless facilitator here in Pennsylvania to spearhead the passage of Single Payer legislation. Perhaps we will be the first State in the Union to pass Single Payer, otherwise known as HB 1660/SB 300.

Several questions were raised during the course of our call.

1. Why is Washington not the right venue for Single Payer Passage?

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HEALTHCARE FOR ALL TOWN HALL MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVE JOHN CONYERS, JR. (D MI)

Saturday, March 7, 1 PM – 3 PM
Penn Newman Center
3720 Chestnut St.
(Enter from Sansom St.)
All are welcome, don’t stay away if you can’t pay! Donations appreciated to defray expenses.

Join Representative Conyers, author of
The United States National Health Care Act, HR 676(“Expanded & Improved Medicare for ALL”)
and other speakers

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Letter to the Centre Daily TimesI support Joanne Tosti-Vasey for state representative in the 171st District. Her educational background, organizational abilities and life experiences uniquely qualify her to take on today's important issues. Universal single-payer health care, which Tosti-Vasey supports, is highest on my list.

Universal single-payer is not socialized medicine. It is privately delivered health care funded by a single public source. The client chooses health care providers.

Philadelphia Healthcare Union Endorses HR676

hiladelphia, PA The Delegates’ Assembly of District 1199C, Philadelphia Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (AFSCME), voted unanimously October 8th to endorse HR 676, the national single payer health care bill introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D MI).

Following the vote 1199C President Henry Nicholas said: “No one has been more out front on single payer than our union. More than 77 million people will be without health care insurance as a result of the current economic collapse. We need HR 676 now more than ever.”