Guaranteed Healthcare

It's time to stop talking about make believe death panels, and talk about the real ones.

Six of California's biggest insurance companies have rejected more than one in five claims the past seven years -- according to data the insurance giants, Blue Cross, PacifiCare, Kaiser Permanente, Health Net, Cigna, and Aetna report to the state Department of Managed Care.  Full release below...

Tell your Congress Member it's not too late to win single-payer! Attend Town Hall Meetings in August! -- It's the culmination of our national work for healthcare reform, so we must send a message to your member of Congress and Senator:

1. Support single payer in a floor vote in both houses (HR 676/Senate bill 703)

2. Enable states to establish single payer systems – keep the Kucinich amendment as part of the final healthcare reform bill

3. Employee health benefits should not be taxed; employees have given up salary increases to keep quality health benefits

Find your member of Congress here. Click more for a list of Town Hall meetings. Together we can make a difference–don't let the "tea-baggers" stop our movement for real reform!

Registered nurses, doctors, medical students, and dozens of labor and healthcare community activists joined with Rep. Mary Flowers and other Illinois legislators Tuesday, May 24 to introduce state legislation for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all style system.  HB 311, the Healthcare for All Illinois Act, would guarantee healthcare for every state resident.

Campaign for Guaranteed Healthcare for All Begins in Illinois with New Single-Payer Bill
Press Release 03/23/09

I'll never forget the story of Nataline Sarkisyan, a young 17 year-old, LA youth who had a real chance at surviving her leukemia diagnosis.  Having started my professional nursing career on a hematology/oncology floor at UCSF, leukemia patients are the most challenging, yet rewarding patients to take care of.  One mistake, one delay, even as much as an hour, can mean the difference between life and death.  These patients and their families are true champions and heros in my book.  Nothing got me more angry than the story of this young teen and her un-necessary fight with her insurance company, CIGNA.  She and her family would eventually win their battle, but in the end it was too late.

In this essay, CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro spotlights a way that California can jumpstart the single-payer movement for the entire country: California legislators, the majority of whom have already voted in support of establishing single-payer for the state, should organize the two-thirds vote needed to override Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's likely veto of similar legislation this year.

Thank you Supervisor Tom Ammiano, CNA/NNOC endorsed candidate for State Assembly, for holding hearings to support HR 676, Medicare for All, on June 10th at 2pm.  It is time local elected's take a stand on the only real solution to financing our health care system in the nation.  Meanwhile, San Francisco's Mayor Newsom has introduced sweeping budgets cuts to Public Health including lay-offs and loss of 8 days of pay for all health workers including nurses.  Threatening, "He will remember" if we do not take the furloughing agreement, to save our services, he is also cutting funding for the homeless in the city's poorest district.

The big news in the movement for single-payer healthcare is that they’re busy putting lipstick on the pig…by which I mean that the California legislature, in the aftermath of Arnold's failed plan, is looking on improving the health insurance corporations’ behavior and products.   Let’s turn to our healthcare hero: 

"In the aggregate, it could be pretty significant," said Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, of the legislation. "I think it's just getting to the point where the opposition has just overreached so badly and the insurance companies' actions have been so egregious that both sides of the aisle are getting fed up with them."

Click for more...

Today's Updates from the Movement for Guaranteed Healthcare:

Let's remember: This is a healthcare election.  It’s time for a healthcare change!

Healthcare hero Sheila Keuhl--author of the first “single-payer” bill to pass a legislature—gives us her thoughts on the way forward

Minnesota docs are even more likely that those in the rest of the country to support single-payer healthcare--64% to 59%

One more member of Congress supports single-payer healthcare…California’s Jackie Speier

Bill Moyers reports on CNA/NNOC’s leadership in the fight for guaranteed healthcare

1,200 patients get their health insurance back…but what about the rest of us?

In 1995, Taiwan had 40% of its population without health coverage, a huge rich-poor gap in life expectancy, and a ton of social and economic problems as a result. 

So they did the rational thing:  they introduced a national, non-profit, single-payer health care system.