Romney, Obama can do better on health care access
In the first presidential debate, President Barack Obama pointed out that his Obamacare was practically the same health care plan as the one that Gov. Mitt Romney established in Massachusetts. Not only is it the same plan, but it was put together by many of the same advisors.
What did Romneycare in Massachusetts and Obamacare nationwide achieve? As Obama explained, Obamacare wasn’t a government takeover of health care. It is a large expansion of private insurance. In other words, Obamacare provided a major boost for the insurance industry. Unfortunately, it falls far short of doing what the American people want and need.
Obama clearly knows that there’s a better alternative. He admitted that Medicare is far more efficient than any private insurance company. Romney said that if that is true, then anyone would rather buy Medicare than private insurance. The rub is that most Americans can’t choose Medicare. Even the “public option” was taken off the table in the earliest stages of discussion of health care reform in 2009.
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P.O.P. and NJ One Plan One Nation Rally for Medicare!
Saturday: Rally to Celebrate Medicare’s Birthday
Activists Say Expand Medicare to Cover Everything for Everyone
Coalition Says Medicare Is the Solution, Not the Problem
What: Rally to celebrate the 47th Birthday of the Medicare program
When: Saturday, July 28, at noon.
Where: Broad and Market Streets, Newark, New Jersey.
Who:
- Ray Stever, President, New Jersey One Plan One Nation Coalition
- Larry Hamm from the Peoples’ Organization for Progress
- Noel Christmas, President of Local 601, Utility Workers of America
- Representatives from CodePink, Healthcare-Now, Green Party-NJ, as well as Labor.
The New Jersey One Plan, One Nation Coalition is a labor and grassroots coalition that advocates single-payer health care for all Americans. It uses HR 676 – the United States National Health Care Act, also known as Expanded and Improved Medicare for All–as a template.
July 11 – 45th Anniversary of the Newark Rebellion
In these tough economic times, the Peoples Organization for Progress (POP), an affiliate of OPON, has been out on the streets standing up for the 99% demanding jobs, housing, healthcare (Medicare for all) and education to name a few, for a year.Join with us and other organizations, community groups, unions and the people as we stand together and let our voice be heard!
Please download the flier (PDF) for:
What: March and Rally for Jobs, Peace, Equality, and Justice on the 381st Day of the Daily People’s Protest Campaign & in Observance of the 45th Anniversary of the Newark Rebellion</strong><br />
When: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 – (Rally 4pm – March 5pm)<br />
Where: Intersection of West Market & Springfield Avenue (by the Lincoln Monument), Newark, New Jersey.
We ask that each organization bring a minimum of ten organizational members to the event. Please share the information.
April 4 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Rally
To commemorate the anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the People’s Organization for Progress is having an important rally on April 4.
The rally will begin at the corner of Market St. and Springfield Ave. in Newark. It will be followed by a march at 5:00 pm. The issues range from economic justice to healthcare (see attached flier).
Please join New Jersey One Plan One Nation as it supports the rights of all people at this march. We will be there at 3:00 pm. Please join us at the Lincoln statue at the corner of Springfield Ave. and Market St. at 3:00 pm. Bring friends, neighbors, and coworkers.
Payne Supported Medicare for All
By Ray Stever –
It is with great sorrow that the New Jersey One Plan One Nation coalition marks the passing of our strongest supporter and one of our oldest and dearest friends, Congressman Donald Payne. He cosponsored H.R. 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. This act will expand and improve Medicare to cover all necessary medical care for all Americans, from cradle to grave.
Congressman Payne supported H.R. 676 because he recognized the humanity and the needs of people who were not members of the 1%. He cared far more about the health of human beings than he cared about the profits of the health insurance industry. He cared about the 45,000 Americans per year who die because they do not have health insurance. He cared about the families bankrupted by medical bills. Medical expenses are the major cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States.
As a former insurance executive, Rep. Payne knew that Medicare is far more efficient and fair than private insurance. He knew that shifting to a simplified single-payer, nonprofit, public system would streamline medical billing and eliminate the burden of dealing with insurance company clerks.
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Investors with a Conscience Should Divest from Health Insurance Companies
I was the doctor on duty one night in August when the ambulance rushed a man into our Midwestern hospital ER. As I walked into the room, the scene was right out of TV. A nurse was trying to start an IV. Someone was running an EKG. A student had just put oxygen in the patient’s nose. The room seemed crowded. The paramedics were sweating and slightly out of breath.
But my attention was on a pale, thin, fifty-five-year-old man sitting bolt upright on a gurney, clutching his chest and straining to breathe. Cold sweat dripped off his nose. I asked a couple of quick questions as I leaned him forward to listen to his lungs. Someone handed me his EKG showing an acute heart attack.
I slipped out of the room for a second to get the cardiologist on the phone. He would be right in, along with the rest of his team. But it was a Thursday night, late, and they were coming in from home. It would be at least twenty minutes until high-tech medicine could work its wonders, until the cardiologist could thread a thin plastic catheter into the patient’s heart and put in a stent to open his blockage.
