CommonHealthVolume 2, Number 3 ~ Fall 2006

Universal Health Care Education Fund

New “Universal“ Health Bill Raises False Hopes

Massachusetts Heath Care Trust Bill Being Refiled

Even as MASS-CARE members strive to monitor, critique and demythologize Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006, we work to sharpen our single-payer, universal healthcare bill,

the Massachusetts Health Care Trust, for submission to the new legislative session which begins in January. Our Legislative Committee has been meeting with our lead sponsors, Senator Steve Tolman and Representative Frank Hynes, as well as many other legislators and activists from across the state. MASS-CARE’s Legislative Committee, working hand-

in-hand with our Coordinating Committee, is in the final stages of updating our bill.(Pictured: Ann Eldridge Malone, Alliance to Defend Health Care, and Susanne King, Berkshire MASS-CARE)

Our executive director Benjamin Day has created a powerpoint presentation analyzing Chapter 58 and comparing it to all prior state-based incremental reform efforts, such as Hawai’i’s and Oregon’s. On enactment, each plan was hailed as “universal,” each resulted in a sharp drop in the number of uninsured initially, and each failed to maintain that progress in subsequent years.

Members of the Legislative Committee strategize with Rep. Frank Hynes: Vic Bloomberg, Judy Deutsch, Sandy Eaton, Ben Day, Leo Stolbach, Rep. Hynes and Pat Downs Berger.

Without fundamental structural reforms, to cut bureaucratic overhead and achieve cost savings, each and every one proved unsustainable.(Pictured: Jane Hamill, Barbara Ackermann, Ben Day and John Healey)

In June, the MASS-CARE Coordinating Committee voted to endorse the initiative to amend the Massachusetts constitution to make access to comprehensive, affordable health insurance a right of all who reside here. Despite a passionate and clear-headed floor fight led by Senator Steve Tolman, this citizens’ initiative was sent to a study committee which has never met. But the fight goes on, with the Constitutional Convention due back in session at 2 PM on January 2nd.

Sen. Steve Tolman addresses a State House rally for the healthcare amendment in May. (State House News Service photo)

Click on our web site to view or downloadour Chapter 58 powerpoint presentation.Contact us to make arrangements fora showing in your community.

2006 Ben Gill Gala

Braving monsoon-like weather, single-payer supporters came from across Massachusetts to the Dante Alighieri Cultural Center in Cambridge on May 13th for the MASS-CARE/UHCEF annual Dr. Benjamin Gill Awards Dinner.

Richard Sherman shared personal insights and humorous moments from the life and times of Ben Gill, a retired psychiatrist who steadfastly championed fundamental healthcare reform through MASS-CARE and in the formative period of the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care, now the Alliance to Defend Health Care.

Peggy O’Malley, MASS-CARE chair emerita, and Alan Sager and Debbie Socolar from the BU School of Public Health’s Access and Affordability Project received awards this year for their years of dedicated service, combining theory and practice, in the fight for a just healthcare system. A special surprise award was bestowed on Katie Murphy, former chair of the Framingham Board of Selectmen, for her valiant fight for health access and adequate services for all in our community. (Alan Sager was unable to attend due to a very important prior commitment.)

The Massachusetts Nurses Association was well represented by Donna Kelly-Williams, VP, Roz Feldberg, staff researcher, and president Beth Piknick.

Speakers and awardees: Debbie Socolar, Katie Murphy, Peggy O’Malley, Rand Wilson, Steffi Woolhandler and Diane Dujon.

Executive director Benjamin Day watches as Arky Markham models her new single-payer cap. Arky, ninety years old at the time, continues her lifelong commitment to peace and justice in the Pioneer Valley, on the state level and globally.

Rand Wilson, co-chair at the time of the Jobs with Justice Health Care Action Committee, and Diane Dujon of the UMass Boston School of Public Service were our keynote speakers, helping us appreciate the connections involved in our work.

Award presenters were Barbara Ackermann, Steffi Woolhandler and Sandy Eaton. Joseph Lillyman assembled once again his talented quartet. Food was catered by the renowned S&S diner. But the special treat was the camaraderie of shared experiences in the struggle by all present.

John Horgan of IBEW 2222 and Jobs with Justice confers with Kathleen Bridgewater of the Hampshire-Franklin Health Care Coalition and Amherst League of Women Voters. Both are active with Healthcare-NOW! - building support for Representative John Conyers’ Medicare for All bill, HR.676.

Rand Wilson, Working Families Party candidate for State Auditor, and Jill Stein, Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Secretary of State, brought enthusiastic bipartisan support to our single-payer celebration.

Save the date! 2007 Ben Gill GalaRyles Jazz Club, CambridgeSaturday, March 24, 2-4 PM

Robert Kuttner, keynote

National Campaigns: HR.676 & HR.5864

On October 21st, a broad coalition led by Jon Weisman of the National Association of Letter Carriers and Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice came together at Holyoke Community College for a Congressional hearing on the healthcare crisis and to promote HR.676, the Medicare for All bill with lead sponsors John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and Donna Christensen.

US Representative John Olver presided. Former Northampton mayor Mary Ford moderated. Three panels of presenters led off, one each on access, affordability and quality. Ample time was allowed for taking testimony from those in attendance as well.

Bob Lawson, Massachusetts Senior Action Council treasurer, Patricia Healey, MNA Region 1 president, and moderator Mary Ford

Lively discussions marked this event, with several participants coming to the mike to offer their experiences with health care in other countries, where health care is considered a right and not a commodity.

Frank Olbris, chair of the Franklin-Hampshire Health Care Coalition, offers testimony in Holyoke.

HR.676 now has a total of seventy-eight congressional sponsors. Two hundred and twelve union organizations have passed resolutions of support, including fifty-three Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations

and seventeen state AFL-CIOs (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO and MN). Grassroots pressure for change is mounting.

All of Massachusetts’ representatives in Congress have signed on to this critical piece of legislation except Ed Markey, who supports an alternate version proposed by Senator Ted Kennedy, and Richard Neal. We still have our work cut out for us in Massachusetts.

Ajamu Sankofa came to the Holyoke hearing representing Healthcare-NOW! - the national movement dedicated to pushing Medicare for All until victory. Information on this campaign may be obtained from its web site: http://www.healthcare-now.org.

The United States National Health Insurance Act establishes an American-style national insurance program. The bill would create a publicly-financed, privately-delivered health care program that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all US residents and all residents living in US territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans will have access, guaranteed by law, to the highest quality and cost-effective healthcare services regardless of one’s employment, income, or health care status.

A parallel development is the introduction of HR.5864, the Health Partnership Through Creative Federalism Act, described by its author, Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), as “a serious, bipartisan effort to break the logjam in Congress and develop plans to ensure health care coverage for all.” Co-sponsors include Representative Tom Price (R-GA), Representative John Tierney (D-MA) and Representative Bob Beauprez (R-CO). “We believe the federal government should be helping the states as they try new approaches, not hindering them. ... Our plan would allow the potential for freedom from certain federal regulations and authorizes grants to individual states, or groups or portions of states, to enact the strategy best suited for them to ensure greater health insurance coverage.”

Maybe Massachusetts activists will set a goal of getting our delegation on board with this one.

Cape Care

MASS-CARE’s August statewide meeting took place in the Provincetown Public Library. Folks came from near and far, by boat and car, to discuss the amazing grassroots upsurge called Cape Care, an attempt to craft a universal, single-payer system in a single county. The overwhelming majority of towns on the Cape have endorsed this approach, either through town meeting or town council, with discussion now centered on the county government. Since then, the Cape Care Coalition has voted to join MASS-CARE, and of course MASS-CARE has agreed. To find out more about Cape Care as it evolves, go to its web site http://www.capecare.info.

Provincetown participants: Brian O’Malley, Ben Day, Pat Downs Berger, Joseph Lillyman, Frank Olbris, Vic Bloomberg and Cynthia Franklin.

MASS-CARE Advisory Board Reinvigorated

Shortly after the MASS-CARE coalition came together, its leaders created a group of knowledgeable people they could turn to as they sought to guide the health care trust bill through the shoals of the legislative process. Although a few individuals were regularly tapped for help, this Advisory Board remained underutilized until recently. From a list of nineteen prominent names on paper, this body has grown in recent weeks to several score individuals, some of whom were on the original list, but most of whom were found more recently to be eager to participate in our work, bringing their expertise and reputations to bear on the building of our movement.

The first gathering of this body took place on November 29th in the historic Amy Lowell House in Brookline, where twenty five people from across the Commonwealth assembled. After a lengthy round of self-introductions, Marcia Angell exposed the business model of health care

and presented single payer as the only way to go. Mel King spoke, linking our struggle to a broader context, pointing out the health needs of poorer communities, such as the one targeted for the BU bioterror lab.

Marcia Angell, editor emerita of the New England Journal of Medicine, Carlos Da Silva of the Massachusetts Association of Portuguese Speakers and MASS-CARE executive director Ben Day participate in the discussions.

Mel cited Alice Walker quoting Albert Einstein on the inability of those who created a crisis to solve it. Arnold Relman countered with the point that physicians, with the power to spend large sums of money, both contribute to the problem and need to be called upon to help solve it. Mel quietly observed that he was only quoting Einstein. Mel, the only African-American in the room, also observed that the composition of our movement does not include a lot of the folks most severely impacted by poor health care.

Ben was called upon to present the print version of his powerful powerpoint presentation. He graciously skipped through most of them, stopping to highlight some especially useful information. This material is dynamite, and puts all our arguments into a solid context. No one seemed in a great hurry to leave!

Arnold Relman, Leo Stolbach, Jackie Wolf and Jerome Grossman follow Ben Day’s presentation of the Chapter 58 powerpoint text.

(Photos by CommonHealth editor Sandy Eaton unless otherwise noted.)

Universal Health Care Education Fund (UHCEF)c/o MASS-CARE

8 Beacon Street, Suite 26Boston, MA 02108P: 617-723-7001F: 617-723-7002

info@masscare.orgwww.masscare.org