Our audience was the Pennsylvania Rural Republican Healthcare Caucus, per invitation of caucus chair Representative Kerry Benninghoff, Republican of Centre County, Northern Pennsylvania.
The testifiers were Dr. Bill Davidson, (cardiologist), Alan Jacobs, (business leader), Janice Horn, (League Of Women Voters), Wes Fisher, (medical student), Chuch Pennacchio (Executive Director Of Healthcare PA), and me, Kate Loving Shenk, (Nurse Healer).
Everyone gave eloquent testimony and the Caucus was intensely interested, leaning forward, and listening and nodding.
Dr. Davidson said, "The American people need to send a clear message to our legislators. In order for people to speak with a clear voice, they must grow wise to the propaganda that has distracted and divided them in the past.
"For instance, is providing healthcare to everyone a Communist Plot or simply a good idea that appeals to everyone of good will?
"Do we understand that as in Canada, where most of the care is delivered by private physician, a single payer system here would give everyone their choice of privately practicing physicians in hospitals? "Do we allow the pharmaceutical industry to hold us hostage with exorbitant prices or do we group negotiate with them like the Veteran's Administration, who get medicines for 40% less?
"Do we accept the mantra that raising taxes is always a negative, or do we look at the bottom line that shows that after eliminating premiums, co-pays, deductibles etc, most of us will pay less that we do now?
"Do we accept the lies about waiting lines causing premature deaths in other countries or examine the facts that show that the medical outcomes in these countries are no worse than ours while their elderly live longer and their infants are healthier?
"Do we accept that the loss of a job means you lose your medical insurance and go bankrupt, and that often, we lose a job when we are sick and most in need of health insurance? Or do we provide a system like the rest of the industrialized world where employment is not connected to health insurance, and being stuck in a dead end job because of "health benefits" is not a reality nor was it ever considered a necessity?
"Do we accept the notion that the government can't do anything right including Medicare with a 3% overhead or stay with Blue Cross and Aetna with their 20% overhead, multimillion CEO's and pre-existing conditions?"
Dr. Davidson finished by saying that the medical insurance industry is hard at work to control the dialogue regarding healthcare reform in this country. Any discussion that leaves out Single Payer will also be leaving out middle America.
The choice is ours but the longer we delay, the more we suffer.
Medical student Wes Fisher is the regional director of AMSA, American Medical Association, which is an independent association for medical students in this country.
Amsa stands behind Guaranteed Healthcare For All. It has specifically supported a publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare delivery system.
A large number of medical students commuted to the State Pennsylvania Legislature twice in 2008 to rally and lobby for HB 1660 and SB 400.
Wes said he has accumulated a $300,000 debt. This debt combined with the infamous malpractice suit reputation in PA makes it easy for many if not most of our medical students to leave PA and take jobs elsewhere. The retention rate of medical students is quite low, around 7%.
Wes said he would happily stay in Pennsylvania with passage of HB 1660/SB 400, as would many if not all of his student colleagues, due to real tort reform already spelled out in the bill(s) and a system which provides healthcare including dental care to all.
My testimony included the many scenarios I have encountered over the years as a practicing RN and CRNP (Certified Nurse Practitioner).
One night I was working in a Trauma Unit, when a recently retired man came in after suffering from a major stroke when he stopped taking his blood pressure medicine.
He stopped taking it because his health insurance inexplicably dropped him due to a glitch in the system right after he retired.
I said to the nurses there, "Is this a rare event, people getting cut off health insurance after they retire?"
And they said, "It happens all the time."
I told this story to the caucus, as well as many other shockers.
I also told the caucus that this is not a political issue.
It is good for business.
It is good for the economy.
And it is the right thing to do.
Health Care For All PA is taking this initiative to the next level, which I will explain shortly.
Meanwhile, the press ignores these Bills.
Meanwhile, the HighMark/Independent Blue Cross (IBX) merger is building its case.
Meanwhile, Governor Rendell plans to pass PA ABC which will cover only 200,000 Pennsylvanians, out of the 1.4 million who currently have no health insurance at all.
This will make a bad situation much, much worse here in the Commonwealth.
But no matter how media and corporate monopolies ignore the inevitable, we are heading toward Single Payer one way or the other.
Single Payer is publically funded while the Blues are privately funded.
The insurance companies compete against the for profit powers represented by Aetna and United and all the rest while Single Payer is designed for the public good.
One enriches shareholders and an elite few while the other is designed to provide quality, affordable health care for everyone here in Pennsylvania.
The IBX/Highmark merger has prompted concern among critics about competition in the insurance market and clout the new company would wield in setting reimbursement rates for hospitals and doctors, an article in Pittsburgh's "Business Times", May 26, 2008 states.
The consolidation of IBX and Highmark is the largest insurance company deal ever proposed within any state and will create a $22 billion dollar company.
Our grassroots group, Health Care 4 All PA, supports Single Payer because it's the best way to fulfill our mission: to bring quality, affordable health care to all Pennsylvanians.
We've decided to protest the merger because it runs counter to our mission.
Governor Rendell has cut a deal with Highmark and IBX to help them get the merger approved in return for their help, financial and otherwise, in passing PA ABC.
PA ABC replaces Adult Basic which provides health insurance to approximately 55,000 poor Pennsylvanians.
Approximately 95,000 are on the waiting list and these plus 120,000 others would in theory gain access to PA ABC.
However, because there is a 4% annual increase by the health insurance companies after the second year, and add to this increased rates for participants under PA ABC than they were paying under Adult Basic, you can safely project that poorer Pennsylvanians will be forced to lose health insurance coverage.
People on the waiting list will potentially be withdrawing their names.
The Governor is not telling us the truth: that at the very least, PA ABC is under funded and enrollment ends when the money is spent.
Yet Rendell continues to assert that PA ABC will cover everyone.
Additionally, PA ABC will also reinstate the State subsidy for malpractice insurance which the Governor had withdrawn previously, in the attempt to gain support for PA ABC.
Malpractice would only be reinstated, however, for those physicians who add the PA ABC patients as enrollees, with payout at low Medicaid-like fees.
Health Care 4 All PA needs to empower those legislatures who resist this ploy by helping them to see that resisting this makes moral sense.
(Thanks to Jerry Policoff for making available the above statistics on Adult Basic and PA ABC. Jerry will be writing a more comprehendsive article on this very topic in the days to come).
Governor Rendell is on record as saying he will sign HB 1660 if it comes across his desk.
Our grassroots efforts have many dimensions. We see the corruption of the insurance companies and we see the politicians who pander to them.
But to date, we have 43 sponsors for HB 1660 and SB 300 in the State House and Senate.
Our growing grassroots movement needs to become aggressively disciplined and organized to fight the forces of ignorance here in Pennsylvania.
So we have taken it to the next level which is: Gaining support for an economic impact study to outline exactly how much Universal Access to health care will cost in the Commonwealth.
We need the economic impact study because our group is not a legislative body.
The study does not guarantee passage, but makes the case for passage.
Keep in mind that Rendell's PA ABC did not have an economic impact study.
Sounds like it could have used one.
The Casino and Gaming initiatives had no economic impact study.
The bar is set higher for us.
We've hit every standard and crossed it.
We will not back down.
We will get the money for the economic impact study in the Autumn of this year.
Kate Loving Shenk has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, self improvement and motivation and Pixel Advertising. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover Your Calling and Destiny." Click here to order the e-book:. Kate Loving Shenk's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.