News Updates - Page One | Two

Representative Mark Miller and
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin Team with
The Coalition for Wisconsin Health
to Introduce Universal Health Plan Bill

MADISON, WI, March 6, 2003 — Representative Mark Miller and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin will join members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Health to introduce The Wisconsin Universal Health Plan bill at a press conference in the State Capitol Assembly Parlor on March 10, at 10am. State Senator Tim Carpenter will also be in attendance to introduce a companion bill proposing a single-payer health care program. FULL STORY

Health care rally hears horror stories
Capital Times By Anita Weier ~ March 13, 2003
  FULL STORY

Universal Health Bill Introduced
State Plan Said To Be Less Expensive

State Rep. Mark Miller, D-Monona, introduced legislation today that would provide health insurance for every Wisconsin resident. It would be financed by an individual income tax and an employer payroll tax, and Miller says it would cost less than the estimated $28 billion that will be spent this year to provide private health coverage and public coverage via BadgerCare, Medicaid and Medicare.   FULL STORY

Physicians Propose Solution to Rising Health Care Costs and Uninsured
Introduce National Health Insurance Bill in Washington, D.C.

The United States National Health Insurance Act Executive Summary

The United States National Health Insurance Act establishes a new American national health insurance program by creating a single payer health care system. 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 U.S. residents, and all residents living in U.S. territories. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all Americans, guaranteed by law, will have access to the highest quality and cost effective health care services regardless of one's employment, income, or health care status.  FULL STORY

Here is another article about the failures of health care in the U.S. But once again the only solution which would be equitable, comprehensive, portable, and yet contain costs - a National Health Plan - is mentioned only in a negative way. The insurance companies want to protect their ability to make huge profits and they want the government involved but only to provide money for the uninsured which will further line the pockets of the Insurers.

Those of us who believe in the concept of government funded but locally administered, private, not-for-profit health care for all,must spread the word, write letters to the editor, talk to our friends and neighbors and hold our candidates for public office, responsible.

Some Tentative First Steps Toward Universal Health Care, December 7, 2002, By MILT FREUDENHEIM

Worried that the growing number of uninsured patients will undermine the health care system, insurance executives are pressing for steps toward universal care.

Comments of the Commissioner of the Commission
on the Future of Health Care in Canada.

The final report should be out within the week, but already he is talking of strengthening the Canadian Health Care System, not dismantling it!

CONCLUSION

"Canada's journey to nationhood has been a gradual, evolutionary process, a triumph of compassion, collaboration and accommodation, the result of many steps, both simple and bold. This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of medicare in Saskatchewan, a courageous initiative by visionary men and women that changed us as a nation and cemented our role as one of the world's compassionate societies. The next big step for Canada may be more focused, but it will be no less bold. That next step is to build on this proud legacy and transform medicare into a truly national health system that is more responsive, comprehensive and accountable to all Canadians. Getting there requires leadership. It requires us to change our attitudes on how we govern ourselves as a nation. It requires an adequate, stable and predictable commitment to funding and cooperation from governments. It requires health practitioners to challenge the traditional way they have worked in the system. It requires all of us to realize that our health and wellness is not simply a responsibility of the state but something we must work towards as individuals, families and communities and as a nation. The collaborative system I speak about is clearly within our grasp.

Medicare is a worthy national achievement, a defining aspect of our citizenship and an expression of social cohesion. Let's unite to keep it so. Thank you."  11/02

U.S. Medical Students Begin Exchange Program in Cuba

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Health Care Proposal
By David Newby, President

Our Dishonest Health Care System
By Professor Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton Univ.

Congresspersons Speak Out For Universal
HC And HCR 99 On House Floor

Speaking Out for Universal Health Care

WCCF Health Care Coverage Newsletter (pdf)

2001 Senate Bill 133

April 2002 - On February 20, 2002, a public hearing was held on 2001 Senate Bill 133, the Wisconsin Universal Health Plan, by Senator Rod Moen's health committee. Many eloquent speakers, including Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President David Newby, doctors, church members, medical students, and small business people, testified in favor of this bill. At the conclusion of the legislative session in March it had not been voted on by the committee and thus will be introduced again in the 2003-2004 session.

A number of states are working on similar bills. Wisconsin always has been a leader of innovations for social needs like workmen's compensation and social security. We would like to be a pioneer among the states again. We can not be in the forefront on the world stage, because every other developed nation already has a health care plan through which all of their citizens are entitled to health care, even South Africa in their new political life.

This bill would cover all medically necessary services, hospital, out-patient and home care. Every patient would choose his or her own doctor and hospital, and decisions about treatment would be between the doctor and the patient. The government would be involved only in the payment for those services. This has been proven to save huge sums of money by eliminating reams of paperwork, and since no profit is taken out of health care for dividends to shareholders and enormous salaries for CEO's. (This is partly why the U.S. spends twice as much as other countries where all of their citizens are fully covered and we have over 44 Million not covered.)

The benefits would be portable. If you are from Wisconsin and get sick in California, you would be covered. And it wouldn't matter where you were employed, because this program would include everyone.

Our legislators will pass a universal health care bill if they have a heavy push from the voters that we want one-that we will not continue to have One Million more people each year find that they have no health insurance. The "grass roots" will have to speak up, so that the grass does not grow under our legislators' feet!

Medical Spending Grows to 14 Percent of GDP

April 2002 - A report about health care spending, issued last week by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finds that medical spending is accelerating faster than government economists had expected and amounted to 14 percent of the gross domestic product [GDP] last year for the first time. The study indicates that rising medical costs are consuming a larger slice of the economic pie and appear on course to do so throughout the next decade: by 2011, healthcare expenditures are projected to more than double to $2.8 trillion annually and account for 17 percent of GDP. A Chicago Tribune article on the report is available at
The full report is available at http://www.healthaffairs.org/

Study Reveals Disparity in Quality of Care for Black Patients

March 2002 - On March 13, the Journal of the American Medical Association released a study, by researchers at Harvard's public health and medical schools, revealing that black patients enrolled in Medicare+Choice plans receive poorer quality of care than white patients in the following medical service areas:

• Follow-up exams after hospitalizations for mental illness,
• Eye exams for diabetics,
• Use of beta-blockers after heart attacks and breast cancer screenings.

The study is significant because it compares people of different races with similar managed care policies. Based on previous research showing that black Medicare+Choice patients had better access to care than blacks with traditional Medicare coverage, the researchers had predicted that black and white Medicare managed care members would receive equal care. However, the findings suggest that there is more to racial health disparities than a higher rate of uninsurance and lower income among blacks. Possible reasons for the discrepancies include racial bias among doctors and cultural differences. For more information visit
Kaiser Network.org

Competition in Health Care Poses Grave Dangers
 by Donald W. Light, PhD (abridged)

"....Competition seems so foreign to health care. In commercial life, the law of the land is caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. In health care, the law of the land is confidat emptor, let the buyer trust. Patients go to doctors because when they are hurting, scared or anxious they want an expert they can trust to put their interests first. Markets here are a paradigm misfit. No other nation with an advanced health care system has embraced competition, and no other nation has turned its services over to investors seeking profits."

From the Universal  Health Care Action Network (read the entire article on their site.)

Cuba Winning Cancer Race
Julian Borger, July 27, 2000.  

Article describing Cuban experiments with Cancer Vaccines, and political roadblocks
to use in other countries. Same article, different source:  http://www.flora.org/flora.mai-not/20792

HMOs Fight the Sick Instead of the Sickness
By Suzanne Gordon, Thursday, June 15, 2000,

Micromanagement of diagnoses and 'capitation' payments can bankrupt doctors who care.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/061500-103.htm

Grey Panthers Alert

Beware Front Group "Citizens for Better Medicare" and It's Lies About Prescription Drugs and Universal Health Care.  http://www.graypanthers.org