March 29th, 2007, 18:16
I am well aware that the US has the world's relatively highest cost of health care that is nowhere near proportional to the quality of health care in the US, especially when compared to other western nations. Finally I've come across more articulation of that. It is sad to say that in the lead-up to 2008 elections the issue doesn't even seem to be even on the table, the few murmurings heard being Hillary Clinton advocating increased spending on children under the current "system" vs Bush's desires to increase military spending (oh, why don't we just expand the war anyway so military spending does increase). It is all a pretty pathetic situation from a country which claims to be the pride of the voting nations. But at least one group, a gay group, is advocating solutions ...
No More Bull! Healthcare For All
03/22/2007
ACT UP is commemorating the 20-year anniversary of its first demonstration with a rally and permitted march, commencing at 12 noon Thursday March 29 in New York City.
The march is the kickoff for an 18-month campaign for a "Real Universal National Healthcare System," including a call for prescription drug pricing controls utilizing governmental bulk purchasing of all drugs through a system of negotiated, deeply discounted prices and expedited access to generic drug substitution.
The campaign is being launched by ACT UP and a coalition of healthcare advocates (including Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program), dozens of labor unions, AIDS service organizations (including Housing Works and African Services Committee), disability advocates, and concerned citizens - including the elderly - at large.
The coalition vows to make the campaign THE major domestic issue through the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.
Organizers are also highlighting a local issue critical to all New Yorkers living with HIV/ AIDS, demanding "HASA For ALL!" This local campaign demands that the city expand its HIV/ AIDS Services Administration eligibility to include all persons living with HIV. Currently patients living with HIV are forced to delay treatment for HIV illness until they are so sick that they have full-blown AIDS in order to be eligible for access to the government's safety net services such as Medicare, food stamps, housing subsidies, and income support.
All New Yorkers are urged to come to this history-making event where citizens from all walks of life are taking to the streets to demand a real national healthcare system and an end to governmental support for the profiteering by private healthcare insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies.
Participants are asked to assemble at the Federal Building, Broadway and Worth Street, at 11:30 a.m. for a short rally demanding the end to private health insurance, and its replacement by a single-payer government healthcare system. Marchers will also demand the institution of prescription drug pricing controls based in discount bulk purchasing of all pharmaceuticals by the government and quick access for the American public to generic drug substitutes.
The rally will be followed by a march down Broadway to Trinity Church, the site of the very first ACT UP demonstration in 1987.
Demonstrators will then proceed to City Hall to demand that Mayor Michael Bloomberg expand "HASA For ALL!" Activists are calling on the City Council to get behind New Yorkers' demand for HASA For ALL to help pressure the mayor to prioritize the health and welfare of some of New York's most vulnerable citizens above the city's preoccupation with balancing the budget through inhumane social service policies and formulary reductions. It is time to instead find cost savings through reductions in runaway corporate welfare programs and corporate tax breaks.
The march will then move further downtown to the Stock Exchange where demonstrators will again call for systemic change in the U.S. healthcare system with demands for ending the nation's inefficient and inadequate system of utilizing private insurance as the primary funding mechanism for payment of health care costs.
According to Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), the United States is the only industrialized democracy without a formalized national healthcare policy and system. While the U.S. pays far more money per person on health care than any other nation, there are more than 46 million Americans without any healthcare.
Similarly, while the United States ranks number one in healthcare expenditures per person, it ranks 46th in a critical index of the average citizen's health. The U.S. ranks 26th in infant mortality, lower than many countries in the developing world, and 24th in life expectancy.
Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. and health benefits are the leading cause of labor strikes. Drug prices in Europe and Canada are often a third to a half lower for the same medications than in the U.S. Out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for most insured people are rising, even as their coverage is dwindling.
Up to 30 percent of private insurance companies' premiums are wasted on administrative costs, marketing, return to shareholders, and exorbitant executive compensations levels rather than on health care services, according to PNHP literature.
According to a study reported in the New York Times this month, McKinsey and Company, one of the nation's most respected management consulting companies, found that eliminating private healthcare insurance and replacing it with a government single-payer system of healthcare would save enough wasted dollars to more than pay for all the healthcare needs of the nation's 46 million uninsured.
Similarly, the McKinsey report stated that adopting a system of bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals at discount prices would also save enough money to pay for those healthcare needs.
It is imperative that New Yorkers turn out en masse for this historic event. If citizens do not up the ante regarding the debate over the failing U.S. healthcare system by demanding a true universal healthcare plan, we will continue to see government sell-out policies such as the Bush administration's recently enacted Medicaid prescription drug coverage plan. Experts uniformly criticize that effort as being more of a corporate welfare program for Big Pharma than a drug benefit for the elderly.
Join us in the planning and preparations! The final planning meeting takes place Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m., with pre-action trainings held at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 23 and on Tuesday, March 27. All of these meetings are at the LGBT Community Center at 208 West 13th Street.
Visit http://www.actupny.org or call 212-966-4873 for complete information.
┬йGayCityNews 2007
No More Bull! Healthcare For All
03/22/2007
ACT UP is commemorating the 20-year anniversary of its first demonstration with a rally and permitted march, commencing at 12 noon Thursday March 29 in New York City.
The march is the kickoff for an 18-month campaign for a "Real Universal National Healthcare System," including a call for prescription drug pricing controls utilizing governmental bulk purchasing of all drugs through a system of negotiated, deeply discounted prices and expedited access to generic drug substitution.
The campaign is being launched by ACT UP and a coalition of healthcare advocates (including Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program), dozens of labor unions, AIDS service organizations (including Housing Works and African Services Committee), disability advocates, and concerned citizens - including the elderly - at large.
The coalition vows to make the campaign THE major domestic issue through the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.
Organizers are also highlighting a local issue critical to all New Yorkers living with HIV/ AIDS, demanding "HASA For ALL!" This local campaign demands that the city expand its HIV/ AIDS Services Administration eligibility to include all persons living with HIV. Currently patients living with HIV are forced to delay treatment for HIV illness until they are so sick that they have full-blown AIDS in order to be eligible for access to the government's safety net services such as Medicare, food stamps, housing subsidies, and income support.
All New Yorkers are urged to come to this history-making event where citizens from all walks of life are taking to the streets to demand a real national healthcare system and an end to governmental support for the profiteering by private healthcare insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies.
Participants are asked to assemble at the Federal Building, Broadway and Worth Street, at 11:30 a.m. for a short rally demanding the end to private health insurance, and its replacement by a single-payer government healthcare system. Marchers will also demand the institution of prescription drug pricing controls based in discount bulk purchasing of all pharmaceuticals by the government and quick access for the American public to generic drug substitutes.
The rally will be followed by a march down Broadway to Trinity Church, the site of the very first ACT UP demonstration in 1987.
Demonstrators will then proceed to City Hall to demand that Mayor Michael Bloomberg expand "HASA For ALL!" Activists are calling on the City Council to get behind New Yorkers' demand for HASA For ALL to help pressure the mayor to prioritize the health and welfare of some of New York's most vulnerable citizens above the city's preoccupation with balancing the budget through inhumane social service policies and formulary reductions. It is time to instead find cost savings through reductions in runaway corporate welfare programs and corporate tax breaks.
The march will then move further downtown to the Stock Exchange where demonstrators will again call for systemic change in the U.S. healthcare system with demands for ending the nation's inefficient and inadequate system of utilizing private insurance as the primary funding mechanism for payment of health care costs.
According to Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), the United States is the only industrialized democracy without a formalized national healthcare policy and system. While the U.S. pays far more money per person on health care than any other nation, there are more than 46 million Americans without any healthcare.
Similarly, while the United States ranks number one in healthcare expenditures per person, it ranks 46th in a critical index of the average citizen's health. The U.S. ranks 26th in infant mortality, lower than many countries in the developing world, and 24th in life expectancy.
Medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. and health benefits are the leading cause of labor strikes. Drug prices in Europe and Canada are often a third to a half lower for the same medications than in the U.S. Out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for most insured people are rising, even as their coverage is dwindling.
Up to 30 percent of private insurance companies' premiums are wasted on administrative costs, marketing, return to shareholders, and exorbitant executive compensations levels rather than on health care services, according to PNHP literature.
According to a study reported in the New York Times this month, McKinsey and Company, one of the nation's most respected management consulting companies, found that eliminating private healthcare insurance and replacing it with a government single-payer system of healthcare would save enough wasted dollars to more than pay for all the healthcare needs of the nation's 46 million uninsured.
Similarly, the McKinsey report stated that adopting a system of bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals at discount prices would also save enough money to pay for those healthcare needs.
It is imperative that New Yorkers turn out en masse for this historic event. If citizens do not up the ante regarding the debate over the failing U.S. healthcare system by demanding a true universal healthcare plan, we will continue to see government sell-out policies such as the Bush administration's recently enacted Medicaid prescription drug coverage plan. Experts uniformly criticize that effort as being more of a corporate welfare program for Big Pharma than a drug benefit for the elderly.
Join us in the planning and preparations! The final planning meeting takes place Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m., with pre-action trainings held at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 23 and on Tuesday, March 27. All of these meetings are at the LGBT Community Center at 208 West 13th Street.
Visit http://www.actupny.org or call 212-966-4873 for complete information.
┬йGayCityNews 2007