Everybody In Newsletter - July 2013

H E A L T H C A R E - N O W !

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Everybody In

Health Care for All Colorado, under the leadership of Executive Director Donna Smith, has received the green light on wording for a constitutional amendment ballot initiative.

The referendum question, which would appear on the ballot in November of 2014, would require the state legislature to enact a single public insurance plan that would guarantee access to healthcare for every resident of Colorado.

The ballot question reads: "Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the provision of one public health insurance program to allow all Colorado residents access to a single standard of healthcare as a matter of human right and public good, and, in connection therewith, requiring the General Assembly to enact legislation creating a public health insurance plan, requiring the Colorado department of revenue to collect a premium not to exceed 9% of an individual’s income to fund the plan, and prohibiting the control or administration

of premiums by a for-‐profit, nonpublic entity or corporation?"

HCA Colorado activists now face the organizing challenge of collecting 86,000 valid signatures to put the question on the ballot -‐ which will require collecting 100,000 or more to ensure a safe margin of error. The campaign has already brought out misinformation and smears from

single-‐payer opponents, such as Linda Gorman, healthcare analyst for the libertarian Independence Institute, who told the Denver Post in March that single-‐payer systems "are unbelievably expensive for what you get... They eliminate treatment and physician choice, make everyone wait for care, degrade the infrastructure needed to diagnose and cure disease, and result in widespread denial of care to those who are seriously ill"... all of which are demonstrably false statements.

The signature drive will comprise a massive public education and organizing campaign among Coloradans, placing Colorado among the forefront of states organizing for state single-‐payer health reform. Donna Smith, Director of HCA Colorado, told the Denver Post in March that “[t]his is an education process for us, to find the depth of the progressive community in Colorado.”

To learn more, visit Health Care for All Colorado's website at www.HealthCareForAllColorado.org.

Healthcare-NOW!’s Quarterly Newsletter on the Single-Payer Healthcare Justice Movement

2013 National Strategy Conference

Healthcare-‐NOW!’s National Strategy Conference will be on October 5th and 6th in Nashville, TN! Join activists from around the country to plan our strategy for 2014. Register at Healthcare-‐Now.org.

Medicare’s 48th Anniversary - July 30th

Join us in telling Congress: "Expand Medicare to everyone in the US!" Actions are happening all over the country to celebrate. Email Congress and find an action near you at Healthcare-‐Now.org.

www.Healthcare-Now.org! Issue No. 2 - Summer 2013

HCAC's Donna Smith (right) with her state Senator Mark Scheffel (center).

Colorado Activists Pursue Single-‐Payer Ballot Initiative 86,000 Signatures Needed

Employer Mandate DelayedEmployers that don't provide health insurance for their workers won’t face penalties until 2015, a one-‐year delay to the Obamacare component. "Giving big business a year longer than individual citizens on insurance mandates shows this administration's continued willingness to favor corporate interests over those of the average citizen," says Donna Smith.



Actor Michael Milligan has been touring the country with his new one-‐man play called Mercy Killers. Michael plays Joe-‐-‐who loves apple pie, Rush Limbaugh, the 4th of July, and his wife, Jane. He is blue-‐collar, corn-‐fed, made in the USA and proud, but when his uninsured wife is diagnosed with cancer, his patriotic feelings and passion for the ethos of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are turned upside down.

We asked Michael about Mercy Killers, his motivation for creating the play, and it’s reception so far. Find out more at MercyKillersThePlay.com.

Without giving away too much, what is the Mercy Killers play about?

It's difficult as a writer to sum up what it's about. On one level the play is about our healthcare system, but on another level it's about our value system, or I should say value “systems.” The tragedy is that we have contradictory value systems and they don't work together. It's easy for activists to think about the healthcare system as a question of right and wrong, but what I explore in the play is how the value system which is antagonistic to universal healthcare has its own kind of logic and actually, in my opinion, comes from a noble, if misguided, place.

It is easy for us to not take the opposition at their word, but I think this is a mistake. Sure, there are the insurance companies and the drug companies, and other insidious actors, but their are also people who genuinely believe in “self reliance,” “personal responsibility,” and the “free enterprise” system. I believe in our activism that it is a mistake to disregard these people's point of view.

My play is about an auto mechanic who is giving testimony to the police about his wife who was terminally ill. There is some suspicion that he may have helped her to die. This situation basically gives “Joe” the chance to describe what happened, how they lost their insurance, their house, etc. A twist in the story is that Joe is something of a libertarian with sympathies towards the Tea Party. So, as he is telling his story he is confronted by the contradictions in his world view. But even as those contradictions are revealed, it is clear Joe is a very decent man who loved his wife and his work.

And in the classic sense that is what makes the play a tragedy in my opinion. In the old Greek sense, a tragic character is one who is noble, but who has a tragic flaw. That is the tragedy of Joe and perhaps America as well. Self reliance, liberty, personal responsibility, these are noble things, but taken to the extreme, they have within them a tragic flaw.

Why did you decide to write Mercy Killers?

Artists as a group are marginalized by the healthcare system. If you work in the arts you or someone you love will inevitably face a medical emergency without health insurance. It is already a very hard, meager life where you are scrambling to pay rent, any kind of healthcare costs can put you right over the edge.

I was in a relationship for several years with another artist who did not have insurance, and when she did the insurance did not provide the care she needed to treat her chronic illness. It put horrible strain on our relationship and on our finances. I had another friend, a classmate from Juilliard who had some troubles and ended up living on the street for over a year in D.C. He came to see me in a show. I ran into him at the stage door and he had all of his belongings in a little sack. I took him in and spent the next month trying to find him housing and get him the medical care he needed-‐-‐he had a very frightening looking lump on his arm and had slipped a disk in his back. He

also was on some medication, but clearly the supervision of his condition was very lax. This is someone whom as a society we sent to the most elite performing arts conservatory in the world, he has performed at some of the most prestigious theaters in the country, but when he had some problems, we as a society just send him out to die in the street like a dog.

So those things bother me very much. These things coincided with my involvement in some Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, and sitting in jail with some other protesters, just regular, decent folks, made me realize that my situation wasn't unique. Other people are going through the same struggles. And that's another part of this tragedy.

When a medical emergency strikes you or a loved one, you become so consumed by trying to figure out how to deal with it, how to stay afloat, that the idea of actually joining with other people and addressing the problem collectively doesn't even occur as a possibility. So, there is a great silence. There is a great, untold history of great struggles with the healthcare system. It is untold because people are overwhelmed, or they feel ashamed, or the grief is too great, or they just want to suck it up, or they want to project a positive attitude.

So last Spring, I was without insurance for the first time in my professional life and I happened to pass kidney stones. I didn't know what was going on, I thought I was dying, but I didn't want to go to the emergency room because I felt like I couldn't afford it. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

You've been taking Mercy Killers on the road, doing performances around the country and soon internationally. What has struck you most about your audiences' reactions to the play?

I did a lot of research for the play, read a lot of books, interviewed people, vetted the play with some doctors. I wanted to make sure the details were accurate and I wasn't just doing some muckraking.

However, I was nervous at first that the play was too overwrought, the tragedy involving too many misfortunes. Unfortunately, from the talkbacks I've done the situation described in Mercy Killers is all too familiar. I remember getting picked up by one host in south eastern Ohio who said in a very dead pan manner that my coming to her town was very timely because old “Mr. So-‐and-‐So” had just walked out into the woods and shot himself after his cancer diagnosis because he didn't want to bankrupt his family.

Another interesting thing is that conservative audience members agree with the message of the play, that Joe's situation is sad and wrong. They just have a different understanding of how to deal with it. And this is an important lesson. For example, at one talk back, things got a little tense between two of the panel leaders and a couple in the audience who described themselves as being on the “extreme right wing.” Now remember that when I tell you later what the wife in this couple said to me. My panelists were Deb, a former teacher and union leader from Cleveland and Kurt a lifelong autoworker and proud union member. They presented on single payer. Now the conservative couple in the audience just came right out and said that the government can not be in charge of anything, the government is ineffective, inefficient and will botch up everything. Ironically, the husband was a career military man with some experience in the defense industry. However, after the show all of these people went out to dinner together. The wife of this “extreme right wing” couple confided in me that they weren't insensitive to the situation in the play, they just had a different idea how to handle it. I asked for what she would recommend. She suggested that all insurance

Mercy Killers Humanizes American Healthcare System

Michael Milligan Performing Mercy Killers.



companies and hospitals should be not-‐for-‐profit and that their should be a salary cap of around $250,000 for CEO's and administrators. She said that there are very capable people who would love to run them as a public service.

So this was a very important lesson. This person who described herself as “extreme right wing” offered a policy proposal that was far to the left of anything in the Affordable Care Act. I'm pretty sure that our state single payer bills don't even come close to salary restrictions for CEO's and administrators as this “extreme right wing” lady's suggestion.

My point being, we have to give up the rigidity of our language, of our positions. Oftentimes the people who think they oppose us don't. They just get hung up on our language because it triggers deep, entrenched ideological defenses. Oftentimes, if we just have conversations with people without all the boilerplate, we discover shared values and common grounds.

In partnering with the single-‐payer healthcare movement to host showings of Mercy Killers, are there any lessons you've learned about how advocates for social justice and artists can better collaborate?

We need our own art. Art that we own. Everything is mediated by corporate interests, or sponsors, or managers, etc. who decide what is going to appeal to the masses or to somebody's bottom line. We should divest our entertainment dollars from these enterprises and consume the kind of art that resonates with our own values. Basically, art as it's produced now is very

expensive. And because it is expensive, it sets a very narrow spectrum on what it can be about.

What I believe is that art is the freest thing in the world. All I need is a room, some chairs, and an audience. That's it. But if I go the traditional route, I've got to submit the play to the literary manager of some theater who will run it by the managing director. These theaters are mostly supported through

corporate sponsorship and subscriber bases. Unfortunately, subscriber bases tend to be of a certain demographic. The bottom line is that a play with some political teeth, like Mercy Killers, is not going to be performed on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. That's the actual name of a theater at one of our finest institutions-‐-‐named for the former head of United Health who defrauded the people of Minnesota of billions of dollars.

So, we need our own art. What I've been doing is partnering with organizations around the country. Basically, they've helped me with travel expenses,

they find a venue (hopefully a free one!), and they gather an audience. I have performed the show for free and then I just pass the hat around afterwards-‐-‐if people like the show, they can drop a couple bucks in the hat. Alternatively, I have performed the piece for a small fee and let the organization use the performance as a fundraiser. I'm still working out the best model for this. In order to organize a performance I have to make myself available months in advance, which means that I clear my schedule and make myself unavailable for paying gigs. That's why I pass the hat afterwards, because I want my art to be my livelihood! Otherwise I'll be performing in another production of Midsummer Night's Dream for the next 40 years and MY plays won't have their life!

On May 23, 2013 single-‐payer activists in North Carolina launched a new organization, "Health Care Justice," an affiliate of Physicians for a National Health Program, at a well-‐attended event in Charlotte. Keynote speaker Dr. Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, showed the crowd how North Carolina and our nation could save billions of dollars by adopting a single-‐payer program to finance the costs of healthcare while covering all Americans. If adopted, Friedman said,

North Carolina alone would save $18.7 billion, a state which has experienced a 400 percent increase in healthcare costs since 1990.

The launch received positive press coverage from the Charlotte Business Journal, in an article that quoted Friedman extensively and explained the case for

single-‐payer reform to readers, and inspired Jack Bernard, a retired healthcare executive, former Jasper County, Ga. commission chairman, and former chairman of the Jasper County Republican

Party, to write an op-‐ed in the Charlotte Observer supporting a single-‐payer healthcare system. " After spending 25 years in the healthcare field," he wrote, "I have become skeptical of many of Washington’s reform efforts, especially by my party, the GOP... Surely, at a time when wage earners are being faced with ever increasing premiums and higher deductibles, we should at least consider Medicare for all or a similar single payer system. The real question is whether either party is willing to stand up to the drug and insurance lobbies and do what is best for America."

North Carolina “Healthcare Justice” Launched

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner is currently leading the polls in the race for Mayor of New York City, and has offered a plan to turn NYC into a "single-‐payer laboratory" for the country, by creating a public insurance plan for the City's 300,000 municipal employees, 300,000 retirees, and 500,000 undocumented immigrants who are excluded from the Affordable Care Act.

Weiner has offered the plan as a way of controlling the City's rising healthcare costs by removing for-‐profit insurers as middlemen for covering municipal employees and retirees.

The details of the proposal remain unclear and Weiner has suggested creating a Task Force to develop all of the details. Single-‐payer advocates have pointed out, however, that the Weiner initiative is not an actual single-‐payer plan, despite embodying aspects of single-‐payer system such as replacing private insurance plans.

"Single-‐payer really means there's just one payer left in the healthcare system," explained PNHP co-‐founder David Himmelstein to Capital New York. "You can't really do that as the mayor of New York, because Medicare would still exist and

private employers, private plans would still exist, so there would still be multiple payers."

The plan also includes a controversial measure that would shift 10 percent of premium costs onto NYC municipal employees, and up to 25 percent of premium costs onto employees who smoke. The cost-‐shifting component is bound to receive a mixed reception from single-‐payer supporters, who advocate for a cost-‐efficient single-‐payer system in order to delink health insurance from workers' employment status and to relieve working families from unaffordable healthcare costs.

Anthony Weiner’s “Single-‐Payer” Plan for New York City

Estimated $18.7 Billion in Savings



Healthcare-‐NOW! Launches National Internship ProgramThis Spring, Healthcare-‐NOW! launched a national internship program enabling students and activists from around the country, under the supervision of HCN Director of Organizing Benjamin Day, to work in collaboration with local single payer affiliate organizations.

HCN's two Spring interns were Karim Sariahmed, a senior in Biology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania; and Thomas Vo, a Masters student at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursuing a certificate in Health Policy and Practice. Karim and Thomas focused on developing the “Single-‐Payer Activist Guide to the Affordable Care Act,” which will be released in August.

HCN's summer interns will be Michael Broder, a senior in Health and Societies at the University of Pennsylvania; Samira Islam, a Masters in Public Health student at Drexel University in Pennsylvania; Leeyah Rassu, a recent graduate in Sociology and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University in Texas; and Rebecca Suval, a Licensed Vocational Nurse and Masters Student in Health Administration at California State University, based out of San Francisco.

Healthcare-‐NOW! internships involve a mix of research and organizing experiences, working with HCN's national office and local affiliate single-‐payer organizations. Interested students and activists should email expressing their interest, along with a resume if possible, to Benjamin Day at ben@healthcare-‐now.org.

Board of Directors Welcomes New MembersHealthcare-‐NOW!’s Board of Directors met in Philadelphia on June 22 to approve our budget, work plan, and changes to the by-‐laws. The Board added Vanessa Beck (HCN activist and former Organizing Director), Walter Tsou (PNHP), and Cindy Young (NNU) to fill vacancies.

RNs United for the Protection of HealthcareNurses across America created a Human Chain against the Chained CPI (changing the way the

COLA is calculated), and against increases in Medicare premiums, rate reductions for Medicare and

Medicaid providers, and raising the age for Medicare and Social Security. Find out more at NationalNursesUnited.org.

Affiliate UpdatesUnions for Single Payer Health Care continues to add labor endorsements for HR 676 including the Idaho AFL-‐CIO, Kentucky IBEW Local 369, United Steelworkers Local 155, the New Hampshire AFL-‐CIO, and the Rhode Island AFL-‐CIO since March. Find out more at UnionsForSinglePayer.org.

Health Care for All Oregon won a major victory on July 6 when the Oregon Senate followed the House in passing HB 3260, which instructs the Oregon Health Authority to compare a single-‐payer healthcare system for the state with three other financing options, including a public option. Find out more at HCAO.org.

The Illinois Single Payer Coalition continues to impress with dozens of events and outreach for single-‐payer healthcare. They regularly show movies, including The Waiting Room and The Healthcare Movie. Find our more at ILSinglePayer.org.

Healthcare-‐NOW! Maryland hosted a dinner with PNHP President Dr. Andrew Coates in support of their Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign. Find out more at MDSinglePayer.org.

Health Care for All Minnesota hosted a tour of Mercy Killers. Find out more at HCAMN.org.

Your state update not included here? Email us at jeff@healthcare-‐now.org!

Healthcare-‐NOW! NYC Collects 10,000 Signatures for NY HealthBy Healthcare-‐NOW! New York City -‐

Over 200 single-‐payer advocates from across the state came together in the state capitol of Albany in May with one clear message for their elected representatives -‐-‐ that healthcare is a human right and should be treated as such by passing the New York Health bill.

An extra special thanks to all of those who participated in the 100×100 Campaign and put in

long hours petitioning on hot summer days at parks and events all across the City. Thanks to

your efforts we were able to collect our goal of 10,000 signatures in support of NY State’s universal, single-‐payer healthcare bill and, as promised, deliver those petitions to Governor Cuomo.

The result? We now have enough co-‐sponsors for the New York Health bill to pass in the Assembly! Find out more information at HCN-‐NYC.org.

At the Left ForumThe annual Left Forum in New York City brought together a number of panels on organizing for healthcare justice: past, present, and future. Single-‐payer activists led panels on "The Political Economy of US Healthcare,” “the Medical Industrial Complex and the Affordable Care Act," and "Organizing for Health Care Justice in the Age of Austerity and the Affordable Care Act."

Don’t See Your Rep. On This List of HR 676 Cosponsors?

Call Them! 866-‐220-‐0044Reps Christensen [VI], Chu [CA-‐27], Clarke [NY-‐9], Clay [MO-‐1], Cohen [TN-‐9], Cummings [MD-‐7], Doyle [PA-‐14], Edwards [MD-‐4], Ellison [MN-‐5], Rep Engel [NY-‐16], Farr [CA-‐20], Green [TX-‐9], Grijalva [AZ-‐3], Gutierrez [IL-‐4], Holt [NJ-‐12], Honda [CA-‐17], Huffman [CA-‐2], Johnson [TX-‐30], Johnson [GA-‐4], Lee [CA-‐13], Lewis [GA-‐5], Lofgren [CA-‐19], McDermott [WA-‐7], McGovern [MA-‐2], Miller [CA-‐11], Moore [WI-‐4], Nadler [NY-‐10], Nolan [MN-‐8], Norton [DC], Pingree [ME-‐1], Pocan [WI-‐2], Rangel [NY-‐13], Roybal-‐Allard [CA-‐40], Rush [IL-‐1], Schakowsky [IL-‐9], Scott [VA-‐3], Takano [CA-‐41], Welch [VT], Wilson [FL-‐24], and Yarmuth [KY-‐3].

Karim Sariahmed and Thomas Vo

Director of Organizing Benjamin Day [far right] presents at the Left Forum.