On 26 July 2017, at our monthly meeting, I presented a brief condensed version of a presentation on single payer healthcare, and the 4 ways we are trying to make this happen for our state, and our nation.
I have been researching the issues and have come up with this list of facts, figures, and opinions. It is a complicated issue, and is completely opposed by the Republican Party. All of them.
Two terms must first be defined. Single Payer, and Universal Healthcare. Single Payer is also Universal. It provides Healthcare to everyone. Many countries have Universal healthcare that is not single payer, and it turns out that might be our only hope of covering everyone.
1 – HR 676 Expanded and Improved Medicare for All
HR 676 is the United States House Resolution calling for Single Payer Healthcare. It has 116 Co-Sponsors, and last month, the 31st District Democrats passed a resolution in support of this bill. Currently Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Jayapal are the only co-sponsors from Washington State. Rep. Heck, Kilmer, Delbene, Larsen and Reichert have refused to cosponsor the bill. No republican Representatives in the entire country has signed on to co-Sponsor the Bill.
I have urged Dave Reichert to support this bill in writing, on his message line, and twice in person. He acted as though he had never heard of it. I spoke directly to Rep. Kilmer last week. He stated he would not support it because of the low reimbursement rate to small rural hospitals. Rep. Heck has similar misgivings and is not ready to support this radical change. If we can’t get all Democrats on board, and no republicans will support this, it has no chance of success.
Medicare/Medicaid Reimbursement rates seem to be a major problem in this bill, which was first proposed in 2003, and has been brought forward in every session of congress since then.
2 – Washington State House Bill 1026
The Revised WA Health Security Trust is in house Committee. It is currently sponsored by 19 democratic Senators, and ZERO republicans.
3 – Washington State Senate Bill 5701
Creating the Washington Care Trust currently has 11 democratic, and ZERO Republicans.
This bill is backed by “Health Care for All – WA”. Please visit their website and join in support of this bill! www.healthcareforallwa.org they also will be backing an initiative to the people for the 2020 election. This is probably the only realistic time frame for gathering the support statewide that is necessary for success.
4 – Whole Washington
I am currently on the Steering committee for another group called “Whole Washington.” This is a Single Payer Healthcare Initiative whose motto is “Healthcare is a human right”. We are currently drafting the measure and fundraising with the hope of getting a resolution to the people on the ballot for the 2018 election.
www.wholewashington.org Please sign up on the webpage and donate if you can to this worthy effort. We are organized statewide, and are holding fundraising viewings of the movie “Now is the Time, Healthcare for everyone”.
Currently 11.3% of all Americans still have no healthcare insurance. We got really upset about 23 million people losing their insurance under Trump care. Under the Affordable Care Act 36.5 million people don’t have any healthcare coverage to lose. They never had it. We need to do better than this.
