Pennsylvania to be first state to enact single payer health care

[Spytheweb]

PROGRESSIVES4PENNSYLVANIA TO PRESENT HEALTHCARE PACKAGE TO LANCASTER CITY COUNCIL
August 4

On Tuesday August 11, 2009, the next public meeting of the Lancaster City Council, Progressives for Pennsylvania and Healthcare4ALLPA.org have been invited to make a presentation in support of Pennsylvania House Resolution 1660/Senate Bill 400.

The City Council is considering a resolution supporting these bills which, if passed, will make Pennsylvania the first state to enact single-payer healthcare - universal, comprehensive healthcare for all.

The Philadelphia City Council passed a similar resolution unanimously in February, and the Pittsburgh City Council passed it last week.

Municipalities, struggling to balance their budgets without raising taxes and/or cutting services, are beginning to realize that single-payer healthcare delivers the double benefit of providing healthcare to everyone while substantially reducing the costs they now sustain in covering their own employees with private insurance company policies.

The presentation will be made on August 11, 2009, starting at 7:30 PM at the Lancaster City Council Public Meeting held in Southern Market Center - 100 S. Queen St., Lancaster, PA, 17602.

http://www.healthcare4allpa.org/home.php

 

[Spytheweb]

Re: Pennsylvania to be first state to enact single payer health care

Victory for Patients and Providers; Defeat for Profit-First Health Insurers

Yesterday's stunning development (see article below) that set back the monopoly-consolidation plans of Pennsylvania's two largest health insurance companies, Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross and Pittsburgh-based Highmark, also dramatically boosts the prospects of Pennsylvania's State Legislature passing our universal healthcare legislation, the "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act." Governor Ed Rendell -- alone among state executives -- is on record, repeatedly saying that he will sign our public single payer bill once it hits his desk.

Healthcare for All Pennsylvania Executive Director Chuck Pennacchio responded to yesterday's news: "This dramatic defeat for the previously 'untouchable' health insurance giants signals a power shift in Harrisburg that very few people saw coming."

Added Pennacchio, "Healthcare for All Pennsylvania's 8,000 members have spent much of the last year fighting this monopoly merger, while advocating for the proven Single Payer Solution-- both on the basis of economics, human decency, and simple common sense. Today we are victorious in blocking the expansion of an industry that causes the loss of 31 cents out of our every healthcare dollar -- an industry that profits off of our suffering, and puts 95% of us at risk of medical bankruptcy should we experience a medical catastrophe. Having achieved the first of our two goals, we are now poised to enact into law the 'Family and Business Healthcare Security Act.'"