ST LOUIS – Join the Gateway Green Alliance, the Universal African Peoples Organization and Missourians for Single Payer for a public forum on on the high cost of medicine on Thursday, March 12.

Ethical Society, Hanke Room
9001 Clayton Road
Ladue, Missouri, 63117
6:30 p.m.

December 19, 2019 – ALBANY, NY – The Green Party of New York announced its four top state legislative priorities for 2019: enact Single-Payer Universal Healthcare through passage of the NY Health Act; move towards a Green New Deal with an initial $10 billion annual investment, a halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure including in homes and buildings, and a declaration of a climate emergency; Marijuana Legalization and Criminal Justice Reform and Electoral Reform, starting with overturning the Public Campaign Finance Reform Commission's ballot access thresholds, reform of the campaign finance system they constructed, alongside ranked-choice voting and proportional representation to ensure democratic elections in New York State.

• This forum is sponsored by the Gateway Green Alliance, Universal African Peoples Organization and Missourians for Single Payer

ST. LOUIS – What are major problems with health care in the US that make it inaccessible for the poor, the working poor, and middle class families who often have insurance plans? Why is health care so expensive? Why does the US have higher infant and maternal mortality rates compared with some, poor countries?

Have you noticed? More people are talking about a National Improved Medicare for All single payer health program to solve our ongoing healthcare crisis.

Thanks to decades of advocacy for single payer by Greens across the country and others, the Democrats are talking seriously about Medicare for All and, for the first time, a majority of Republicans support it.

I received many different reactions from people when they first heard I had won the June primary write-in campaign and would be facing Barbara Lee in November.

As you can imagine, some people were shocked that anyone would challenge the most progressive congressperson in Washington. Others, however, immediately started sharing with me their everyday struggles and challenges that they wanted ME to pressure Barbara Lee about.

Of Course, Medicare For All would increase Federal Spending … But it would lower the total cost of health care

A recent report by the Koch Brothers-funded Mercatus Center at George Mason University found that moving to a National Improved Medicare for All single payer healthcare system would increase federal spending. They analyzed Senator Sanders’ Medicare for All Act and estimated it would increase annual federal spending by $32 trillion over ten years. Don’t let their attempt to weaken the strong support for single payer healthcare in the US fool you. Even though their report underestimates the savings, they admit that single payer would lower the total cost of health care.

I-1600 is less than 30 days away from the deadline to get all signatures in to the Secretary of State. 522,000 Washington State residents don’t have any healthcare, and most of the rest of us are underinsured. Change is in our hands now.

Insurance rates are going up 19% on average in Washington State next year, which will be devastating for working families. Trump wants to remove pre-existing conditions protection, which puts many of us and loved ones at risk.

Patients, health providers, and community activists will hold a protest and press conference outside of the entrance of the Johnston Medical Building (3333 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD) at Union Memorial Hospital at 11:00 am on Thursday, May 10.

The protest is against MedStar, which recently dropped Dr. Shawn Dhillon, a primary care doctor at Union Memorial for 16 years since he completed his residency in internal medicine there. Dr. Dhillon was dropped without cause from MedStar’s insurance plans, immediately terminating half of the patients in his practice and pressuring him to leave.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last September that a state single-payer public health plan would be a "good idea." But he said nothing about it in his State of the State and budget messages.

A state "Medicare for All" system would save $2.7 billion to insure state employees, which would take a big bite out of the $4.4 billion deficit the state faces.

If you missed the December monthly meeting, fear not. We taped our guest speaker, Dave Attridge from Recovery Now, NY – including the Q&A section – and you can watch it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/1pToHVfZ1Ak. Folks who were at that meeting were interested in creating a local platform plank for the Green Party of Monroe County and that process is in progress. We hope to have something for registered Greens to vote on at the next monthly meeting. That meeting happens to be…

Join us on Thursday, January 11th at 7:00 pm at the Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285 Clarissa Street in Rochester.

It’s going to be a meeting full to the brim as our guest speakers will be Alice Carli and Rohith Palli from the local chapter of the Campaign for New York Health. We will be discussing ways to get Single Payer Health Care in New York State. There will be action to take at this meeting, so it won’t be just talk. Just like last month, we hope to have a group of people (of any and all political persuasions) who would be interested in creating a Green Party local platform plank on health care.