PNHP

June 2014 Meeting Minutes

Granite State PNHP
Agenda, June 12, 2014
1.   Around the state: what is new?
2.    NH Single Payer legislation
a.    Drafting
3.    Educational efforts
a.    Speakers Bureau
b.    Powerpoints
c.    Movie
4.    Membership
a.    List-serv
b.    Recruiting
5.    Collaboration
a.    Students
b.    Maine colleagues

Marianne Savarese,  Health Care for Homeless, Manchester, RN  (by phone)
Chip Deming, retired Internist, Hanover (by phone)
Susan Zlotnick-Hale, Family Physician, Tilton VA
Donald Kollisch, Family Physician, WRJ VA
David Ecklein, lay member, engineer
Cosy Santiago, retired Child Psychiatrist Rumney,
John Swartz, lay member, engineer
Camilla Jones, retired Developmental Pediatrician
Susanne Smith, Rep from Hebron, Holderness
John Lloyd,  FP, Penacook NH
Richard “Dick” McNamara, Rep from Peterborough
Ahmed Kutty, retired Cardiologist, Peterborough

Around the State reports

  •  
    • Ahmed: we need a grass-roots effort and coordination with leadership
    • Dick:  History of Single-Payer in the state
      • SB 71 – Business profits tax Ă  study committee Ă  killed in the house
      • HB 133 (2003) – Single Payer Study Ă  Commerce Ă  killed in Committee and house
      • HB 88 (2007) – Single Payer Study Ă  passed Committee Ă  “laid on the table” in the House
    • John Lloyd –
    • Susanne – There is an MD in the House, Tom Sherman, well-respected, and one of the forces behind Medicaid expansion; he could be
    • Camilla – NHMS Survey (from UNH) – reported in the NNMS bulletin
    • John Swartz – looking forward to Community TV
    • Susan – in her visits at the VA, does a lot of education about health policy
    • Chip –
    • Cosy – talking with individuals.
    • David – blogs on the Internet (after edits from Cosy)
    • Don –
      • NH Progressive Summit – Richard Kirsch
        • 40-50 years
        • Medicare on the exchange
      • Vermont
  • Legislation
    • Susan:  VERY important for there to be a strong showing of supporters at Bill hearings. 
      • Get reporters to a well-attended hearing.
      • Don’t down-grade to a “Study Group”
      • This bill should come in this year, a budget year, because it is a “money” bill
      • Important to have support from both Senate and House
    • Camilla: we must push home the idea that SP will save money
    • Susan: Legislative Budget Accounting Office – a non-partisan group – will address all of the financial models for each bill
    • John S: the bill could include some of the ideas for fiscal impact
    • Ahmed: HR676 offers some model of fiscal implications, using language of credits, deductions, and premiums rather than the word “tax”
    • Dick: Tyler from the NH Insurance Office can help with the fiscals

            Action Steps: 

  •  
    • Don to send around the .ppt from Tyler about fiscal
    • Don to send out the NH draft bill
    • Writing Group: Ahmed, Cosy,   (who else: ?Marc, Rob, Gary)
      • Meeting
      • Resources

    Don to recruit a third and “charge” the group

  •  
    • “Our” reps can help craft it and help select a primary sponsor
  • Educational Efforts
    • Camilla: there is a 3rd draft of the NH Slide Set with slides improved based on suggestions from our last meeting – 37 slides
      • Camilla will send this to Don
    • David: consider using Google Docs for working documents
    • Don: consider having final documents available on the PNHP web-site
    • Camilla: when slide set is done, then ask all of our members to go out and give talks
    • Ahmed: the 25 minute versions of The Health Care Movie could be good for a small-group presentation.  The 67-minute version would be excellent for an already-committed group; it includes a lot of the history of Single-Payer efforts.
    • Susan: I’ll look into Red River Theater (Concord) presenting the film
    • Ahmed: we can urge our members to make a presentation at their hospital’s Grand Rounds
    • John L: watch Escape Fire
  • Membership
    • Camilla: the ListServ has activated a few members
    • Camilla: put on the ListServ “if you know colleagues who are interested, they can be involved even if they aren’t members of PNHP” – Cosy/David will post it
    • Ahmed: when we are ready, send out a solicitation to NHMS members
    • Camilla: WFEA AM radio station – “On Call with the NHMS” -Scott Colby interviews people on Wednesdays from 9-10am
    • Dick: there are a lot of other radio/TV show hosts
    • John/Camilla:
    • John: Todd Buckman of NHPR is on the contact  list  for PNHP Press Release
  • Collaboration
    • Don: will reach out to PHR to let them know that we have speakers available to address Health Care as a Human Right
    • Don: may reach out to our colleagues in Maine and Massachusetts, as well as Vermont