Sept. 15, 2011
Dear PNHP colleague,
Our health care crisis continues to deepen. On Tuesday the Census Bureau announced that 50 million people lacked health insurance in 2010, about 1 million more than in 2009, according to the bureau’s new calculation method. It also said the number of people living in poverty in the United States had increased to 46.2 million, the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been tracking it.
We need your support to bring about the only effective remedy for our nation’s health care woes: a publicly financed, single-payer national health insurance system, an improved Medicare for all.
Please help us build up single-payer activism by sponsoring a medical student’s participation in PNHP’s Annual Meeting on Oct. 29 in Washington. You can take action today that will help ensure that physicians will continue to be a strong force in our nation’s movement for single payer tomorrow.
We must raise $15,000 for our Nicholas Skala Health Activist Scholarship Fund to provide financial assistance to dozens of young leaders from throughout the United States, and can’t do it without the generosity of members like you.
Student PNHP members from across the country have submitted passionate essays on why the Annual Meeting would assist their development as physician-activists. Richard Bruno, a second-year medical student at Oregon Health and Science University and local student PNHP chapter leader, writes:
“For the past two PNHP annual sessions I have been inspired and challenged to lead efforts at my school and in my community. I am hoping to take the fight to more specialty societies and know that attending the Annual Meeting will help give me more resources to engage my colleagues.”
Your contribution of $100 will allow two additional students to register for the meeting. A contribution of $250 will allow a student from across the country to travel to our meeting to listen and learn from physicians and activists from around the world.
Please make a donation today. We want to bring as many student leaders to our Annual Meeting as possible to hear speakers such as Robert Evans, internationally esteemed Canadian health economist; the U.K.’s Jacqueline Davis, M.D., co-founder of Keep our NHS Public; Phillip Longman, an expert on the VA system; and the leaders of PNHP.
Please give generously to the Nick Skala Scholarship Fund. With 50 million uninsured and counting, our mission is more important than ever. Together we will hasten the day of achieving true health care justice.
Cordially,
Quentin Young, M.D., M.A.C.P.
National Coordinator
P.S. If you haven’t done so already, we cordially invite you to attend PNHP’s Annual Meeting on Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C., to help us strategize about the next steps forward for the single-payer movement. Register today! You’re also invited to register for our popular Leadership Training Institute the day before. For PNHP’s statement on the new Census figures, click here.
