PNHP

Recent Articles of Interest

The Birth and Death of Single-Payer in the Democratic Party

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By Vicente Navarro
Jacobin, May 5, 2020 (accessed Feb. 17, 2026)

In 1984, I became the health adviser to Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign after Dr Quentin Young, one of my best friends and a well-known progressive physician in Chicago, suggested that the three of us meet. Quentin knew Jesse very well. Besides serving as Jesse’s personal physician, Quentin had developed a close working relationship with Jackson. Jesse had (and has) a very engaging personality, and Quentin was known for his persuasiveness. I accepted their proposal to advise Jesse in the Democratic Party primaries — an experience that became my baptism of fire in American politics (I had arrived in 1965 as a political exile from Franco’s Spain).

Twin Cities health care workers describe ‘fear,’ ‘intimidation’ due to ICE in hospitals

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By Erica Zurek
MPR News, Feb. 11, 2026

As L finishes her workday at Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis and makes her way to the parking lot where her car is, she cannot shake the fear that someone might grab her and take her away.

She also detects this same tension among other HCMC staff members who tell her they are afraid to come to or leave work.

L has requested that her real name not be used because she does not feel safe.

“I understand that DHS is doing their job, but others are just grabbing anyone they can grab, and that’s created a fearful environment for everybody. It just doesn’t feel safe anymore,” L said. “It puts us in a very vulnerable position.”

Health care workers have voiced their concerns about patient safety during “Operation Metro Surge.” Many of them are also worried about their own well-being and that of their colleagues. Six hospital employees spoke with MPR News and shared their feelings of anxiety and fear about going to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents present in their facilities and stationed at patients’ bedsides.

MPR News has verified the identity of the hospital employees and is granting them anonymity due to their fears of retribution.

They said that the stress and trauma they experience stems from being targeted based on their immigration status or skin color.

L mentioned that she has been hypervigilant lately. At work, she said, federal agents are appearing in plainclothes, which makes her feel uneasy. When traveling to and from work, she uses the camera in her vehicle and is constantly on the lookout for any unusual activity.

“It really feels like we’re all just living on survival mode,” L said. “I never thought I’d find myself in this position, and that fear is having real consequences for all of us health care workers.”

Staff mental health and sense of safety

The Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers do not carry out operations in hospitals.

“Law don’t conduct operations in hospitals, so those fears are unfounded and probably just ginned up by the media,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to MPR News.

But the statement contradicts employees’ observations.

Employees report that federal agents scope out staff. One nurse at HCMC said that a federal agent approached staff members who were attending to patients and asked them about their backgrounds, specifically inquiring about their places of origin. The employees chose to ignore the agents’ questions and did not respond.

Another employee at HCMC, who asked to remain anonymous for fear that their immigration status might single them out, shared a written statement with MPR News through a colleague.

They expressed feeling scared to go to work because of possible encounters with ICE agents. They are worried that if a federal agent finds their paperwork insufficient, they could be detained.

“Not all ICE agents are knowledgeable in immigration status, especially in my case,” they wrote. “We just started to build our small family and started to be financially stable. Am I going to be deported? What about my husband? What about our goals? What will happen to us? That is my question every single night before going to bed. It really affects me mentally and emotionally. This is like a nightmare.”

Hospital worker said concerns led her to carry proof of identity

A health care worker — who is Native American and prefers to be identified as M — said she and her community are experiencing targeted actions. She is frightened by the presence of federal agents at HCMC and said the agents have requested immigration documents from some staff members.

M has been carrying her documentation in a Ziploc storage bag since February 2025.

“I have my blood papers. I have my tribal papers. I have my birth certificate,” M said. “I’m literally Indigenous to this land, but I have to carry all my documentation because I know that they will take me, too.”

M has worked at the hospital for 34 years, but she feels conflicted about going to work due to the associated risks she faces as a person of color. She mentioned that the anxiety she has encountered while working at HCMC during this time surpasses anything she has dealt with before, even though she has never been completely comfortable in certain environments.

“I don’t have a safe space at work right now. I don’t know how far this is going to go. I don’t know what the repercussions will be for me as a person of color, working there,” M said. “I don’t know what the hospital will do for me if something happens to me.”

M said her focus is on caring for her patients, but she nearly experienced a panic attack. She had to pull herself off the floor and talk herself through the situation.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, M observed that hospital staff felt terror over the potential effects of the disease on themselves and their families, as well as concerns about what they might bring home. She said that the current situation in America is worse because there is nowhere safe for people to go. This instability is affecting M both mentally and physically. She is losing sleep because she is worried about what is happening in Minnesota.

MPR News reached out twice to Hennepin Healthcare, the nonprofit that runs HCMC, about its ICE protocols and the safety of staff and patients. A spokesperson acknowledged the inquiries and indicated that they would follow up soon and also shared the frequently asked questions section on their website for additional information. At the time of publication, MPR News had not yet received a response.

Hospital employees report patient injuries and disrupted care amid ICE encounters

An employee at M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital, who asked to remain anonymous, said that patients are being admitted to the emergency room with broken arms and concussions after interactions with federal agents. One person was chased off a building and their knee was shattered. Another person was running from federal agents and ran themselves into tachycardia and was admitted to the hospital.

A protestor was brought in because they were pepper sprayed by federal agents. The protestor told hospital staff that ICE agents also reached down their shirt and pepper sprayed the skin on their chest.

The employee said that these types of interactions between community members and ICE officers greatly affect them.

Many patients do not speak English and are afraid, according to the employee. If ICE is present in the room, patients are less likely to disclose personal information to health care workers. When ICE leaves, these patients are begging for help and asking to call their families.

“We are supposed to be providing the best patient care regardless of race, gender, class, sexuality, citizenship status or any other protected reason,” they said. However, as a person of color, this employee said that they feel uncomfortable in a room where ICE officers are present, noting that it seems as if the officers are “shopping” around.

ICE officers took a photo of one of their coworkers, who subsequently took a leave of absence. They said some employees have chosen to take family medical leave for their own protection, while others have decided to quit.

Additionally, a direct manager at the hospital allowed staff members to stop wearing their badges to prevent ICE officers from seeing their names.

A spokesperson for Fairview Health Services explained that their policies for handling ICE are the same as those for local law enforcement. M Health Fairview’s website emphasizes that staff and patient safety are the priority, that hospital leadership is monitoring the situation and will update staff as needed, encouraging them to share any concerns.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, a union of over 50,000 health care workers, said it opposes the presence of federal agents in hospital and clinical settings. In a statement to MPR News, the union said it is disappointed by the lack of action from health care systems and urged health care leaders to establish clear boundaries to protect patient privacy and ensure the safety of both patients and staff.

“All patients deserve to seek medical care without fear, and all healthcare workers should perform their duties without interference or intimidation,” SEIU said in a statement.

L, who works at HCMC, said she hides her fear and puts her emotions aside to stay focused on her patients.

“Our diversity at HCMC is one of our greatest strengths. Our mission has always been to provide care for everybody with dignity and respect, regardless of their background or circumstances,” L said. “At this point, everything is out of my control. So, I can sit here and worry about things that I can’t control, or just continue to live and try to make a difference in people’s lives.”

https://mprnews.org…

University of Minnesota changes class after accusations of UnitedHealth ‘propaganda’

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By Christopher Snowbeck
The Minnesota Star Tribune, Feb. 10, 2026

The University of Minnesota is revising a Medical School class financially supported by UnitedHealth Group after critics argued the for-profit insurer shouldn’t have a role in educating future doctors.

The course covers a topic called “value-based care,” an umbrella term used by the federal government and health insurers to describe programs and contracts that promote improved health care quality at a lower cost.

In November, U Medical School leaders touted the class as an innovative partnership, where the university and the prominent Eden Prairie-based health care company jointly developed and delivered a four-week elective course on an important trend that they said could substantially improve health care.

But Dr. Allison Leopold, a recent U graduate, argued in a December op-ed article the course was a platform for UnitedHealth executives to present “corporate propaganda” without a means for “counterpointing or fact-checking the company’s claims.”

In December, a petition started circulating that’s drawn more than 400 signatures from students, faculty, staff and alumni at the U who say they’re “deeply alarmed by the growing entanglement between our institution and UnitedHealth Group.”

In a statement this week, the U said it will continue to consider input from UnitedHealth Group as it makes changes to the class, which the medical school says is part of how it teaches students on the operational, administrative and financial aspects of health care.

“Based on student feedback, instructors are refining the content to focus more broadly on health system science, including value-based care,” the U said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Dr. Margaret-Mary Wilson, the chief medical officer and executive vice president at UnitedHealth Group, said the company valued its partnership with the university to support medical students learning about real-world applications of value-based care.

“As with any partnership, we are constantly evolving to meet the needs of the university and its students,” Wilson said in a statement.

While the U says it’s refining the course, the replacement class scheduled for next fall is “fundamentally different,” argued Miranda Harris Martinez, a fourth-year medical student and petition organizer.

“We were explicitly told by medical school administration that the replacement elective will not include any sessions led or run by [UnitedHealth Group],” Harris Martinez said.

Controlling costs

The dust-up illustrates ambivalence in Minnesota about UnitedHealth Group, the health care giant that’s been at the center of controversy over everything from allegedly excessive claims denials to operations that one Congressional critic called “a monopoly on steroids.”

Value-based care is a phrase that company officials constantly use when describing their business to investors, but Wall Street wasn’t the first to start hawking the idea, which aims to reverse financial incentives for wasteful services.

In the late 2000s, academics started promoting the idea of value in health care, which they defined as good patient outcomes per dollar spent on health care. With the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the federal government’s Medicare health insurance program doubled-down on the concept, pushing programs where health care providers could share savings with the government when they provided better care at lower cost. The arrangement inspired similar “risk sharing” agreements among private companies as well.

Economists think the adoption of value-based care principles could help explain why the health care spending growth rate in the United States has declined over the past two decades, with health care spending as a proportion of total national spending holding steady at about 17% from the late 2000s until 2023.

That means health care costs haven’t been going down, but their growth rate hasn’t been exceeding that of the national gross domestic product, which is the measure of the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. in a year.

Medical schools want to teach students about value-based care, but they’ve struggled to find the resources and expertise to do so, U faculty leaders wrote in November in a medical journal article about the class.

“One of the greatest challenges to implementation is the absence of a physician workforce with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to practice effectively in a system that rewards quality and cost-effectiveness over quantity and revenue maximization,” they wrote in NEJM Catalyst.

Harvard Medical School has partnered with its business school to teach value-based care, the U faculty leaders wrote, but the UnitedHealth Group partnership is apparently a first-of-its-kind partnership.

They started talking about the collaboration in early 2023. No decisions on course content and direction were made unilaterally.

The first class was offered in fall 2024 with students visiting UnitedHealth Group’s Optum campus in Eden Prairie. Eleven company leaders met with students to discuss everything from care delivery and contract negotiation to medical group leadership and pharmacy benefits. These visits were followed by reflection sessions back on campus.

In their write-up, U faculty leaders noted the idealistic nature of medical students was an issue.

“Collaboration with a for-profit company prompted skepticism for some,” they wrote. “At the same time, others aspired to executive roles within the for-profit industry. Naming this friction early … was critical to maintaining a productive learning environment.”

The company employs or contracts with thousands of health care providers. Its Optum Health division includes more than 2,000 clinics and 370 ambulatory surgery centers across the U.S. plus more than 700 home health agencies and 265 hospice centers.

‘Company-approved slideshow’

Leopold, who graduated from the U Medical School in 2025, said she participated in that first offering of the course. Over time, she became concerned the partnership between the U and UnitedHealth represented “the insidious seedling of an unholy matrimony,” she wrote in her op-ed article, which was published in January by a newsletter run by Wendell Potter, a prominent health insurance critic.

Value-based care can be good, Leopold wrote, for upholding evidence-based recommendation about virtuous health reforms such as investing in primary care and focusing on disease prevention. But because insurers can profit more when patients receive less care, that shifts the bias toward withholding care rather than providing it, she wrote. This benefits patients when a recommended treatment isn’t needed, but is otherwise harmful.

Leopold said she was told the U’s Medical School dean had negotiated to make sure the class would present a balanced picture. The sessions at Optum’s campus primarily consisted of UnitedHealth employees presenting a “company-approved slideshow,” she wrote, filled with vague corporate jargon and optimistic messaging about the future of health care.

The bulk of the learning occurred when students would “challenge the corporate newspeak,” she wrote. But she questioned why there wasn’t an expert voice challenging UnitedHealth Group’s model, particularly considering the many controversies surrounding the company.

“While this course may encourage students to think critically about the health care system, it also welcomes an onslaught of UnitedHealth corporate propaganda without a feasible means of counterpointing or fact-checking the company’s claims,” Leopold wrote.

UnitedHealth gives at least $250k

Since 2024, UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries have made gifts to the University of Minnesota Foundation totaling between $250,000 and $500,000. Neither the school nor the company described the extent to which contributions were connected to the class.

In the medical journal article, U faculty leaders wrote that UnitedHealth Group covered faculty costs, but did not specify a dollar value.

As word spread of Leopold’s op-ed article, the U’s chapter of a group called Students for a National Health Program started circulating a petition.

At a “listening session” on Dec. 9, U officials said UnitedHealth had approached the university about launching some sort of collaboration and then agreed to give a large general donation to make the course happen, said Harris Martinez, the fourth-year medical student and petition organizer.

“Organizers, petition signers and listening session attendees shared the common concern that UnitedHealth Group should have no role in our education or in directly instructing students on healthcare financing, given its track record of prioritizing profits over patients,” she said.

https://startribune.com…

Recent Members in the news

Dr. Ed Weisbart on MeidasTouch

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This article includes video

PNHP national board secretary Dr. Ed Weisbart spoke to the MediasTouch podcast on Jan. 23, 2026. He discussed the looming threats of Medicaid cuts and ACA premium increases—along with the urgent need for Medicare for All.

“It drives us crazy to know that the only reason people in this country can’t afford to get the lifesaving health care they need is because insurance corporations have put themselves in the middle,” said Dr. Weisbart.

“[They] have corrupted our democracy, and are finding every gain they can make to turn a profit.”

Dr. Claudia Fegan U.S. Senate testimony

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This article includes video

PNHP national coordinator Dr. Claudia Fegan testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on December 3, 2025. The topic of the hearing was “Making Health Care Affordable Again: Healing a Broken System.”

“The U.S. health care system does not work,” said Dr. Fegan. “It does not meet the needs of the American people.”

“An expanded Medicare for All system would solve many of our problems related to the cost of health care,” she continued. “We could have high-quality, trustworthy, universal health care that is free from profit-driven conflicts of interest and delivers better health outcomes for Americans.”

full hearing: https://help.senate.gov…

Dr. Diljeet Singh on NBC 4 Washington

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This article includes video

PNHP president Dr. Diljeet Singh and immediate past president Dr. Phil Verhoef spoke to NBC 4 Washington for a news segment that was posted on November 3, 2025.

“Tens of thousands of people die every year because they do not have health insurance,” said Dr. Singh, who was leading a march and rally at the U.S. Capitol as part of PNHP’s first ever Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C.

Recent Quote of the Day

John Geyman: The Medical-Industrial Complex…plus exciting changes at qotd

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“America’s Mighty Medical-Industrial Complex: Negative Impacts and Positive Solutions”

By John Geyman

This book has three goals: (1) to bring an historical perspective to how medicine and health care have evolved over the last 100 years, including the transformation of their original ethic of service with a moral purpose and how that ethic has been compromised by corporate greed; (2) to describe where an engulfing medical-industrial complex has brought us in terms of decreasing access to affordable health care, unacceptable quality of care, profiteering and fraud; and (3) to consider whether and how our unsustainable health care system can be brought into line against this deepening crisis in serving the needs of our people.

Copernicus Healthcare: http://www.copernicus-healthcare.org

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com…

Comment:

By Don McCanne, M.D.

Most of us want a health care system that has a mission to maintain and improve our health, yet we have a system that has lost its way in that its mission places a priority on advancing the interests of the medical-industrial complex at the cost of compromising our health care. John Geyman explains how we got there and how detrimental the impact has been. Although the political barriers to reform seem almost insurmountable, he does show us that there is a path to the essential reform that we need to bring health care justice to all. By understanding the source and nature of the dysfunctions, we can find our way out.

Exciting changes at qotd

As some of you may have heard, the interruption in the Quote of the Day messages was due to a TIA/stroke suffered by the author. Fortunately, the recovery has been dramatic, though incomplete. As a result, after two decades of daily commentaries in his retirement years, it is time for a change.

Future messages will be from noted health policy experts within and outside of PNHP. We will be receiving the latest from the best. With this change in format, we will also be changing the name to “Health Justice Monitor.” Launch is planned for next week.

I hope that you are as excited as I am as I become a consumer rather than a producer of the latest in health policy science. The more we understand, the sooner we will have health care justice for all.

Peace,
Don McCanne

Stay informed! Visit www.pnhp.org/qotd to sign up for daily email updates.

Quote of the Day interlude

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By Don McCanne, M.D.

Quote of the Day will take a brief interlude. We are refining our approach to communicating information to educate and advocate for single payer and health care justice for all.

See you soon.

Stay informed! Visit www.pnhp.org/qotd to sign up for daily email updates.

More trouble: Drug industry consolidation

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Over 30 years, dramatic consolidation has meant higher prices, fewer treatment options and less incentive to innovate

By Robin Feldman
The Washington Post, April 6, 2021

In the past few decades, three waves of mergers have substantially increased concentration in the pharmaceutical industry.

All told, between 1995 and 2015, the 60 leading pharmaceutical companies merged to only 10.

As a result, now only a handful of manufacturers are responsible for sourcing the vast majority of prescription drugs: Just four companies, for example, produced more than 50 percent of all generic drugs in 2017.

Drug companies were drawn to merging because of the lure of increased market power, improved synergies, larger economies of scale and more diverse product portfolios.

In the period following merger waves one and two, the industry generated fewer new molecular entities each year compared to pre-merger levels. Merged drug companies also spent proportionally less on research than their non-merged competitors.

Consolidation also enabled drugmakers to directly quell competition through what were known as “killer acquisitions,” in which they acquired innovative peers solely to stop potential competition.

In short, consumers were the losers from the two waves of drug company mergers. They confronted higher prices and fewer choices — and saw companies exploring fewer paths that might produce breakthroughs. To make matters worse, around 2010, another wave of mergers began.

As with the earlier waves, giant drug companies have merged. But in a new twist, in recent years, most consolidation has featured bigger players acquiring smaller start-ups. The difference reflects a dramatic shift in the structure of the pharmaceutical industry. Faced with stagnating research productivity, large drugmakers now rely on outsourcing their new drug research to start-ups and other small pharmaceutical firms.

Increasingly, these smaller players specialize in high-risk research and early drug development, with larger firms then gobbling them up and navigating the FDA’s regulatory process. For example, 63 percent of all new molecular entities in 2018 came from smaller biopharma firms, compared with just 31 percent in 2009.

The end result of now three waves of pharmaceutical consolidation is decreased or diverted new drug innovation, fewer treatment options and higher prices. Consumers have lost as firms fuse together to bolster the bottom line.

Robin Feldman is director of the UC Hastings Center for Innovation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com…

Comment:

By Don McCanne, M.D.

Yesterday we discussed consolidation of UnitedHealth/Optum and how it has become a mega-corporation of the medical-industrial complex. Today’s selection discusses consolidation within the pharmaceutical industry. The article describes how we can expect decreased or diverted drug innovation, fewer treatment options, and above all, higher prices. Works for the industry, but not so well for the people.

We’re just trying to introduce single payer Medicare for All. How much impact can that have on these mega-corporations? Where is our government in all of this? Aren’t they supposed to protect us? Maybe we’re aiming too low by advocating for a social insurance program. Maybe we should be taking over the industry so that we can gear it up to better serve us, the people. International comparisons do rate national health services very high in performance. Maybe if we talk about it a little more we can convince them that Medicare for All is a compromise that they can live with. We think we can too.

Stay informed! Visit www.pnhp.org/qotd to sign up for daily email updates.

Recent State Single Payer News

N.Y. Assembly passes universal health care bill

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By Dan Goldberg
Capital New York, May 27, 2015

The state Assembly on Wednesday voted for a single-payer health bill, the first time in more than two decades the chamber has taken up the measure.

The vote was 89-47, an overwhelming but largely symbolic step toward universal health insurance. The bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate where it is not expected to pass.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chair of the health committee, gave an impassioned speech on the floor in support of the New York Health Act, arguing that it was long past time for New Yorkers to rid themselves of the intrusive insurance companies whose goal is to deny claims rather than provide care.

“You do not have to be an Einstein to understand New York Health is the right choice for New York,” Gottfried said.

Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan, spent the legislative session barnstorming the state, trying to gain support for his bill, which would be funded through a progressive income tax and payroll assessments. There would be a net savings of $45 billion in health spending by 2019, Gottfried said, based on an analysis from Dr. Gerald Friedman, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, though that figure was attacked by Republicans.

The bill, Gottfried said, would lower costs by getting rid of insurance companies. It would lower administrative costs and allow doctors to focus their time on treating patients instead of fighting for reimbursements.

“What will bring down health care costs is taking out of the equation the more than 20 percent we now spend on administrators whose job it is to fight with insurance companies,” he said.

The plan’s benefits, Gottfried said, would be more generous than any plan on the current market, and there would be no co-pays or deductibles. The bill would also require a care coordinator for every member, though that coordinator is not empowered to choose the type of care a patient receives.

For some Republicans, it was all too good to be true.

“This bill promises remarkable things for New York State residents,” said Assemblyman Andy Goodell, a Republican from Chautauqua. “It says providers, ‘you’ll be paid a lot more money,’ and it says to the employees ‘you’ll contribute a lot less money,’ and it says to the patients ‘you’ll have much broader access,’ and to the employers ‘you’ll pay $45 billion less.’ My background is in math and economics and I haven’t been able to figure out how this all works. … There is no free lunch, there is no free health care.”

Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York Health Plan Association, which represents insurers, said the bill “represents an unrealistic, utopian view of a universal health care system where everyone would be covered, everything would be covered and the system would magically pay for it all.”

One problem, pointed out by Republicans, is that the offering, while generous, is the opposite of what public health officials are pushing, including those in the Cuomo administration, who have professed that insurance systems, and high deductibles and co-pays help ensure people use the health system judiciously instead of opting for more, often unnecessary, care.

“There is a role for insurance companies,” state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said Wednesday before the debate.

The last time a universal health care bill was on the Assembly floor was 1992. It passed but the debate was sidelined because of federal efforts to reform health care, which ultimately failed under the Clinton administration.

The passing of the Affordable Care Act, which subsidizes private insurance for people below a certain income level, was a valid effort, Gottfried said, but ultimately served to highlight why the system needs to be entirely scrapped.

“I think the A.C.A. has made it clear to people … there are profound problems in our health care system that cannot be addressed by incremental change in that system,” Gottfried said.

Wiping out an industry — even the insurance industry — was not seen as popular by many Republicans who worried about the loss of jobs and what might happen should this plan fail.

Goodell asked why the state should go down this road when when Medicaid — a government run insurance program for lower-income residents — is expensive, burdensome and not well liked.

“Why would we want to expand that type of approach,” he asked.

Gottfried responded that his bill would improve Medicaid by putting everyone into one pot. He would, he said, eliminate the two-tiered system. There’d be no greater risk of fraud under this law than in the current Medicaid program.

Republicans also pointed out how much was left to be done. The income tax rates have yet to be decided, but would likely cost the highest earners more than they currently pay for health insurance, while subsidizing lower income residents.

The analysis provided by Gottfried estimates no income tax on the first $25,000, an income tax of 9 percent on income between $25,0001 and $50,000, graduating to 16 percent tax for income over $200,000.

The legislation is also not specific on how to deal with residents of New York State who retire to another state.

That would have to be resolved at a later date, Gottfried said.

“Though we have numerous pages on this legislation, we have numerous holes also,” said Al Graf, a Republican from Holbrook. “There is no way I can go back to my constituents and tell them you may have coverage in the future. … This is an exercise in insanity.”

Moran said there is no certainty that providers would accept government set reimbursement, though Gottfried said almost all would receive more for their services than they are currently being paid.

The bill also “completely disregards the economic contribution of health plans — both to the state and to local communities,” Moran said.

Joseph Borelli, a Republican from Staten Island, cited Vermont, which tried and failed to enact a single-payer health system.

Vermont’s collapse has been a cautionary tale for even the most enthusiastic supporters of government sponsored health insurance, but Gottfried was having none of it.

“New York … bears no resemblance to Vermont,” Gottfried said. “The bill bears very little resemblance to Vermont. Their financing system is different. The two have absolutely nothing to do with one another, nothing! Why don’t you ask me whether New York will flood Just like Texas flooded if we enact this plan. The weather in Texas has as much to do with this as Vermont does.”

Read the bill here: http://bit.ly/1JVUg1I

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/05/8568890/assembly-pa…

N.Y. Assembly votes for universal health coverage

By Michael Virtanen, Associated Press
Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.), May 27, 2015

ALBANY – The New York Assembly voted 89-47 on Wednesday for legislation to establish publicly funded universal health coverage in a so-called single payer system.

All New Yorkers could enroll. Backers said it would extend coverage to the uninsured and reduce rising costs by taking insurance companies and their costs out of the mix.

With no patient premiums, deductibles or co-payments for hospital and doctor visits, testing, drugs or other care, New York Health would pay providers through collectively negotiated rates. It would be funded through a progressive payroll tax paid 80 percent by employers and 20 percent by employees.

Also, waivers would be sought so federal funds now received for New Yorkers in Medicare, Medicaid and Child Health Plus would apply.

“Employers are shifting more and more health care costs to workers or are dropping it entirely,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chief sponsor. “The only ones who benefit are the insurance companies.”

The Manhattan Democrat estimated universal care would save New Yorkers more than $45 billion annually, cutting the statewide total cost for health care to about $255 billion in 2019.

Assembly Republicans doubted Gottfried’s estimate and questioned what would happen to everyone now employed by insurance companies.

“All I can say right now I think this is the last think New York state needs as far as an additional cost,” said Assemblywoman Jane Corwin, an Erie County Republican. She said they’re still trying to grapple now with the cost of the federal Affordable Care Act. That extended health care coverage to about 1 million New Yorkers, more than half in Medicaid and the others in private insurance with possible tax subsidies to offset costs.

An identical bill hasn’t advanced in the state Senate and isn’t expected to before the legislative session ends in June. Senate Health Committee Chairman Kemp Hannon said Wednesday that Gottfried’s bill faces two major hurdles, resistance from senior citizens to giving up Medicare for a new state program and obtaining federal waivers to apply Medicaid and Medicare funding to support it.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/2015/05/27/assembly…

Single-Payer Health-Care Bill to be Introduced in Pa.

Posted

Berks Community Television (Reading, Pa.), Oct. 25, 2015

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A bill to create a single-payer health-care system in Pennsylvania will be introduced in the state Legislature by the end of the month.

The legislation is being introduced by Representative Pamela DeLissio of Philadelphia and was crafted with the assistance of HealthCare 4 ALL PA, a not-for-profit advocacy group. David Steil, past president of that organization, says the bill is simply called the Pennsylvania Health Care Plan.

“What it does is create a health-care system that includes every resident of Pennsylvania, that is publicly funded and privately delivered,” says Steil.

The cost of the program would be covered by increased taxes, which Steil acknowledges may present a significant obstacle to passage by the state Legislature.

The plan would increase the state personal income tax by an additional three percent, substantially less than most pay for private insurance. It would also add a 10 percent payroll tax on businesses which, as Steil points out, is much less than what businesses spend on health insurance now.

“The average cost for health care benefits for companies that provide health care is about 17 percent of payroll,” he says. “So at 10 percent of payroll, the saving is significant.”

Similar legislation has been introduced in each legislative session since 2007.

Most recently it was introduced as Senate Bill S-400. None of the earlier versions have not gotten very far. Raising taxes is a hard sell, especially to conservative lawmakers. But Steil insists they’re asking the wrong question.

“The question each one has to ask is not just ‘look at the taxes’ because there are taxes to it, it’s not free,” he says. “The question is, ‘How much less than you’re currently paying is this plan to you?'”

Steil says the bill would also eliminate health-insurance costs on pension plans and vehicle insurance, making the potential savings even larger.

http://www.bctv.org/special_reports/health/pa-legislature-introduces-sin…

Single-Payer Health-Care Bill to be Introduced in Pa.

Posted

Berks Community Television (Reading, Pa.), Oct. 25, 2015

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A bill to create a single-payer health-care system in Pennsylvania will be introduced in the state Legislature by the end of the month.

The legislation is being introduced by Representative Pamela DeLissio of Philadelphia and was crafted with the assistance of HealthCare 4 ALL PA, a not-for-profit advocacy group. David Steil, past president of that organization, says the bill is simply called the Pennsylvania Health Care Plan.

“What it does is create a health-care system that includes every resident of Pennsylvania, that is publicly funded and privately delivered,” says Steil.

The cost of the program would be covered by increased taxes, which Steil acknowledges may present a significant obstacle to passage by the state Legislature.

The plan would increase the state personal income tax by an additional three percent, substantially less than most pay for private insurance. It would also add a 10 percent payroll tax on businesses which, as Steil points out, is much less than what businesses spend on health insurance now.

“The average cost for health care benefits for companies that provide health care is about 17 percent of payroll,” he says. “So at 10 percent of payroll, the saving is significant.”

Similar legislation has been introduced in each legislative session since 2007.

Most recently it was introduced as Senate Bill S-400. None of the earlier versions have not gotten very far. Raising taxes is a hard sell, especially to conservative lawmakers. But Steil insists they’re asking the wrong question.

“The question each one has to ask is not just ‘look at the taxes’ because there are taxes to it, it’s not free,” he says. “The question is, ‘How much less than you’re currently paying is this plan to you?'”

Steil says the bill would also eliminate health-insurance costs on pension plans and vehicle insurance, making the potential savings even larger.

http://www.bctv.org/special_reports/health/pa-legislature-introduces-single-payer-health-care-bill/article_a41a6da0-7996-11e5-b8a4-2ba3ba19b536.html