The Seattle City Council has joined the growing nationwide movement of
cities, counties, and state legislatures to urge Congress to pass HR 676,
national single payer healthcare, introduced by Congressman John Conyers
(D-MI).
The cities, counties, and states endorsing HR 676 (including Tuskeegee,
AL; Warren County, TN; Lorain, OH; Erie, PA; Indianapolis, IN; and
the Kentucky House of Representatives) are listed at
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org/more
Many of the resolutions passed are available at that website. We urge
everyone to take similar action in your city, county or state. This is a
good way to build the support for HR 676. Our unions can lead the way to
make HR 676 politically possible!
The news release below was issued by Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata who
authored the resolution.
THE TIME FOR REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM IS NOW
On Tuesday, February 17 the Seattle City Council affirmed their unanimous
support for universal access to quality health care. In doing so, Seattle
joined 24 other cities and counties and 18 states passing similar
resolutions. I authored and sponsored this resolution upon the
request of the Washington chapter of Physicians for a National Health Plan
(PNHP).
Resolution 31111 urges the U.S. Congress to enact legislation to establish
and implement this right by adopting HR 676, the U.S. National Health
Insurance Act, proposed by Representative John Conyers or HR 1200, the
American Health Security Act, proposed by Representative Jim
McDermott. Both bills are the "single-payer" model, which would guarantee
everyone access to all medically necessary care, including prescription
drugs, with no co-pays or deductibles. Only the single-payer model
contains costs by eliminating the administrative waste and bureaucracy
associated with the private insurance industry, and it would assure
patients their personal choice of doctor and hospital. The resolution also
requests our Washington State Congressional delegation to support these
bills.
Other city councils calling for the bill's passage include those in
Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and Louisville, Ky. The
U.S. Conference of Mayors at its June meeting in Miami passed a similar
resolution. Local government is closer to the people and their
health care struggles than most elected officials. We see the real impacts
of our communities and constituents suffering. Additionally, the costs to
the City of Seattle of providing health-care benefits to its employees
have risen while City revenue has not kept pace. Here are some
sobering facts:
An estimated 160,000, 15.6% of King County residents less than 65 years of
age, do not have health insurance.
The number of uninsured children in Washington State has reached the
highest level in more than a decade; 3% of children in King County are
uninsured
Seattle's community health clinics provide treatment for individuals
regardless of their ability to pay and approximately 60% of their new
patients are uninsured costing King County $139,821,202 in 2006.
A recent letter from PNHP to the previous Secretary-designate Tom Daschle,
Health and Human Services says: Candidly, we are alarmed by some comments
by members of the Senate and by the Obama transition team that suggest
that the single-payer option is being excluded from
consideration - is 'off the table' - in the health reform
debate.other proposals "share the fatal flaw of preserving a central role
for the investor-owned health insurance industry in a private-public
financing mix. This approach simply won't work, as
numerous state-based experiments patterned after this model have shown.
These plans always fail because they are unable to control costs."
The resolution can be linked here:
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?s1=&s2=&s3=31111&s4=&Sect4=AND&l=20&Sect2=THESON&Sect3=PLURON&Sect5=RESN1&Sect6=HITOFF&d=RES3&p=1&u=%2F%7Epublic%2Fresn1.htm&r=1&f=G
#30#
In the 110th Congress, HR 676 had 93 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers.
HR 676 has been endorsed by 481 union organizations in 49 states including
118 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state
AFL-CIO's (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO,
MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI,
MT, NE, NY, NV & MA).
For further information, a list of union endorsers, or a sample
endorsement resolution, contact:
Distributed by
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayerhr676.org/
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SPONSORS
Seattle City Council Endorses Single Payer
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Seattle City Council Endorses HR 676
Unions For Single Payer, February 21, 2009
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