Spring 2012 issue of "CommonHealth," the biannual newsletter of the Universal Health Care Education Fund (UHCEF) and Mass-Care.

1. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE EDUCATION FUND ~ VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 ~ SPRING 2012
CommonHealth
Massachusetts Medicare for All Bill Gets a Hearing Single Payer Amendment Sparks Debate on State Senate Floor
Congratulations to all the single-payer supporters who called their
senators on a very short time-line to support Senator Jamie
Eldridge’s single-payer amendment to the Senate’s Health Care Cost
Control bill S.2066. The groundswell of support from a broad range
of grassroots organizations from Mass-Care’s coalition sparked the
first single-payer debate on the floor of the Senate and culminated
with 15 out of 40 senators supporting it! Only six more senators are
needed to pass single payer next time! Senator Eldridge said in his
blog: “Many of my colleagues told me the phone just kept ringing
with single-payer supporters. Some legislators who may have been
wavering stood with us because they knew their constituents were
watching. Others gave the amendment more serious consideration
The “Act for Improved Medicare for All in Massachu- after initially dismissing it.” He went on to say: “We didn’t win on
setts: Providing Guaranteed, Affordable Health Care” - our amendment yesterday, it’s true ... However, yesterday’s vote was
Mass-Care’s single-payer bill - came before the Joint absolutely a victory – and it was a victory because of the
Committee on Health Care Financing on December 15th. grassroots.”
Despite barely a week’s notice, a respectable array of
advocates offered testimony. Senator Dan Wolf spoke The amendment filed by Senator Eldridge would have implemented a
movingly of the inevitability of the leap to truly universal plan to achieve a single-payer system (similar to the plan Vermont
health care. Senator Jamie Eldridge and Professor Jerry has established), but only if benchmarks on slowing the growth of
Friedman spoke, as did Ben Day, Reverend Judy Deutsch, healthcare costs demonstrated that a single-payer system would
Leo Stolbach, MD, Carroll Eastman, MD, Katie Murphy, RN out-perform the cost control benchmarks in the present Cost
and Sandy Eaton, RN. US Senatorial candidate Marisa Control bill S.2066. The Senate bill relies on various payment
DeFranco argued forcefully for a just healthcare system. reform strategies and significant increases in regulatory control by
A fair number of supporters came to the event, although the Division of Insurance to slow the growth in health care costs.
their numbers looked sparse in the expanse of Gardner
Auditorium. - Sandy Eaton The 15 Senators who supported the single-payer amendment were:
Senators Brownsberger, Chang-Diaz, Clark, Creem, DiDomenico,
Donnelly, Downing, Eldridge, Fargo, Jehlen, McGee, Montigny,
Pacheco, Rosenberg and Wolf. We need to thank these courageous
senators for voting “yes” on amendment #125 despite opposition by
the Senate leadership.
Senator Chang-Diaz stated during the floor debate: “It's foolish
and stubborn for us to refuse to even look at what other countries
and other states are getting right, and how they have been able to
succeed or fail ... at providing high-quality health care at a lower
cost." Senator Montigny said: “The first thing we have to do is
admit right now in this climate the employer can’t pay their
premiums and the insured cannot.”
The State House News reported that “(Senator) Brownsberger
called the amendment ‘entirely consistent’ with the thrust of the
underlying bill that aims to shave $150 billion in health care costs
Katie Murphy & Sandy Eaton over 15 years,” and (Senator) “Pacheco suggested the amendment
represented a warning to the industry that he said has failed to
"I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that, unless control its costs by showing them that lawmakers were serious
you have a single-payer system - in which everybody is about alternatives.” Check out Mass-Care’s website
automatically covered, then you're probably not going to (www.masscare.org) for more information on the exact wording of
reach every single individual." - President Barack Obama, the amendment, a summary of Senate Bill 2066 and other comments
July 22, 2009 from senators. - Pat Berger

2. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE EDUCATION FUND ~ VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 ~ SPRING 2012
Fourteenth Annual Mass-Care Single Payer Gala: In Memory of Ben Gill
Our second honoree, Dr. Arnold We were fortunate to have two
Relman, was introduced with a New excellent keynote speakers. Mark
York Times video, making this Mass- Dudzik, National Coordinator of the
Care’s bold step into the world of Labor Campaign for Single Payer,
multi-media. Dr. Relman voiced his stressed that single payer will not be
ongoing concern about the problem of won without the strong leadership of
viewing health care delivery as a labor.
business, making it impossible to
control costs.
Leo Stolbach, Judy Deutsch & Marsha! Deutsch
Ryles Jazz Club was once again the
setting for this year’s very
successful Single Payer Gala. With
lively, tuneful music by Joe Lillyman’s
Jazz Ensemble, participants enjoyed Jeff Santos
Abram Chipman, Sue Chipman & Mike Pattberg
delicacies catered by S&S deli. MC
Katie Murphy kept the program Not only did we have the video, we Jeff Santos, host on Revolution
moving, and it was a full one! also had a representative from Boston 1510 AM, emphasized the
Brookline Cable TV taping the entire importance of raising the profile of
event! (We look forward to seeing single payer throughout
that on BAT in the near future.) Massachusetts, and mentioned that
we need to link up with celebrities,
including professional sports figures.
Pat Berger & Joe Li!yman
After Vic Bloomberg delivered some
comments in appreciation of Dr. Ben
Gill, Sandy Eaton, our first honoree, Cape Care Activist & Brian O’Ma!ey Ben Day & Alexis Marvel
spoke about how he got involved in with Maria Termini in Background
the movement for health care
A third speaker, UMass student
justice, stressing the importance of We also had a sing-along as John
Alexis Marvel, spoke about the
our new urban initiative. Healey provided great new single-
problem that students have with high
payer lyrics to the tune of “Teach
Your Children.” health insurance fees in the
University of Massachusetts system.
Mass-Care is happy to be supporting
the students’ efforts to correct that
situation. Ben Day ended the
afternoon with brief comments about
the upcoming Big Cities Campaign. -
Bea Mikulecky
Mike Fadel, Arnold Relman & Marcia Ange!
Merrie Eaton & Mark Dudzic

3. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE EDUCATION FUND ~ VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 ~ SPRING 2012
Launching Three Cities Campaign What the State Legislature is
Focus on Springfield Proposing for Cost Control
The Health Care Committee of the Amherst League of Women
Voters – one of our Mass-Care coalition organizations – is working America has been unable to control rising healthcare costs
in Springfield to tell residents about single payer and the despite decades of attempted cost control measures.
improved Medicare for All Massachusetts bill. What we have Massachusetts is about to pass its latest version of cost
learned to date is that very few people in Springfield know about control legislation once the Conference Committee
single payer, much less the bill. We’ve got our work cut out – basic consolidates Senate bill S.2066 and the House bill HB.
4070. The House and Senate bills have similarities, but the
“hit the streets” grassroots work.
House bill sets tougher goals in cutting cost growth (the
We have given three presentations in Springfield this spring: to state GSP minus 0.5%), while the Senate is aiming for GSP
the Rotary Club, to the Kiwanis Club and at a conference of plus 0.5%. Both bills establish independent authorities to
Western Massachusetts Jobs with Justice (WMJW). We have collect data on health care costs and track the progress of
talked with two dozen people, from community leaders to non- their cost reduction goals. Both bills plan to use capitated
profit directors to labor organizers. Every time we give Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) instead of the
presentations or sit down to talk, we bring Mass-Care hand-outs. current fee-for-service payment system because current
We ask for help identifying more people to talk with, opportunities dogma insists that fee-for-service is causing costs to rise.
to speak to community groups and events where we can set up a Both the Senate and the House are mandating the use of
table with information. We’ve met wonderful people and look electronic medical records. Both bills empower the Division
forward to working with them. of Insurance to regulate providers who get “unreasonable”
compensation and to regulate insurers who raise premiums
We now have a list of over three dozen names to follow up and without justification or who pay different prices to
have been making appointments. We have identified several large different providers for the same services. Other payment
events where we want to set up an information table. Over the reforms such as bundled payments, pay for performance,
coming months, we will be talking with city councilors, religious global payments and shared savings are under
leaders, community activists and people all over the city. We are consideration. Both bills promote preventive care,
not surprised that most people are reluctant “to jump on board expansion of the number of primary care providers and
right away.” As stated above, most of the folks are hearing about transparency in pricing of services.
Mass-Care and the Massachusetts single-payer effort for the
first time; it’s our job to tell them about the healthcare and While some of these policies may reduce costs somewhat,
financial benefits of single payer and Improved Medicare for All and the obvious message to everyone involved in healthcare
Massachusetts. is that we must make healthcare affordable, it is not clear
that all these policies work! There have been several pilot
If you have any contacts in Springfield or would like to get programs on ACOs in the past five years. None of them
i n v o l v e d i n t h i s e f f o r t , p l e a s e c o n t a c t J a c k i e W o l f have shown a reduction in health costs. Electronic medical
(LWVAhealthcare@yahoo.com). records are expensive to set up, and here in Massachusetts
most systems can’t communicate with each other. Pay for
The Boston Campaign performance has thus far been a disaster for physicians
The Boston Campaign for Single Payer will begin in earnest this because the criteria used by the insurers to tier doctors
month with eight interns available to start a vigorous outreach for their “quality” are frequently inaccurate, bureaucratic
effort. We are updating our educational materials and will have and seem more often to promote doctors who cost the
them translated into Spanish and Portuguese. We will be insurers less money rather than doctors who practice good
contacting our coalition organizations with members in the Boston medicine. Attorney General Martha Coakley has done two
area to set up talks, rallies and workshops about how a single- in-depth studies on the driving forces behind the rise in
payer system will guarantee medical coverage for all health care costs. She concludes that the price of each
Massachusetts residents and make health care affordable for health service - not the volume of services - is driving up
families, businesses and the Commonwealth. Please contact Mass- costs. This contradicts the idea that fee-for-service has
Care if you or a group you belong to would like to have a been the major cost driver.
presentation about single-payer healthcare reform.
What Massachusetts really needs for cost control is a
single-payer healthcare system: simple, universal, equitable,
Worcester Next affordable, sustainable - and it works! - Pat Berger
We are gathering contact information, and identifying labor and
community leaders to carry on this campaign in New England’s
second-largest city. Let us know if you can help in any way.

4. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE EDUCATION FUND ~ VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 ~ SPRING 2012
Help Needed: Join Our Publicity Committee
We need an active Mass-Care Publicity Committee
to achieve our goals to make health care a human
right. We need to identify our publicity
needs, develop a thorough publicity plan, and
implement it.
We need to bring the good news about single-payer
health care to everyone in the Commonwealth in a
way that will make it easily understood and a
household word in order to encourage people to
support single-payer health care. We need to be
clear, grassroots-oriented, persistent and with a
defined visual presence that will give single-payer
the publicity it needs. This is a very important
effort and we need to put our heads together on it.
Some ideas I have are: creating a presence by
tabling at public events, making our message very,
very clear; T shirts, bumper stickers, buttons,
Nurses take Chicago by storm on May 18th, demanding a financial transactions tax and
improved Medicare for a!, reflected on the #ont page of the next morning’s Trib. branding, agreeing on our color (same color
throughout the state); our own take-away literature;
reaching media and organizations, doing
National Action presentations to as many groups as possible,
Two things are certain on the national healthcare front in the month of visibility, talk shows, letters to the editor, meet and
June: US Representative Jim McDermott's filing of a new bill to greet at Fenway Park, passing out information,
facilitate state single-payer systems and the US Supreme Court's temporary tattoos, blimp advertising and so much
verdict on the Affordable Care Act. more. But we need a plan. We also need more
volunteers to help with tabling efforts. We may be
Speculation is rife on what the Supreme Court will decide, from able to get some pro bono help with publicity and PR.
sustaining PPACA as is to rendering it null and void and opening the door
to state-based law suits against any federal social-service mandate. If Please contact me if you wish to be on the
the individual mandate is ruled unconstitutional, even if it can be committee, or have some ideas and suggestions, or
separated from the rest of the act, the trillion-dollar commercial health want to help with tabling.
insurance industry is not going to stand for federal regulations while
missing out on the added millions of captured customers. In peace and solidarity,
Maria Termini, Outreach Volunteer
But no matter what the Supreme Court decides, the healthcare crisis
617 928 1544, leafdancer@verizon.net
will continue since the fundamental conflict between health care as a
basic human need and social good, and health care as a vehicle for
individual and corporate aggrandizement remains. We must win single- CommonHealth, Volume 6, Number 1:
payer, Medicare for all as the next indispensable step on our road to a Director: Benjamin Day
just healthcare system. Editor: Sandy Eaton
Production: Erin Servaes
Besides keynoting our Ben Gill gala on April 21st, Mark Dudzic made good Copy: Pat Berger, Sandy Eaton, Bea Mikulecky, Maria
use of his visit to Massachusetts, securing the Massachusetts AFL- Termini, Jackie Wolf
CIO’s recommitment to single payer through visits to its president Photos: Sandy Eaton, Alice Swift
Steve Tolman, to Myles Calvey of IBEW Local 2222 (Verizon workers) Printing compliments of Massachusetts Nurses Association
and to the officers and activists of IUE-CWA Local 201 (GE workers)
and the North Shore Labor Council.
Universal Health Care Education Fund c/o Mass-Care
The Labor Campaign for Single Payer will be convening a strategy session 33 Harrison Avenue, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02111
in DC on June 26th, digesting the developments outlined above and doing P: 617-723-7001, F: 617-723-7002
some targeted lobbying. - Sandy Eaton info@masscare.org http://www.masscare.org