Idaho Health Care for All

Member Newsletter                                                              March 2011

Dear IHCA member/supporter,

   We at IHCFA, along with our national organization: Physicians for a National Health Care Program (PNHP), continue to advocate for a single payer health care financing plan because it is the only sustainable and equitable model.  Insurance companies continue to raise premiums and find innovative ways to deny care to patients; in our current for-profit healthcare financing system we can expect nothing different.  Nationally, we would like to replace our current system, including the recently passed Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), with a single-payer model  in accordance with the Senator John Conyer’s new bill, The Expanded And Improved Medicare For All Act (HR 676). A single-payer program would control cost whereas Obamacare does not.  Most of the action along these lines is happening at the state level, especially in Vermont.  Also, we have not given up on our efforts to put a public utility corporation model for healthcare in place in Idaho.

  You may find it helpful to refer to the following websites for additional detail on these health policy issues: www.idahohealthcareforall.org; www.PHNP.org; www.healthcare-now.org.

Please come to our upcoming membership meeting on Fri. 3/18/11, 7 pm, at the Idaho Education Assoc, Bldg, 620 N. 6^th St in Boise.  We will present a forum of legislators to discuss local and national health care financing.  Additionally, I will have just returned from a health policy lobby trip to Washington D.C. and plan to update the membership on those efforts.

   
   Lastly, we need your financial support.  Please renew your tax-deductible $25.00 membership and, if possible, donate more through our website or by check.  We operate on a shoestring with 100% volunteer work.  If you have interest in volunteering with us, we would welcome you and put you to work on a variety of tasks we need to accomplish this year.  Please contact me directly or through our website if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

E. Gregory Thompson, M.D.

Co-chair IHCFA

egt2323@mac.com