John Conyers, Jr. (born May 16, 1929) is a U.S. Congressman from Michigan, representing that state's 14th District (map), which includes all of Highland Park and Hamtramck, as well as parts of Detroit and Dearborn. He has served since 1965 and is the second longest serving member of the House of Representatives, outranked only by fellow Michigan member John Dingell.
PRESENTATIONS
View this 22 minute video from our allies in California. It talks
about their state plan as well as the problems nationally:
Edith Kenna from HCHP Fort Wayne has written a great Op-Ed piece entitled "Insurance is the problem: Health care industry at fault."Read the full article . . .
Health Savings Accounts
Health savings accounts (HSA’s) are the last great hope of the private insurance industry. Here are two
very concise and readable links to articles pointing out the problems of HSA’s. First, Hendrick
Hertzberg in the New Yorker gives a brilliant critique:www.hchp.info/consumption.html .
Second, Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund, testifying before Congress, makes a strong case:
www.cmwf.org
My view: Aaron E. Carroll, Pediatrics, IU School of Medicine
The only health-care solution: single-payer system September 10, 2006 (Indy Star) The new uninsured statistics released recently by the U.S. Census provide a sobering reminder of the failures of the U.S. health-care system. In Indiana the number of uninsured has risen to 871,000: Nearly one of every seven residents lacks coverage. Even for those lucky enough to be insured, ever-skimpier private policies helped push an estimated 28,000 Indiana families into medical bankruptcy in 2001. As a physician who faces our state's health-care crisis day in and day out, I support a single-payer "Medicare for All" system for Indiana and for the nation. Read the full article. . .
Doctorfights for universal health care
Lack of medical insurance killing 18,000 Americans a year, local physician says (Dr. Rob Stone) by Dann Denny
www.gladwell.com/2005/2005_08_29_a_hazard.htm Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) wrote 'The Moral Hazard Myth' in the 8/29/05 issue of the New Yorker. The subtitle is 'The bad idea behind our failed health-care system.' This is a very readable article and highly recommended.
Economist Paul Krugman gave a brilliant 25 minute talk on Medicare for All. This is from a radio show. You can read the text of the speech at http://www.pkarchive.org/column/061305.html If this leaves you hungry for more, check out Paul Krugman's piece in the New York Review of Books March 23, 2006: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18802
http://www.pnhp.org/media/woolhandler_counterspin1.mp3 Listen to Dr. Steffie Woolhandler talk about the Massachusetts healthcare bill on Counterspin. The Massachusetts bill leaves a lot to be desired, but it has certainly raised the profile of universal health insurance as a political issue.
Listen to the NPR report on medical bankruptcy featuring Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of PNHP."
BOOKS
Reading List
Toward a Healthy Society by Milton Fisk
Skillfully blending philosophy, economics, and public policy, Fisk's book breaks new ground in political morality and raises important questions about the way people's needs for health care are being defined to satisfy corporate priorities. At a time when so many Americans can barely afford to get sick, no one concerned with this issue can afford to ignore this work of realism and vision.
"The best book on health care reform in the last decade--philosophically deep, politically astute, and legally fascinating. Fisk makes his case for reform cogently and in a manner that is fair-minded, reasonable, and eminently respectful of the different voices that speak within a multicultural democracy. This superb original analysis of U.S. 'corporate' medicine will be very useful."--Rosemarie Tong, author of Controlling Our Reproductive Destiny and Feminist Approaches to Bioethics.
Hardcover: 294 pages
Publisher: University Press of Kansas (April 2000)
ISBN: 0700610146
Medicare Matters by Christine Cassel, M.D. ( pres. of the american board of internal medicine), univ. of california press, 2005.....excellent explanation of why medicare is the best model for the nation based on its success and effectiveness for those over 65 and what we can learn from geriatric medicine to apply to everyone.
The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell, MD ( former editor of the New Endland Journal of Medicine), Random House, 2004.....very revealing analysis of big pharmaceuticals, their research efforts, marketing practices, politics.....a strong indictment of the industry.
Falling Though the Safety Net by Dr. John Geyman
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this stunning mixture of real life stories and cold-eyed analysis, Geyman brings you close up to the perils faced by every American. With nearly all Americans facing a lack of health insurance at some point, this is a book for you.
To those who would take the Alfred E. Newman stance toward health insurance (What me worry, I'm healthy!), Geyman delivers some sobering statistics:
Eighty percent of the uninsured live in working families;
Sixty-seven million Americans are uninsured for at least one month in a twenty-eight month period;
One in five workers cannot afford insurance when offered by employers;
Even in families with two full-time wage earners, ten percent are uninsured.
Those who lack insurance face poor health care and increased risk of bad outcomes. The answer, argues Dr. Geyman, is one the majority of Americans already want: single payer health insurance.
This is the book for those who no longer want this problem to be as American as apple pie.
John Geyman, M.D., is professor emeritus of Family -Medicine at the University of Washington, and editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice.
The pharmaceutical industry, the insurance companies, and the elite of the medical profession are doing their best to keep Americans clueless. They have created a whole mythology to keep us misinformed, to maintain their profitability, and to keep health care reform at bay.
Buy this book from Barns and Noble:
www. barnesandnoble.com/ for $15 plus tax and shipping. Member price is $13. 50.
Critical Condition by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
FROM THE PUBLISHER
More than 100 million people with inadequate or no medical coverage...Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctors' offices and hospitals...Health care executives pulling in millions in bonuses for denying treatment to the sick...This may sound like the predicament of a third-world nation, but this is America's health care reality today. The United States spends more on health care than any other nation, yet our benefits are shrinking and life expectancy is shorter here than in countries that spend significantly less per capita. Meanwhile, HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains reap tremendous profits, while politicians - beholden to insurers and drug companies - enact legislation for the benefit of the few rather than the many, and the entire system is on the verge of collapse. In Critical Condition, award-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele expose the horror of what health care in America has become. They profile patients and doctors trapped by the system and offer startling personal stories that illuminate what's gone wrong. Doctors tell of being second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses recount chilling tales of hospital meltdowns; patients explain how they've been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them. Drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by building up and then tearing down health care businesses. And politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and outright fraud the system encourages. By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription for getting it back on the right track, Critical Condition is an enormously compelling investigative work that addresses the concerns of every American.
Buy this book at: www.amazon.com (paperback) for $10.17 plus tax and shipping.
Buy this book from Barns and Noble:
www. barnesandnoble.com/ (paperback) for $15 plus tax and shipping. Member price is $13. 50.
Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan
P.O. Box 2632
Bloomington, IN 47402-2632
Mission: Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan is a group of Indiana citizens who support a statewide universal health plan. HCHP is working to develop and promote a bill in the Indiana State Legislature. We are actively seeking individuals and groups who have an interest in helping achieve this goal.
